How To Choose A Great Web Host

Way back in the early days of the Internet web hosting was a different beast altogether. Even the most basic type of hosting back then could cost a lot of money. Even domains cost a silly amount of cash! The only way to get online was to have money. Well you could have used one of the free webhosting services (there were plenty of them). No matter what way you dress up a free hosting service it always just looks well….cheap. If you’re running an online business the very last thing you want is to look cheap.

The first thing to cover here is what web hosting actually is. All too often friends ask me about web hosting and I never stop to explain the basics to them. When you create a website it’s a collection of content – text, images, audio and maybe video. For other people to see this content those files have to be uploaded (transferred) to a web server which lets people view them in their web browser. Web hosts provide storage space on their server for a monthly fee. That’s web hosting. Simple eh?

The biggest problem people have is not just finding a web host but finding a reliable web host. There are thousands of companies out there offering hosting packages but not all of them are equal (not even close). To be honest some of them are borderline criminal in how lousy their service is. People are always looking to save money too so the idea of having a cheap and reliable web host is something that appeals to you right? Most people think that as soon as you use the word cheap it means that the service will be awful – this isn’t always true.

Reliable web hosting packages that don’t cost the earth do exist – I should know I use about 5 of them at the moment for my own sites. It takes a lot of trial and effort to find reliable web hosting and the whole idea behind this article is to help you find the same quality of service and low pricing that I’ve had the pleasure of dealing with over the last 5 years or so.

So what values do you look for in a web hosting company or package? Ask 12 people and you’ll get 12 different answers. For me I always need these two critical things in my web hosting choices – uptime and support. What’s uptime? This is the amount of time your website is online – your web host needs to have an uptime average of 99% or higher. I know you’d expect your website to be online 100% of the time 365 days a year – it’s not how web servers work I’m afraid folks.

Great support is the next item on your shopping list. Having a website means that you can expect things to go wrong now and again. It could be a billing issue or it could be a major technical problem. Either way you’ll want to have this sorted out as quickly as possible. You’re paying for a service here so you should expect fast and professional service. Don’t save yourself a few bucks a month if you’re going to have a support team that you can’t find no matter how serious the problem is.

Word-of-mouth is the best way to find the best hosting companies. If you have friends who have an online presence with a website then ask them who their web host is. Some web hosting companies spend more money on fancy advertising than customer support so don’t get fooled by glitzy presentation. If you want recommendations for some excellent web hosting companies that I use myself then check out the resource section at the end of this article.

If you’re looking for the very best in web hosting and at the very best prices then check out the information we have on cheap domain web hosting packages. Not all web hosts are worth dealing with – we can help you find the very best one for you and your budget.