One of the major problem facing business and lot of people who have to host a business web site or personal site on the world wide web, is how to choose a good and right web hosting provider. There is lot of web hosting companies on the web today, one need to make sure that a business website is hosted with a professional web hosting company or web hosting provider. This write-up will guide you on how to choose the right/best web hosting company for your site. Once you have your domain name registered or before you registered it, you have to know how many web page you want your site to have, if you are using a script you should know the size of the script to determine the type of web Hosting Package or Hosting Plan to choose for your website. Once this determined, then you have to choose a web hosting company that will host your website. A lot of people find it difficult choose web hosting provider because they are new to it, and because there is thousands of web hosting providers on the web today, which make it difficult to make the right choice. Once you know the thing you want for your site you will be able to choose the right hosting company.
You need to study the features of web hosting providers, some of the feature vary from one web hosting company to another. And the features also depend on the Hosting Package or Hosting Plan you want to choose for your website. For example, a small business may not need that much disk space as compared to a large business. In any company, big or small, loss of money is really a big thing. You have to be sure that you make full use of what you are paying for and that you are getting the best service for your money. You dont have to worry, if you choose a smaller Hosting Package or Hosting Plan for your business, because all good hosting provider give there customer opportunity to upgrade there hosting package or downgrade it.
The following are features of a good web hosting company:
Features of a Starter Package or Plan are- 50MB web hosting space
- 10 POP3 email accounts
- Full 24X7 FTP access
- 10 email aliases
- 1GB Data transfer per month
- Auto-responder
- Password protected directories
- Spam filter
- CGI/Perl, Mod Perl, PHP, SSI
- Private Webmail
- FrontPage
- Control panel
- Webalizer graphical web stats
- Online backup tool
- Raw logs
- Technical support
- File manager
- D.I.Y. Search engine submission
Features of a Basic Package or Plan are- 100MB web hosting space
- 20 POP3 email accounts
- Full 24X7 FTP access
- 20 email aliases
- 2GB Data transfer per month
- Auto-responder
- 1 MySql Database
- Spam filter
- Password protected directories
- Private Webmail
- CGI/Perl, Mod Perl, PHP, SSI
- Control panel
- FrontPage
- Online backup tool
- Webalizer graphical web stats
- Technical support
- Raw logs
- D.I.Y. Search engine submission
- File manager
Please note that web space, pop3 email account, email aliases, data transfer per month and MySql Database, the number and size varies from one web hosting company to another.
Apart from the features, other thing that a good web hosting provider MUST provide for the customer include the following:
24/7 Live Support by Phone and by Email
A web hosting service provider, must provide 24/7 Live Support by Phone and by Email . In case something goes wrong with your website, will your service provider be able to respond quickly and effectively? You can not afford anything to happen to your website. You may want to look for a provider that has a 24/7 Live Support, by phone and by email which can assist you whenever the need arises.
Availability of software
You may also want to look at the software that is provided by the provider. Bring into light if you have specialized software that you need for your website. There are a lot of packages that are offered such as content management system. If you want to have your clients make purchases online, you may also need what is called shopping cart software. You have to look into other applications as well.
Server 99.99% Uptime must be Guarantee
Uptime of the server should also be considered. A website is rendered useless if you can not really open its pages. You will know you have a good web hosting service provider if you are having an uptime of ninety-nine percent. Consider also the speed of the connection you have to the Internet backbone.
Upgradeable Hosting Package or Plan
An upgradeable hosting package orplan is a plan that grows with your business. That holds your web hosting cost as low as possible and provides you with all features needed in the current to upgrade to a bigger hosting package or plan.
Instant Backup Option
An instant Backup Option gives you the possibility to backup your entire hosting account and download it to your own computer. This includes everything that is setup with the account. The backup file can be used to restore your account on their server if needed and gives you more control over the security aspects of your web hosting account.
Minimum 30 Day Money Back guarantee
A solid money back guarantee gives you confidence that the company keeps their promises not only on the day that you’ve signed in. Don’t hesitate to cancel your hosting plan and get your your money back before you invest to much time in your website development.
Finding a good web hosting provider should be thought-of as an investment. Whenever you are looking for one, you should picture a company that will serve you for a long time. It is useless to avail of services that are substandard. Take your time when picking a web hosting company because there is a lot to choose from with each promising one thing or another. You have to look at the web hosting company’s website and check not only for the features that there are offering but also for its credibility. If anything is not clear to you about the hosting company, contact the web hosting support and make further enquiry.