It doesn’t matter if you are new to web hosting or already own a website, a good web host can do great things for your website, while a bad one can cost you hours of downtime while playing havoc with your online reputation.
Learning how to choose a reliable web host is critical; this decision is just as important as the choice of car you drive or food you eat. Think of it this way, your web hosting package is like a house that provides a safe haven for your website. A house in disrepair is uncomfortable and difficult to live in. So find the best “house” that you can for your website.
How to Choose a Reliable Web Host – The 2 Most Important Things
In a bit, I will go over some other guidelines on how to choose a reliable web host, but for now the two more critical factors in finding a reliable web host are: Server Uptime and Customer Support.
Web Server Uptime – Most people when comparing web hosting plans will first check out the cost and then maybe the disk storage space or if they are a little bit web savvy, the bandwidth offered. But few people think to check out the vital statistic of network uptimes.
But the uptime or the accessibility of your site is the weakest link in the online chain. It is the one thing that will make your website either a success or a complete disaster. It doesn’t matter how great your product launch is or how many daily visitors you have, if your website is down for the count.
You should check out each web host for their “Uptime Agreement” or “Uptime Guarantee”. What you want is an uptime percentage of 99.9%. This seems rigorous but it is easily achievable if the web hosting provider has dependable equipment. An uptime of 99.9% means that the web server (the computer with your website on it) will only be down just 8.6 hours a year.
This is acceptable since all severs need some routine maintenance. But an uptime of just 99.0% increases downtime to over 84 hours a year. That’s over 3 days! Not a good thing if your website is critical to your business.
Technical Support – The next big thing you need to look for is customer or technical support. Unless you are using a dedicated server (which you control and manage), your website uses the web servers and networking equipment from the web host provider. So you really need to check out their support structure.
Check out the web host’s forums and web host review sites to determine what kind of responses ordinary users have been experiencing. Avoid slow or badly supported hosting plans.
More Tips on How to Choose a Reliable Web Host
- Affordability: Understand that there is a difference between cheap vs. budget. Check out the ultra-low web host providers carefully. Look for established brand names.
- Bandwidth: While you may never need more than 100MB for data transfer, you should always look for web host plans that range from 500MB to 1GB per month. And remember there is no such thing as “unlimited bandwidth”. All web hosts have to limit bandwidth due to equipment restrictions.
- Disk Storage Space: Most small websites only need a100MB or so. But check with your web designer for the correct web space size.
