Thought it wouldn't be a bad idea to jot down some questions that everyone should ask before making a decision on which hosting company to choose.
The first place to start is asking yourself if the host you are looking at provides everything that you require in order for your website to operate as you want it to?
Keep in mind that any successful website will grow, so make sure that the hosting solution you are looking at has the ability to allow your site to grow with minimal frustrations in terms of upgrading your hosting.
Another thing to consider is if the hosting has the support you will be needing. There are many forms of support that you will find, but the trick is to locate a host that offers 24/7 live support. Having an 800 number is a very nice benefit as well.
The other main thing to be aware of is if the host offers "unlimited" bandwidth. In general, not only is that one of the warning signs that the host is overselling their actual capabilities, but it can also be an indicator that the host is not exactly truthful. The implications of the host not being truthful don't need to be stated, lol.
Server reliability is another huge factor to consider. If the hosting provider you are looking at is not reliable, your life will quickly become miserable with all the emails you will have to answer. Couple that with it impacting your SEO means you really need to ensure that your hosting solution is ontop of things. Funny math: 98% availability may sound great but is not enough! There is average 720 hours monthly. 98% from 720 hours are 705.6 hours. So the availability of 98% means that your website is not available for almost 15 hours every month or about 30 minutes every day!
Security should also be considered, especially if you are going to have any type of storefront. So be sure that you verify with your hosting provider that they provide all the necessary protocols to ensure your customers safety.
Regular and scheduled backups are another thing to consider. This is not to say that you should not perform your own backups, but having a secondary backup is a very good thing. Any good hosting provider will do the backups without you asking, and not charge for those backups. If you see a host that does to backups, but requires that you pay for them, it's time to move on.
Domain names are another thing to consider when it comes to your hosting provider. Most reputable hosting companies will have the option of ordering the domain name through them. The main benefit of ordering the domain through your hosting provider is that it's just easier. It also usually means that the domain will propagate through the web faster as you will not need to transfer the domain to a different name server.
The last thing that should be done before choosing your provider is to test the speeds on the server you will be housed on. All reputable hosting providers will have test files that you can download from the server your website will be on. Make sure that utilize that service to ensure you get the speeds that are necessary for your website.
That about covers the basics. Please don't hesitate to ask any question. I'll be more than happy to help as best as I can.
Author
Topic: Some questions to ask before choosing a host (Read 1577 times)