Whether you are going to go into business for yourself, or you are just looking to put up a website for your personal needs, finding the best web hosting is something that you are going to want to research first. Although you can find many web hosting companies that will offer a very good introductory deal, it is still a good idea to evaluate what they have to offer and how it can help you. In other words, you want to get the most for your money.
Obviously, if you have a large scale e-commerce website and you cannot afford to ever have a go down, then you will want to have your own server either located in the cloud or with a high-end hosting service, however if you are just looking to set up a blog, and online marketing site, or personal website, then any of the traditional web hosting companies will do for you.
What Should You Look For?
Most people start off by looking at price. Unfortunately, you will find that many of the companies put out very sweet offers at the beginning, only to get you hooked into their services essentially for the life of your website. Therefore, before you sign up with any company, you should find out not only what the hosting prices are in the immediate future, but what you are going to pay over a period of one year, two years, or three years.
As far as payment goes, you will generally save money if you are able to pay for a year’s worth of service at a time, but if you aren’t sure if a company is right for you or if you will want to have your website and one year, then you may want to sign up only for a month or quarter at a time. Many companies allow you to do just that.
What Services Should You Look For?
Many of the most common web hosting companies that are in use today all utilize a very similar control panel, which is the means by which you access your websites back and, you manage all of your email, you upload your files, and you check your statistics. You may have a personal preference regarding a certain type of control panel, and that will help you decide which hosting company is right for you
In addition to the control panel, it is also important to take a look at the amount of disk space you will be given, as well as how much bandwidth you will be allowed to use on a normal basis. Some affordable web hosting companies will tell you that you can have unlimited space, only few to find out that when your website gets popular, your bandwidth or web space is really not unlimited at all.
Now, to be clear, that’s not to say these companies are bad. It just means that you cannot expect to run a large website on a couple dollars a month of hosting fees. What it does offer, however, is a decent hosting service for the average small business owner or the affiliate marketer at a reasonable price.
What About Domains?
When you sign up with any web hosting company, it is not uncommon for you to be given a free domain registration, but don’t let that make you think that you will get discounted registrations in the future. In fact some of the cheapest hosting companies, will charge the most for domain registrations and domain transfer fees, so do your research first.
If you are in business for yourself, then you might find that you need to own one or more domains, or have multiple websites on the same account. Until recently, that was not a normal thing for hosting companies to do because they could charge more if they only allowed you to have one website or one domain per account. Now, there is so much competition in the field, that you can often find hosting provider that will allow you to have unlimited domain names and websites, including WordPress installations, on the very same account. This will save you an awful lot of money in the long run.
Should You Trust The Reviews?
When you are looking for the best web hosting company for your needs, you should definitely read the reviews that are online, keeping in mind that many of them are written by people who were actually trying to talk you into signing up with their provider because they will make a commission. Therefore, if you find a review that is overwhelmingly positive with no mention of negative aspects of hosting company, then you might want to read further to make sure that what you are reading is a legitimate review. Reading feedback from real users also removes any surprises you may have with the web hosting company after you sign up.
For the most part, the best web hosting company for you will be one that has at least 99% uptime, and will be able to answer your questions and help you out should your website go down. Ideally, you will want to have someone to talk to either on the phone or via chat 24 hours a day, seven days a week, which is the sign of a high quality provider.