How to Choose a Quality Web Host

Once you have made the commitment to invest in a website for your business, service or even simply personal use, it is time to begin shopping for web hosting. Needless to say, everyone would like the best web host on the planet, but with all the choices available, how do you know which to choose?

Hopefully, these ideas will offer some answers to that very question…

- Take a look at webmaster forums.

Webmaster discussion boards are the best place to find recommendations for web hosting providers. The users of the forum depend on their website for their income, so they will know which companies are worth purchasing hosting from and which is a waste of money. Begin a thread requesting suggestions, or just browse through the existing conversations until you have a general idea of which providers are worth trusting.

- Do a Google search.

Whenever you find a company you are interested in, it’s time to start investigating them. Run a Google search for their business name and sort through the results; if there is anything negative to be said about them, you will discover it. Add in words such as ‘bad’, ‘poor’, ‘terrible’ and ‘useless’ to boost the probability of discovering any bad user experiences of the company.

The Disadvantages of Free Web Hosting

Free web hosting accounts are among the numerous choices available to the business-minded website owner trying to start a venture on the internet. Like everything else, free web hosting has its benefits and drawbacks, so before you invest time creating a website on a free service simply to realize it doesn’t suit your needs, here are the disadvantages of a free web hosting account so you can be thoroughly informed:

- You are going to be limited.

The quantity of web space, bandwidth and even site visitors you can receive will be greatly restricted if you use a free web hosting provider. On the other hand, the space supplied is typically perfectly sufficient for a small business or a fun fan site.

- You probably will need to have an add-on domain name.

Rather than www.yoursite.com, your domain name with a free web hosting provider will most likely be something like: www.yourfreewebhostingprovider.com/yoursite or http://yoursite.freewebhostingprovider.com – meaning that your website is right away linked with another company. It isn’t necessarily a problem, just something to be aware of.

- The definition of ‘free’.

While you may be receiving the web space for free, with the majority of free web hosting providers you will have advertisements on your site. Typically these ads are generated and inserted on your site without you doing anything – and you have no way of eliminating them. Showing the ads is basically how you ‘pay’ for your ‘free’ service. There is no way around this; the web host will have to generate income in some way.

When you are wanting to publish a small, simple website of only a few pages, it may be worth looking at free web hosting. But for a larger site, you’re going to need to self-host.

The Beneficial Aspect of Free Web Hosting

In a society that may dismiss something that is labeled ‘free’ as suspect, when users are wanting to develop a website they will probably give the idea of free web hosting short shrift. However, there are some significant upsides to using a free web hosting provider – so before you dismiss the concept, take a read of the list below.

- It’s free!

It may seem like an unusual point to include in this list – isn’t it apparent that ‘free’ web hosting is, um, free?! – but it is the element you ought to focus your attention on. No, free web hosting is not going to deliver the results if you are looking to earn an income from that website – but if you just need a little corner on the internet, for a personal site or as a small business listing, then the free aspect is beneficial.

In essence, there is no point in spending a lot of money for a website if you are not planning for that website to earn money – so it may be worthwhile putting up with the inconveniences that go along with a free web hosting service, and making use of your funds elsewhere.

- Guidance for newbies.

Many free web hosting providers have their own support forums, which are moderated by their own staff in addition to including posts from users of the service. This means you will have an instant support base should you run in to any problems.

- Technical experience is not required to build a website.

A lot of free web hosts offer WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) site building, which means you don’t need to understand HTML or any other complicated programming language. You can simply plug and play

WYSIWYG? SRSLY? OMG!

Although many web hosting companies provide WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) website building software, it’s important to think about whether you want to use this software. While typically these programs are quite helpful and often even very good, your best choice may be to dismiss these web editors and instead choose a Content Management System. The CMS (as it is known for short) can be installed utilizing the cPanel of your hosting software and you’ll be able to use it for all your web building needs.

The benefits of working with a CMS over the WYSIWYG editor on your site are significant. Chiefly, it comes down to the fact that these platforms (Joomla and WordPress are the two most popular) provide you much more latitude with what you can do with your site. The two are highly customizable in addition to offering a real “plug and play” aspect, so that it is a great deal simpler to add extra content to your website – content like YouTube videos, road maps and Paypal clients which make it much better for a business site.

Furthermore, these systems make it a lot simpler to make a your website look professional. It is very simple to download a “theme” or template for your site which will lend it a unique and high quality design. While the WYSIWYG editor is a handy feature and may be useful for basic websites, you should take advantage of quality when it is offered free- install a free CMS today.

Is There Such a Thing as “Free” Web Hosting?

These days, receiving anything for nothing is uncommon – and, normally, consumers are skeptical about things that are free to obtain and offer benefits for what is seemingly no monetary reward. This is true throughout all areas of life, from business to finance to the internet – and is true specifically to the idea of free web hosting.

Web hosting is costly, there is no doubt about it. That is why offers for free web hosting appear too good to be true, and many consumers will just steer clear of it. In fact, there are a few positive aspects of free web hosting. For some buyers, it may be worthwhile exploring  the idea.

Free web hosting is not without its disadvantages – typically you can’t use your own domain name, and you will be restricted when it comes to how much space and bandwidth you get. So far, it’s not such an appealing deal if you would like to host a large professional – and in truth, it most likely isn’t a wise decision if you fit in that category.

It is with the small, usually first-time website user that free web hosting is most useful. If you only want to publish a tiny website, with a couple of pages, then it could be something worth contemplating. It is certainly more affordable, so if you’re not depending on the website to produce business or income, then a free service may be exactly what you need.

Cheap Can Be Better Than Free

Even though free web hosting is available, there isn’t any avoiding the fact that a business has to pay for it in some way. This is likely to result in you having to make do somewhere along the line. Yes, you would like to have a site without ads on it, or at least have some say about what is being advertised. However if the hosting is free, then you may well have to put up with distracting and possibly off-putting advertisements on your site. You would  like good technical support, but the company  has to pay for that “free hosting” and good tech support is costly.

However, not everyone has the budget to opt for the more recognized, well-reviewed companies, so there has to be another option, and that comes in the form of cheap web hosting. Sure, “cheap” is a comparative term, but if you and other customers are paying something for the service,  then the web hosting company has a budget to spend on important benefits like helpful tech support staff and servers that don’t give out when someone actually visits your website.

Cheap web hosting has this in common with the more pricey type – there are good web hosting providers and bad web hosting  providers. The more established big brands in the market are, generally, well-liked by those who make use of them and while you might not expect as much from them as you would from a blue-chip company there is a lot to be said for an inexpensive choice – especially when you are getting started.

Customer Support is Crucial

No matter what else you try to find in a web hosting company, it is wise to be looking for good customer support. All web hosts will claim they provide it, in the same way all heavyweight boxers will proclaim they will their next fight by a knockout. Simply because somebody says something, doesn’t mean it is accurate. There are many things you will need to make certain your web hosting provider offers before deciding that it will supply you with the proper degree of customer support.

A toll-free customer support line is a sure indication that the company actually is confident that it can provide you the assistance you need without any fuss. Someone has to pay for the phone call and if it isn’t you, it will be them. If they’re paying for the call, they need it to be quick and final, so they will work very hard to get you back up and operating if there’s unscheduled outage. Nevertheless, it is beneficial to have a record of each issue, so if they offer additional email support, you should double up by sending them email.

Several of the better web hosting companies also have customer forums. If they’re any good they will be moderated by techies, and placing a post on the discussion board is a good idea if you have an unresolved difficulty. They don’t want to see posts stating their service is bad, because that is likely to result in lost business- expect someone to respond to your issue quickly and have you operational again. Lastly, watch out for hosts who have frequently updated records of outages and other issues on their site. If you are going to have downtime, it is good to be informed in advance.

Uptime – Will You Receive What You Pay For?

Web hosting is a topic which divides opinions more fiercely than you might imagine. Any time people are debating about what is most critical in a web hosting provider, you can expect some strongly varying viewpoints. While there will be quite a few who prefer that the web host has good technical support, and others which value webspace over all else, a substantial number of people will choose uptime, every time. If your web hosting company delivers the right amount of uptime, the help desk won’t be as needed (and you can invariably add more webspace later).

However, uptime is crucial no matter who you are and what your website is about. You may as well not have a website if it will spend more time showing error messages to the visitors who want to see it. Most web hosts will promise in the range of 99.9% uptime. None can guarantee a hundred per cent, as this is an unachievable promise, but you will observe that the providers that offer 99.99% or 99.999% will be more expensive than those supplying the simple 99.9. Nines are expensive.

It is well worth requesting proof if none is presented, or asking an unbiased contact if the hosting company is as dependable as they say they are. It is one thing to claim superb uptime and quite another to reliably furnish it.

Unlimited Webspace – As Great as it Seems?

When setting up your website, you are likely to have some grand ambitions as to how it will look. You will want to bring in as many viewers as possible and expand as time goes on. This is what any webmaster wants to do – or at least, the vast majority do. This is the thinking behind the “unlimited web space” offers that are made by many web hosting companies. And as attractive as that sounds, you may find that it has its drawbacks.

With limited web space, the advantage is that you can set a limit for what you pay – ensuring that your monthly bills are more than reasonable. If you get a spike in traffic, the site may experience lagging and even down time – but as long as you are on top of how much traffic you are getting, there need never be any real problem. But if, for whatever reason, hits to your site go astronomical when you have unlimited web space then you will soon find why most people choose limited.

There is a trade-off to be had between settling for less and paying more. Setting limits on the amount of web space you use is the sensible thing to do, at least until you are able to see how much traffic your site is bringing in and how well you could justify spending a little more on it. Certainly, unlimited webspace is a waste if you are not planning to make money from your website.

Colocation – What Exactly is It and How Can It Benefit You?

Small businesses will always be to some degree at the mercy of larger companies which can afford their own servers and the IT professionals who can make certain that they keep working. It is pointless to expect to be competitive with these companies, but you can adopt some of the methods they use and keep yourself in front of your direct competitors. One way to set about this is to use colocation – a system that enables you to benefit from greater bandwidth and customer support than would otherwise be feasible.

Colocation does cost more than ordinary web hosting, but delivers more for the cost. It will cost you about the same as you would spend for a business quality DSL line supplying limited bandwidth, and permits you access to far more bandwidth than the DSL line. It is also a more protected supply than most others, which means you will have less downtime, and whenever you do it will be either scheduled or resolved within moments. Due to the fact the colocation facility is dedicated to supplying so much bandwidth, it is constructed to withstand power outages.

As a colocation customer, you will have more responsibility for your server – indeed, in many cases it is recommended that you purchase a standard server in a colocation facility (this will typically cost between $150 and 200), and pay a modest extra fee to have it managed by the IT staff at the facility. However, if you have your own IT professionals, they can monitor your server and perform the necessary maintenance themselves.

The “Support Ticket” System – Just The Ticket or Looking forTrouble?

Many web hosting businesses  these days subscribe to the strategy of a “trouble ticket” method for handling customer problems. The concept of the system is straightforward – a customer who is having issues with their web hosting submits a ticket on the error page that is displaying, or on the web host’s own site, telling the host of the problem. This is then forwarded to the web host’s support center which prioritizes the concern and assigns a tech to resolve the issue.

The advantage of such a system is that it permits companies to prioritize issues, making certain that technicians can be given the especially troublesome cases first. It also means that when the customer does speak to someone at the organization, the tech is aware on what is wrong with your service.

At the same time, however, the system has its weaknesses. Not least of these is the fact that it is simply not possible to know when you will receive a call from the support staff. The process is designed in such a manner that your first contact will come after someone has been assigned to your case. This leaves you up in the air if your issue is preventing you working. How the incidents are prioritized is also a gray area.

Studies have proven that customers feel far more reassured with a company that has a dedicated technical support phone number that permits them to make immediate contact instead of  transmitting a “ticket”. It is worthwhile finding for a company that does this, and does it especially well.

Good Morning, This is Technical Support, How May I Assist You?

Customer service has developed into a real buzzword in recent years, with companies the worldwide lining up to provide it. However, as anyone who has experienced a struggle with a customer support department knows, offering it is one thing, delivery is frequently another completely. This is regrettably often true for the technical support departments of web hosting providers, and of online service generally.

You may be acquainted with the sinking feeling of being on hold with a business and listening repeatedly to the recorded message informing you “Your call is important to us, thank you for holding”. It can not be underestimated how frustrating this is, and how completely counter-productive. The message may be intended to reassure the customer that their issue will be addressed soon, and managed well – but to many of us it indicates that the company is protesting too much.

Prior to signing up with a web hosting company, it is crucial that you investigate their record on tech support. Some companies do not have a technical support phone line, telling you to send them an email – scarcely reassuring when they seem to have such difficulties with Internet downtime. Other companies offer a “live chat” service on the Internet, and this can be a valuable alternative, but only when it is sufficiently staffed

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