You probably already aware that there is a large number of hosting services available to choose from. For someone who has never hosted a website before, finding good web hosting can be very daunting and challenging. This article goes through 4 criteria which you should use when choosing a service to use.
1. Downtime
If you don’t know what downtime is, it refers to the average amount of time your server is down over a month or an entire year. When the server hosting your website is down, this means that it is not online and visitors cannot visit your site which is obviously not good news. A optimal level of downtime is 0.1% over a month and 1% over an entire year. Anything more than that is considered unacceptable and you should seriously consider leaving that web hosting service.
If you want to find out the downtime of a web hosting service, your best option is to contact someone you know who has that web hosting service and ask them what the average downtime is. In addition, you can look through online forums for such information.
2. Price
The wide range of prices for hosting is probably what confuses newbies the most, especially when the features of 2 packages are similar. I have to admit that there are many hosting providers who charge far more than they should because they want to be seen as more “high quality” and want to take advantage of the newbies on the market. This is certainly not what good web hosting is. After more than 2 years in Internet marketing, I have to say that price is not a sign of quality when it comes to hosting. There are many cheap web hosting providers that give you more than you need for a low price.
3. Support
When it comes to hosting websites, you will almost always come across technical issues. As a result, you need to choose a hosting service which will give you the most prompt support so that any issues are rectified as quickly as possible. Depending on the size of your business, a technical issue could mean losses of hundreds if not thousands of dollars. The best support mechanism out there that you should on the lookout for is a live chat service which has a relatively short waiting time.
4. Reputation
By far, the best indicator of good web hosting is the reputation of the provider. If someone you know is recommending one to you or if you find a lot of people raving about the service on online forums, then you know that it must a good one. This is the most reliable criteria and can quickly make it easier for you to find a decent web hosting service.
What I Recommend
Over the last 2 years, I’ve only used 1 hosting service and that has been Hostgator. I was introduced to this by one of my Internet marketing mentors when I just got started online and haven’t looked back since. It complies with all 4 criteria above and most importantly it has a great reputation online. I highly recommend it if you want good web hosting today.