7 Key Points to Consider When Choosing a Web Host
How
to select web host? This article reveals 7 tips to select
web host that suits you.. Happy web hosting!
With literally thousands of web hosting companies in the
industry all vieing for your business, carefully consider
these
key points to ensure you make the most well informed decision
possible.
1. Server Space
First, think about how much space your site will take up
on a
server. Unless you are planning on running a software repository
or an image gallery, the files that make up your website will
probably only use between 1 and 5 megabytes of disk space.
Many
companies will offer several hundreds of megabytes of webspace
for a very reasonable price in attempt to out perform their
competitors, but ask yourself "Do I really need that
much
space?". Though it's true that you should allow your
site "room
to grow", don't opt for what seems like a great deal
on a
massively sized account if you'll never use all of the space
offered. Chances are you'll find an even better deal on an
amount of space more suitable for your site size.
2. Data Transfer Allowance
This decision should be based on the same principal as above.
Though you may be convinced that your site will be the next
Amazon or Yahoo and receive a gazillion visitors a day, you
really shouldn't need an extremely high data transfer allowance
unless, as stated above, you're running a software download
site
or a large image gallery. Even heavily trafficked normal HTML
sites usually only use a few gigabytes per month in bandwidth
allowance. Don't go overboard just because it seems like an
awesome deal. You may also want to be wary of companies who
offer "unlimited" data transfer as there are usually
some
fine-print stipulations that make this claim not entirely
true.
Be sure to read their terms and conditions very carefully
before
opting for this type of account. A five or ten gigabyte
bandwidth allowance is usually plenty enough for a small to
medium sized business or personal site.
3. Technical Support
A very important point to consider when choosing a web host
is
the types of technical support offered by the company and
how
easy they are to contact when you need them. Ideally, a company
should offer 24/7 toll-free telephone support and email. I
have
seen companies that do not even offer a telephone number on
their website. You should look for a company that is very
easily
accessible in your time of need. Nothing is more frustrating
than being in the middle of working on your site and needing
an
important piece of information to finish the job and not being
able to contact your hosting company to find it out.
4. CGI-Bin Access
No matter what type of site you are planning on running,
chances
are you will eventually need to install some type of CGI script.
Whether it be a mailing list management script, contact form
processor, or maybe even a fancy credit card processing script,
your hosting account will need to allow you to install and
run
them. This requires access to a special folder on your server
called "CGI-Bin". Some hosting accounts will only
allow you to
use "pre-installed" scripts as a security measure.
These are
scripts that the owners of the company have installed and
configured so that they know that they will work properly
and
not adversely affect their server's performance. That may
be all
you need, but if you have the knowledge, it's always nice
to
have the ability to install your own scripts and configure
them
to suit your individual needs. You should also be sure that
the
account you choose supports the language in which your scripts
are written, such as PHP, Perl, etc.
5. Up-Time Guarantee
Another very important issue in determining the value of
a
hosting company is how often and for how long their servers
"go
down". No matter how good a deal you get on server space
or
bandwidht allowance, or how wonderfully the company's tech
support takes care of you, your site can't receive visitors
or
produce revenue if the machine on which it is hosted is not
up
and running. Naturally you want a company who can guarantee
the
highest up-time percentage possible. Servers are taken down
briefly from time to time for maintenance or upgrading, so
no
company can ensure 100% up-time, but you want your site to
be
hosted on dependable, well managed machines that are not
constantly having problems which require them to be down for
long periods of time.
6. Email Accounts
Again, like data transfer allowance and server space, some
companies will offer you loads more email accounts than you
will
ever use. Some offer hundreds or even unlimited email accounts
as a selling point. This is an important factor if you are
Bill
Gates and have thousands of employees, each who need their
own
email box, but not such a big deal if you're just one person
or
a small company. You should be okay with 10 or 15.
7. Reputation
This is probably the most important factor to consider when
choosing a web host. Do your homework. Pay attention to any
negative feedback you may hear or read about a particular
hosting company. There are several sites arount the Web that
feature discussion forums that allow people to discuss and
critique various hosting companies. Ask specific questions
about any company you might be interested in using to see
if anyone else has had any negative experiences with them.
As a beginning webmaster, I had initially contracted the services
of a particular web hosting company to host my first site,
who promised very good, dependable service for a very cheap
price. Then one day, for no apparent reason, decided to delete
my entire site without warning or explanation. Only then did
I visit some hosting forums and find that many others had
similar negative experiences with that company. Don't make
the same mistake I did, find out for sure from the start that
your hosting company is not going to let you down.
If you are hurry, use HostRocket, a linux based web hosting
company who is very reliable and offer responsive customer
support.
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