Important Web Hosting Criteria
More often than not, small business owners aren’t directly in touch with the web hosting company that they choose. Instead, companies hire tech teams to work with web hosting providers. But, what if the wrong hosting company has been chosen? In this case, there’s not much that you can do to prevent your site from being ruined! So, that’s why it’s really vital to choose the right host from the start.
But, can’t you just switch web hosting companies if you don’t find the right one the first time? You can change hosts, but this process will take up resources and can also be more expensive. That’s why choosing the right host from the start is really important. No time to compare web hosting companies? That’s okay! There are thousands of hosting company review and rating websites.
Important Web Hosting Criteria: Looking at Review Sites
The most important thing to remember when looking at a review site is how that site has ranked hosting companies. The criteria that a review company uses to rank sites are really vital.
Some things to look for include:
- What are the different plans offered?
- What do those plans include?
- What payment types are offered?
- Are there any extra fees?
- Are discounts possible?
- What is a company’s reported uptime?
- What is the server response time?
Don’t get carried away with the promises of discounts, free stuff, or “just a few dollars a month” promises.
Promises of Unlimited Space
Most web hosting companies offer unlimited bandwidth promises. How can this be possible? It can be boiled down to pure logic. Most websites only use 10GB of space. When you combine all of the sites on one server, there’s lots of room for new sites to grow. See how that works? Any site that takes up more space than needed often results in a hosting company asking a Webmaster to move that site to another host or to host a site on a dedicated server.
The important question is: how many customers are on each server?
Most companies offer 99% or 99.99% uptime. So in a year how much is downtime? If we divide 4 days by 365 it comes out to be approx. 1.09. Which is better, the one which is offering 99% or the one which is offering 99.99%. In a year it is 8760 hours if they have to give 99.99% uptime, it means that your website could go for a downtime of approx. 1 hour in a year. If there is more downtime, then it is really a time to change web hosting companies.
Is Support Offered?
Web development now spans across many different platforms. Can your hosting company provide support for all of those platforms? Sure, your hosting company may offer toll-free numbers, but does that phone number work in your country? Overseas calls are expensive, so make sure to find out how much it will cost to speak with a real person.
If you need exact and precise information about any hosting company – including all of the criteria mentioned above – check out SiteGeek.com. We’re web hosting experts, and we’re here to help you get the most out of your host!
