Smith Whether you’re looking to change web hosts or you’re starting a site for the first time, you need to find the right host for your requirements. To find out what you need to look for — and what to look out for — take a look at these tips that will help you find a great web hosting provider.
Look for the best hosting site for your domain name. Most free sites require you to put their name either before or after your site name in the URL. If you do not want this, you will have to search carefully for a host that suits your needs, even if it means paying for a quality host.
If you’re just building your first website, opt for shared hosting. There are two main types of hosting on offer: shared, which is cheap, but has fewer options, and dedicated, in which you get the works and lots of customizability, but you pay for the privilege. Good shared hosting plans can be had for just a few dollars a month.
Read the terms of service when dealing with a web host who offers “unlimited” services. Many times web hosts will offer unlimited bandwidth or sometimes hard disk space. Read the terms carefully, as they may reserve the right to ask you to upgrade your plan, if you are a higher profile customer, that has increased usage.
A good web hosting provider should have good, responsive customer service, so be sure to consider this when choosing a host. Find out how quickly they respond to problems or complaints that their customers have. You want to choose a host that will work to quickly and professionally resolve any problems you encounter.
When selecting a web host, consider how much the host costs. Some hosts charge on a per-year basis while some may be month-to-month. Look for a host that costs an average of about $5 per month as this will most likely give you a great value for your money as opposed to a free hosting site that may not offer as many options.
If you own and operate several websites, it can be to your advantage to choose one web hosting service that allows you to have “add-on domains.” Many hosts will give you the ability to have unlimited domains added to your main account at no additional fees. This can save you a lot of money, as well as time going back and forth between multiple accounts.
If you want an affordable and efficient host and do not mind running a blog, subscribe to WordPress. This host has a very efficient plug in that converts PHP pages to HTML and caches them: this means visitors still have access to the cached version of your site in case the server encounters an error.
Finding a solid web hosting provider is of paramount importance for anyone with a website. Don’t disappoint your visitors with the downtime that comes from having an unreliable host. These great ideas will help you sort through the wide variety of web hosts and make a decision that you will be happy with.