So, you’re ready to launch your new website. It’s been beautifully designed, has all kinds of great features to engage your visitors, and you’re absolutely confident that you’re well-armed for online success.
There’s just one little thing left to do:
Choosing web hosting that’s right for you.
It doesn’t help matters that there seems to be as many hosting companies out there as there are websites. Nor is it ideal that each one seems to promise slightly different things in a slightly different way.
So what does it all mean, and how do you really know if you’re getting the best deal on a website hosting package that’s going to do just what you need?
Let’s take a look at the four key things you should be looking for when choosing a hosting provider.
1) Storage and Bandwidth Allocation
If you’re running a small business website, online store, or perhaps a personal blog or website, then the few gigabytes offered by most shared hosting providers should be more than sufficient to suit your needs.
If you’re expecting huge volumes of web traffic on a regular basis, or you’re planning to make heavy use of multimedia tools on your website, then it’s a good idea to look into other options, such as dedicated server hosting, to make sure you’ll be well covered.
Be cautious when choosing a hosting company who promise ‘unlimited’ storage space and bandwidth.
Often times, unlimited doesn’t exactly mean no limits at all. Rather, it means ‘unlimited up to a certain point.’ Each hosting service is likely to have different ideas on what unlimited means, so it pays to check..
2) Uptime Score
Just as important, if not more so, than your allocations, is the uptime record of your hosting server. If you’re to have any chance of success online, you’re going to need your website to be up, running, and performing at its best 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
To do this, you need a web hosting provider who can assure you that they’re servers and networks are up to the task, and back it up with at least a 99% uptime record.
There’s a number of free tools out which allow you to monitor your website’s uptime. Just run a quick Google search for Free uptime monitoring tools.
3) Cost of Renewals
Lost of hosting companies will lure you in with what seem like very generous offers. It’s easy to bag bargain web hosting initially, but after that first year is up, you’ll want to make sure you’re not going to get caught out by expensive renewal fees.
When you launch your website, you’re in it for the long haul, so be sure to look carefully at how much you’ll be paying out after the honeymoon period is over.
4) Added Features
Does your host of choice support WordPress?
How about Joomla or other content management systems?
Can you use your web host to run an eCommerce site?
If any of these things are important to you, it’s absolutely crucial that you make no assumptions and check out exactly what’s on offer first.
There are all kinds of awesome things you can to grow your business with a powerful website, but if your hosting provider can’t support those things, you may have a problem.
How can we help you make the most of your web hosting package and build a beautiful website that helps your brand flourish online? Send us your burning questions on Twitter @WebDesignDIY or Facebook and we’ll answer them in an upcoming blog here on our site.
