Web hosts tend to offer two types of hosting – shared and dedicated. As the terms imply, shared entails a smaller portion of server space that is divided between multiple accounts and while cheaper, is ultimately less flexible. Dedicated however is more expensive but allows you to customise your server space for your own ends. If you are building your first website then you probably just require some shared hosting which you can fetch for just a few dollars a month.
Be certain to check the quantity of web space you will be supplied from your host. Some web hosts only offer 1GB of free space, while others give much more. Particularly for free sites, the more space you use, the more restrained your account will become until you start paying for it.
If you have been employed to the same web host for a number of months, look at the accessibility of your site. An availability of 99% or more means your website is easily accessible all the time. If you notice a lower availability rate, look for a web host that does not struggle with as many shortages.
Go for a hosting service that allows you to swiftly and easily view your web facts and figures. You will want to know things such as how many people are going to your website and what pages they are viewing. You can even find out how long they remained on your site, and what search text they used to find you. These can be significant in the long run, so use a server who has these methods.
Do your research and look at review of the web host that you’re considering, try and find genuine user reviews instead of affiliate spam and see what they have to say about the pros and cons of the service. Try to know as much as possible about the company as you can before you sign on the dotted line.
FTP, or File Transfer Protocol is a very useful tool and many web hosts will offer this as part of the package. FTP allows you to upload and integrate new content on your site speedily and effectively without having to continually log in to the host website. This is a massive time saving device and crucial to a healthy website.
A good web host provider really should supply good support. If your site goes down out of the blue then every minute lost could be causing huge damage to your traffic, your fans and your revenue. It’s important that your web host provider can analyse the issue promptly and more importantly, repair it. Check out the means of support that your internet host offers – is it an email ticketing system? An in-hour telephone support. A basic FAQ or is it a live-chat program? There’s countless options of doing it and to my mind I’ve only found one web hosting service that does it correctly and that’s InMotion Hosting. I’ve been with these guys for a year now and their customer support system is what will keep me a regular patron. Not only is it a live chat service but it’s also 24/7 – absolutely crucial when you’re furiously ripping your hair out. In fact the performance of InMotion’s customer support was what impelled me to create my InMotion Hosting review video blog. I’d never been so delightfully surprised by the support of a digital entity as I had with InMotion.
Finally, a good test is to see whether the web hosting company has a decent website themselves. If it’s shoddy and thrown together then it may be that they a leaching company that is trying to capitalise on quick, easy fixes and they don’t plan on being around too long. A quality and robust website at least demonstrates they know the arena they’re operating in.
Want to find out more about my experiences with InMotion? Watch myInMotion Hosting Review.