Hosting
means renting space on a host’s server for your website. Setting up a new
website, the big question you are facing is which web hosting service provider
to choose from the thousands available options. Selecting the right host is
absolutely essential as everything from speed, stability, security to uptime of your site depends on the host. And if you want to
save yourself from the migration process, it is better to assess the host an
all your parameters before hosting your site.
Here
is a guide that will help you through the process of selecting the best web
hosting service provider for your
site:
Know what you want – This is the first thing that
you should be aware of while looking out for any product or services. Understanding your business needs will help
you narrow your web hosting options. Your requirements differ according to the
type of your website. If your website is a regular virtual website or a blog or
an ecommerce website or yours is a website that has 24-hour live streaming,
your needs are different. Hence the first thing is to know your requirements
and search accordingly.
Cost – Choose a hosting provider that
offers reasonable rates, but do not compromise on quality. Stay away from the
providers, who provide free hosting services, as they are not reliable.
Storage and
Bandwidth –
Mostly, web hosting service providers
offer unlimited disk space and bandwidth. But still it is important to know if
there are any limitations to ensure that your plan has enough space for your
effective website operation.
Database – You need to check the hosting
company’s built-in support for popular web scripts. If you want to run
WordPress on your site, you need to have the provider that support the scripts.
For eCommerce site the commonly required database is MySQL. However you might
also need PostgreSQL or SQLite databases. Make sure you know what type of
database you will need, and that the host is capable of providing it.
Customer Reviews – While choosing any service or
product, checking out the customer reviews is essential. Customer reviews help
you evaluate the web host. Go through multiple reviews from current or past
customers and evaluate accordingly.
Customer Support – Customer support is absolutely
essential no matter whether you are a beginner or an experienced business
owner. Your website backend may face problems that need immediate attention for
smooth running of the site. Here you require efficient customer support team to
fix the issue quickly. While looking for the web hosting service provider, look for those who provide 24/7 phone
support, email access and online chat.
Security – Security is essential
especially if yours is an ecommerce website. Make sure the web hosting company
provides the SSL to safeguard the customer’s private information.
The Backup Plan – Sometimes your website may be
down or you may face some problems with the data. In such cases the web hosting
company should have a backup plan to help you recover in time. If the host
don’t have any backup plans, then don’t go with the host.
Free Trial and
Refund Policy –
It is a good practice to run a free trial before finalizing things. If there
are any glitches in the trial running you can look for some other host. Also
talk about the refund policies with the host, just in any case your partnership
falls out.
The Growth Plans – Once you are satisfied with
the host on all aspects, the last thing to ask is about the future. Your
business will grow in the future with increase in traffic and so your needs
increases. You should thus make sure that the host you are opting for should be
able to move you to the larger hosting plan without causing the downtime to
your site.
To
wrap up, choose a right host, who meets all your requirements and avoid a troublesome
marriage.
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