Picking the right web hosting company is a crucial task that will determine the success of your online presence. After all, getting traffic and staying up without any downtimes are essential for any website. While in earlier times, the choice of a web hosting service provider was based on just the bandwidth and disk storage capacity, these days one has to take into consideration several factors like uptime, monthly traffic, content management system (CMS), cost-effectiveness and other perks.
It is advisable to invest some time and do thorough research while choosing the web hosting company as it is a long-term decision and can impact your online availability. While there is no one-size-fits-all approach to picking a web hosting provider as different hosting companies are suited for different types of businesses, some of the common yet crucial factors are applicable to all. These factors, when acted upon properly, will ensure that you end up choosing the best web hosting company for your website.
Let us have a look at the 7 most important factors to consider before your choose a web hosting company:
- Hosting Services’ Alignment with Your Website Needs: You should pick a web host that suits your website’s needs. For that, first, you will need to define the type of website you want- whether it is an e-commerce website, will it have dynamic content, how much traffic are you expecting on a monthly basis, etc. are some of the questions that you should get answers for. Based on the type of your website, pick a web hosting company that can give you the best package for your requirements.
- Server Uptime: In today’s digitized, high-paced online ecosystem, you cannot afford to go down. If your website has downtime, it could cost you a lot of money and also create a hassle for you by lowering your rankings in search engines like Google and Yahoo. Thus, it is highly important to opt for a web hosting company that has a good assured-uptime record. 99.5% is the industry standard and you should avoid anything that is below 99% uptime.
- Cost-effectiveness: Web hosting companies offer different packages for various services. There are also renewal rates mentioned by these hosting companies. It is imperative that you study the subscription and renewal rates of different hosting providers and compare them for cost-effectiveness. The one that offers you the most value for your money should be your obvious choice.
- Customer Service and Online Reviews: Any technical or software issues from the server’s side could push your website offline or you may get a bug. These are the times when you need prompt and reliable customer service from the hosting company. Do check in detail about the availability and response time of their customer care team. It also helps to check out online reviews of hosting companies to see how they are with their customer service and other essential factors. You can gauge the reliability of the web hosting service provider company through these reviews.
- Additional Yet Essential Features: Do check whether the hosting company offers additional features along with their basic packages. These features are highly essential if you wish to add or alter certain elements of your website. Here are some of the features that you should look out for:
- FTP or SFTP access
- One-click installer
- Subdomains
- .htaccess file access
- Storage and Bandwidth: While picking a host, you would want to consider the amount of data you can store. Based on your data requirements, go for the one that offers you maximum storage. Similarly, bandwidth is an important factor to consider. It is basically the amount of data that you or the visitors can upload or download in a month’s time. Once again, based on the requirements of your business, choose the hosting company that offers you the best deal.
- Email Linking Option: Today, the customer wants to feel connected and heard. You stand a chance to get a better response on the website if you have the option of linking an email to your website. While choosing the web hosting company, do look out for the one that allows you to add email to your website.
By and large, any web hosting company will offer you a comparable basic plan. However, by considering some of the more intricate factors, you could get the best deal for your website. Once you choose the right web hosting company, you can get good traction in terms of your website’s online ranking, the traffic you get, and your uptime. Make sure to research well before picking a web hosting provider for your website.
