Important Things to Choose a Web Host.

Created on Friday, 04 February 2011 14:44

Written by Alp Galip

• Reliable Hosting

The first and foremost thing to consider when choosing a web-hosting company is reliability. So, how can one assess the reliability of the web-host. Is it the hosting ethics, security system or quality support which determines and establishes the reliability of the web host? Here’s a quick checklist of features which define the reliability of the web host.

1. Uptime Guarantee: As per the industry norms, 99.9% uptime is the established standard (which accounts for grossly 45 minutes p.m). While such a high rate of uptime is desirable only when for e-commerce site, 99% uptime is good enough for business website; with a surety of compensation for exceeding downtime.
2. Sound Support: The web hosting company should provide technical support on round the clock basis. And should focus on solving the problems and issues in given time-frame.
3. Security: Well-established security system supported with SSL certificates and digital encryption raises the confidence of customers.
4. Regular Backups: Regular backup insures the websites against unpredictable nuances and help you recover the website in convinient manner.
5. Money-Back Guarantee: Money-back guarantee reflects the confidence of the service providers and assures customer of quality service.

• Quality Support

Even though sound support is one of the attributes of reliable hosting, it needs a special mention and a dedicated focus. Just like any service is about keeping the customers happy, the same holds true for web hosting services as well. And providing the quality support is the determining factor for customer satisfaction; where the quality of the support is assessed on the basis of following factors.

1. Responsive Tech-Support: Effective communication (like informing about the server maintenance, etc) and quick solution of the customer issues determine the responsiveness of customer support system.
2. Well Established Support Base: The web-host should provide a self-help support system, in terms of FAQs page, knowledge base and elaborate tutorials for solving the common issues faced by the customers.

• Disk Space And Bandwidth

Disk space is analogous to the size of your website and refers to space allotted  for storing the files on server. Bandwidth, on the other hand signifies the traffic handling ability of your website. The hosting providers offer tiered plans with varying disk space limit and bandwidth at varying price. Assess the requirements of your website and choose the plan which fulfills the disk space limit and bandwidth of the website substantially.

• Additional Features

A web hosting provider provides scores of features, tools and benefits to the webmasters. All the features offered by the web hosts are not meant for everyone, here are some common (and self-explanatory features), which you should look into when choosing a hosting service.

1. Multiple domains, which allows you to host multiple websites on one account at one price.
2. Provide customized E-mail addresses to provide professional backing to your online presence.
3. Control panel and programming support makes it easy to dive into the website for troubleshooting.