How to choose a good Web Host

1 November 2009 202 views No Comment

This guide gives you a short overview on how to choose a good web host.

What is a web host?
A web host provider is a company who rents out web space and bandwidth to those who wish to publish a web site. The web host gives its customer an account, which can be used to upload HTML documents, PHP scripts, graphics, and more.

Choosing a good web hosting company is really important for your online presence. If your website loads slowly or if it doesn’t load at all due to the web host downtime, you will be losing some potential clients.

Before you signup with any web hosting service, you should consider the following factors.

Up-time: The most important factor to consider is the up-time of the server. Most of the web hosts guarantee an up-time of 99.9%.
Backup Frequency: When considering a web host, their backup frequency also matters. If their server crashes due to some reason, they should be able to retrieve the data that you had uploaded on the server.
Amount of web space: A web host usually assigns you a certain amount of some space on their server. You need to estimate the right space required by your business and check if it matches the space assigned to you.
FTP access: FTP access is necessary if you want to update your website or add new pages/images to it.
Server Upgrades: The speed at which your website loads will have an impact on your clients. If the pages load very slowly, the potential clients visiting your website would reconsider visiting it the second time. The web host should regularly upgrade their servers to ensure proper speed, stability and security.
Dependence and support: Does your web host provide quick and reliable support? Ideally, all web hosts should provide with a 24×7 online support.
Pricing plans: The hosting package you choose should give value for your money. It is not worthwhile to sign up for a cheap service which gives a very bad service. Another thing you should keep in mind is that of overprice hosting. Therefore, compare and analyze the price and features that you get from a service before making a purchase.
Data transfer: Bandwidth is the amount of data that can be transfered to and from you website. Your website should have sufficient bandwidth according to the size of your business.
Server Association: Check that your server doesnt host any adult related or illegal sites. Your association with these servers can affect your serch engine rankings in the long run. If you have enough money, you should sign up for a dedicated hosting.