How to Choose a Reliable Host for Your Web Site

Deciding on a host provider for your company's web site is one of the biggest decisions you'll make, and therefore, you shouldn't take it too lightly. The number of web hosting providers has exploded in recent years, and while there are now more good providers, there are, unfortunately, also more bad providers. It is an industry where there are few regulations or official standards, so you may have to look at the industry as a whole as a sort of free for all, where everyone craves your business and where some will try to lure you in dishonestly.

Because web hosting providers are so many and varied, and because having a web presence is vital to almost any business these days, emotions often run high on discussion forums comparing providers. If you are researching your choices and see a specific complaint about a particular host over and over again, then it is a warning that you need to explore further. If complaints seem varied and not too vitriolic, then chances are that problems with the web host are not too dire. Every web host has been the recipient of a bad review now and again, and one or two complaints should not dissuade you from considering one hosting company over another.

Keep in mind, however, that if you see nothing but gushing, positive reviews of a web host, particularly if it is filled with exclamation marks, you may be reading the work of someone working for the host. A good rule of thumb in investigating customer feedback is, the extremely good and the extremely bad reviews should be taken with a pinch of salt.

One of the most important choices you will be faced with is whether you should use shared hosting, virtual hosting, or dedicated hosting.

Shared hosting means that your website shares physical server hardware with other websites. Your site will have its own domain name, and all the sites housed on the server will share CPU usage, bandwidth, and disk space. Shared hosting is a good choice for small businesses that do not require extensive database management or massive amounts of disk space because it is the least expensive option for web hosting.

Virtual hosting means that even though your website is hosted on the same server with others, that server is partitioned into a number of "virtual" servers, each acting as its own web server. Each virtual server may be managed separately from other partitions on the same server, which is not the case with regular shared hosting. This is a more expensive option than plain shared hosting, but it is still reasonably priced for many small businesses.

Dedicated hosting means you are renting the use of an entire server for your site or sites. The host provider still maintains the server hardware, operating system, and backup facilities, but you would have full control over the server in terms of setting up the website or sites, and determining what software would be installed on the server. This is the most expensive type of web hosting, but for data intensive businesses, or those with huge amounts of traffic or the need for disk space or bandwidth, it may be the best option in the long run.

Because there is such an overwhelming amount of information on the Internet concerning web hosting, you may wonder where to start. Here are 10 guidelines that will help you narrow down your selection. Once you have a short list, you can explore the candidates further.

Realize that there is no one web host that will suit everyone. What works perfectly for your sister-in-law may be an abysmal choice for you. Make your own "shopping list" for what you need and what you want in a web host, but be prepared to change your mind as you learn more about setting up your website.

Do research on all the web hosts you are considering. Ask around. Read online reviews, but remember not to believe all you read. An unhappy customer who didn't do his homework before choosing a hosting service may be using the Internet to vent his frustrations. In an industry as new and rapidly evolving as web hosting, you can expect misunderstandings between customers and providers. Consistent bad reviews should be a red flag, but keep in mind that the biggest web hosts with the biggest customer base is bound to have some dissatisfied customers. Pay more attention to reviews that enumerate specific likes and dislikes, and pay less attention to reviews that consist of pure emotion.

Think of questions before you choose a company, and then go ahead and ask them. If a provider won't give you satisfactory answers up front, that may be a warning that their technical support and customer service are lacking. Also, keep in mind that there are different interpretations of what 24/7/365 support means. You should be able to get live help whether by phone, through email, or through live chat. Good customer service is one way great web hosts separate themselves from the rest of the pack.

Speaking of reliability and technical support, you need to demand uptime of 99.9%. Most companies that are confident enough to claim 99.9% uptime are smart enough to know they have to back that up. If a company wavers, or sounds uncertain about their uptime statistics, you should probably look elsewhere.

While the cost of web hosting ranges from next to nothing to hundreds of dollars per month, keep in mind that while cheap may seem good in the short term, if your web host doesn't live up to its promises, or if technical support is lacking, or if you don't get the features you need, you're better off in the long run choosing a more reliable, but more expensive provider.

Make sure that the web host you choose is prepared for your needs to change. When you first start out with a business website, you may have no idea how much disk space or bandwidth you will need. It is not an easy thing to quantify up front. However, the best providers understand that your needs will change as your business grows, and they have options to help you upgrade your services when that happens.

Even though combing through mountains of information on different providers may seem daunting, doing so at the outset is far better than making a hasty choice and repenting at leisure. There are free hosting companies out there, but these are best used for small, personal sites or blogs. Their capabilities are not likely to be robust enough for hosting a serious business site.

Keep in mind that many companies work through referral programs to get their name out there. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Web hosting is a very competitive industry, and referral programs help legitimate companies keep costs down. Additionally, if you make a well informed choice for a company that has an referral program and you join it, you could end up with a few extra coins in your piggy bank every month to help offset your own hosting costs.

Some web hosts cater to specific niches in the online world. For example, there are hosts for adult websites, and there are hosts who want to avoid hosting adult sites. Specialist hosting may be worth looking into if you have an unusual product or business.

All of these pointers can be summed up by the sentence, "Do your homework first." The normal caveats apply, such as, "You get what you pay for," and "If it seems too good to be true, it probably is." Web hosting providers will compete mightily for a share of the market, and some may make claims they cannot back up. This very important choice in the establishment of your business presence on the web requires common sense and due diligence.