How confusing do you find it when you are considering the
right web host? Here are some factors
you will want to take into account when choosing your web host. This article is in 2 parts. Today this article will look at storage space
and data transfer, reliability and technical support. Come back for more tomorrow. Leave a message below to let me know how
useful you find this article.
Choosing The Right Web Host - The Hardest Customer
Task To Solve – Part 1
By: Richard Clement
Can we take this whole internet thing one step further and host our site
ourselves on our own PC? Well, the basic answer is no! If you need to get a
site live quickly or cheaply, it can be nearly impossible to do it yourself.
Outsourcing these tasks to professional web host prividers that will save you
money and headaches. The company will lodge your site on a web server, make the
necessary connections between your domain name and their server configurations
and then you're up and running. Your site is out there on the internet for all
to see . But there are so many web hosts. How can somebody choose between them?
Different companies offer different plans, features, transfer rates and
support levels, so how can you choose what's right for you?
The problem is that there are so many, and to some shoppers, there is a
lot of technical jargon that can get in the way of picking the right one. This
article is meant to simplify matters a bit by giving a reasonable way to
estimate a web host's value.
The first thing to be done is to decide what you need your page to do.Is
this you personal site, business site or some organization's site. Do you think
selling things on your site, or maybe managing a forum , do you need a hit
counter ect. These are just some of the questions you need to answer yourself
before even starting to choose.
There are more factors in what will determine the best hosting provider
for you and that will be the primary goal of this artcle.
First thing to consider: Storage Space and Data Transfer
A small information site or personal site will usually only require a few
megabytes of disk space, however, data transfer depends on the size of the
pages your are offering your visitors multiplied by the number of visitors.
Therefore, a popular and graphics heavy website requires a greater monthly
transfer than a text site. You should look at a minimum of 2 GB (2000 MB) data
transfer a month. Check with the company that they can upgrade your account if
your site increases it's need for storage or monthly data transfer. Prepare for
growth now so that you are not caught off guard by unexpected costs when you go
to expand your services.
Second thing to consider: Reliability
For any online business, uptime is critical. You absolutely cannot go with a
host that has an uptime of less than 95%.
No web host can have 100% uptime, and it's impossible to guarantee.
Avoid any hosts promising more than they can deliver. Most claim 99.9% uptime,
but due to the nature of computers and communications equipment, outages will
and do occur occasionally. You can contact a company and ask, but they will
tell you they're very reliable. Instead, ask for a couple of sites they
currently host, that you can check out for yourself. The word of mouth is
probably most powerful in helping to judge these companies.
Third thing to consider: Technical Support
Critical to success, you'll need an internet hosting company that can help you
resolve problems quickly with the least possible disruption to your site
activity. As most hosting companies offer inclusive technical support, you
shouldn't pay extra for this. If you're not offered 24 hours/7 days you should
look elsewhere. Most hosts have email support, but keep an eye out for hosts
that have phone numbers listed. These are obviously more valuable. Though some
hosts have excellent turn around on email service requests, there's no
substitute for actually being able to talk to somebody if you need to. The test
is to contact the company and ask questions. If they don't reply within 48
hours, or don't reply at all, consider another hosting company. A good company
should reply within 24-48 hours.
Author Bio
Richard Clement is an online publisher dedicated in helping online users in
various categories. He is an online marketing specialist and owner of
ItStandard.Net hosting company. For more info visit his site http://www.itstandard.net
