Now that you’ve decided to launch your website over the internet, it’s time to start thinking of the perfect web host for you.
Like any other important choices you’ll make, you’ll probably be asking the common question: ‘how do I know this is the one?’
With the web hosting services all over the internet, it’s not a surprise if you’re getting a little confused or indecisive. They all seem to offer a good deal; however, you need to figure out which web hosting service is the best. How do you find the best from the back?
Here are 5 things you can use to check if a web hosting service is good for you:
Reliability
This is the first thing you should check about a potential web hosting service. You don’t want a host with unreliable or dated hardware as this will inevitably lead to a lot of downtimes for your website.
If your website is often offline, then it may start to affect readership, sales, overall search engine rankings, and client’s trust. If a client gets an error message while trying to visit your site, it might badly affect the entire reliability of your brand.
So, you need to ensure that you check the company’s general uptime score—the percentage of a company’s operational success—before engaging with them. You can dig further and try services by a web hosting company like Hostens and other similar companies.
Security
Gone are the days when cyber threats like ransomware were only targeted towards banks. Possible threats to security exclude no one. General websites are now a target so your choice of a website host has to consider such kinds of security threats. What backup services does your potential web host offer?
Your website could become the target of a cyber-attack that may result to destroying your site’s index.php file and immediate failure of your site’s server or local hard disk.
So, when evaluating web hosts make sure you check how prepared they are for these and other attacks in terms of protection and regular web data backup.
Customer Service
Customer service is another important area that you might overlook because it may seem irrelevant at first. It’s important to check if the company you want to entrust your web hosting uses outsourced customer support services or in-house. You’ll want to go with the company that handles its own customer support as you’ll be more likely to talk to an assistant who knows the company’s operations and therefore a more accurate answer to any question you might have.
Also, instead of email and tickets, verify if your chosen web hosting service offers chat support and a 24/7 accessibility.
Account Limitations
Almost everything has its own ‘terms and conditions’ for usage and this fact doesn’t exclude the services your web host has for you. It’s an advantage if you know these specific conditions. It’s advisable not to enter any kind of commitment until otherwise you’ve already reviewed, comprehended, and understood the stapled terms and conditions a commitment offers.
Some web hosts limit the amounts of CPU running computationally intensive end scripts for periods over two seconds. Doing so will result to penalty charges or discontinuation of their web hosting service. You can avoid such unforeseen circumstances by just taking a good look at the fine print included in the company’s terms of engagement. While you’re still checking for limitations it’s also a good time to check what maximum number of domains you can operate from the same account.
As your company begins to grow, you might find the need for diversification and it’s best that your web host be not only able to meet your current needs but that they prove to be able to keep up with your hosting needs should you grow further. The last thing you want is to be changing your hosting services when complications like this arises.
Ecommerce Support
This is after all part of your business’s backbone so it should be well taken care of. A good web hosting service will be well-optimized to support online sales and provide email hosting services for your business’s primary email. This will help you gain more subscribers to your email list, and gain more feedback.
Conclusion
Gone are the days when choosing a web hosting service was as easy as checking for the amount of disk space and bandwidth provided. There are now more options into this choice because of several improvements in the last few years.
If you’re looking for the best deal on a web hosting service, it’s best to start by checking for all the items detailed in this list.
Digital Web Services (DWS) is a leading IT company specializing in Software Development, Web Application Development, Website Designing, and Digital Marketing. Here are providing all kinds of services and solutions for the digital transformation of any business and website.
