Choosing A Web Hosting Service
When choosing which of the seemingly endless number of web hosting services to choose from, there are several things you need to take into account. Like anything, each hosting service has its pros and cons. Each individual/organization must weigh the pros and cons of each of their options wisely.
Picking the right web host is vital to the efficiency and success of your web site. The web host technically operates in the backdrop of your web site, invisible to your users, but the ramifications of picking the wrong host will be felt by both you and your visitors.
Don't let a poor web hosting service be the reason your web site fails to succeed.
Price Of Web Hosting Services
Obviously, the first thing that comes to mind when deciding on anything is the cost. The cost is most definitely a very important aspect and will be a major deciding factor when making your final decision.
As was mentioned in the last section, Free vs. Fee, free web hosts are almost always the worst way to go. Unless you want to annoy visitors and not have any options to expand your web site and have functional perks, you should not use a free web hosting service. You should research them to see if any fit your idea of a good web host, but it's extremely unlikely you'll be satisfied, especially in the long run.
It's hard to be specific about this subject, because everybody's budget is different. If your web site has no potential to earn any revenue, and you're not willing to spend needless money on it, then obviously the absolute cheapest web hosts will be your only option.
However, if you're on this web site, you're probably looking to make some money from your web site. If that's the case, it would be wise to spend some money on a good premium web hosting service.
Each hosting service has several different packages to choose from, and you'll have to weigh out the benefits of each along with the price based on your own personal budget and estimated potential revenue to make an informed decision. A little extra money can go a long way when it comes to web hosting services, and make sure to think about what you might use in the future when you're looking at the various packages.
Web Hosting Server Uptime
The greater the percentage of server uptime for a web host the better your odds are of having more visitors. If a visitor is unable to visit your site because the server is down for maintenance or any other reason, you lose a visitor who may have made you some money.
99% is about as low as you should go for server uptime. Most web hosts that are decent have at least this. The web hosting service we use to host this web site, (that we recommend as number one in our ten hosting services list), has a 99.9% server uptime.
The Web Host's Control Panel
WISEnterprises learned the hard way that a web host that has a poor control panel is bad news. Our first host had a control panel that was an unorganized mess. It made maintaining the web site a huge hassle.
The host we use now has a simple, well-organized, easy to use control panel, and it makes everything work more smoothly and efficiently. Often times you won't get to see the control panel until you've already paid for the service, but if you can get a free trial we highly recommend you do so before you get into any long-term contract with a web host and are stuck with them for a year or more.
Some web hosts, such as the one we use, even give you the option to test out their control panel through their site without signing up for anything. A web host that can show its goods off to you for free is a good web host.
Web Host's Storage Space And Bandwidth
Believe it or not, the amount of storage space a web host gives you on their server and the amount of monthly bandwidth alotted you is probably not as important as you might think. Obviously the more merrier, but nearly every web host that you pay money for will give you more than enough space.
Web sites rarely take up much space at all, unless you're bogging it down with large programs, music, or movie files. Pictures can take up a lot of space, too, depending on their quality and size.
However, it is unlikely you will ever use up all the storage space or monthly bandwidth your web host gives you even with their cheapest program. Your situation may be different, depending on what you plan on putting on your site, but for most people they don't really need to worry too much about how much of these two things a web host is offering in their package. Our web site is pretty simple, but even with all of it's pages it takes up less than one megabyte.
If you do require a lot of space, or may in the future, our number one pick of web hosting service in our Top Ten List provides unlimited storage space and unlimited monthly bandwidth.
Web Hosting Service Technical Support
Especially if you're new in the web site business, you're going to want access to good technical support. A web host that has 24/7 technical support is a huge bonus, though not necessarily vital. It definitely may come in handy quite often, though.
What Comes With The Web Hosting Service
Make sure to take a good look at the different things that come with your paid web hosting service. Many offer things such as free domain name registration or transfer, free add-on domains, (so you can have multiple web sites on one hosting account and save lots of money...), free PHP scripts such as forums, free shopping carts, (that alone is a huge selling point considering you can easily pay twenty-five dollars a month for a shopping cart), free premium blogs, and tons of other stuff. Our web host offers all of that and more, and we're supremely satisfied.
Don't forget that just because you're not going to use some of those things on your current web site that doesn't necessarily mean that you're not going to use them on another that you make. The more web sites you make the more money you can make. We don't use shopping carts on this web site, but we can add a domain on to our hosting service and make a web site that sells things, and then not have to pay any extra for the shopping cart. Always take the future into account and make sure you have the most options available to you to make your web site enterprises more successful.
Conclusion
Weigh out the options of each web hosting service and each of their packages. Compare the pros and cons of each one, taking into account the price, the uptime, the technical support, and the extras that may come in useful now or in the future. Once you've found the best one for you, try it out. You can change it if you find a better one later. You can start with our recommended web hosts and go from there. Do your research, pick the best one, and your web site will be all the better for it.
