Selecting the right Website Hosting Company

What to look for in a web hosting company

Once you decide to put up a website for your content, you will need to find a Web Hosting Provider to host your website for you. Even with serious industry consolidation over the last few years, there are literally thousands of Web Hosting companies to choose from. How do you pick the right one? This article contains valuable information to help you make the right decision when the time comes to pick a good Web Hosting Provider.

Many hosting companies outsource their technology needs or keep their servers in a remote location. Look for a hosting company that maintains their own Data Center and is located in the same facility as their corporate headquarters.

Does the Web Hosting company website look professional? This is an often overlooked quality for any product or service you might buy. In essence, a website is an advertisement for any company's products or services. You wouldn't think twice about throwing away a poorly designed flier you received in the mail. You should treat a poorly designed website with the same caution. Does the hosting provider make you work to find out what they charge for their service? Are their features presented in a way that is difficult to understand? Does the company make it easy for you to sign up, but hard to contact someone after you have provided your credit card number? Be on the lookout for promises that seem to good to be true.

Customer support is the single most important feature to look for in a web hosting provider. A quick and easy litmus test of the quality of a company's customer service is the length of time it takes to pick up the phone (phone support is a must have - NEVER use a hosting provider that doesn't make it easy for you to call them in an emergency), or to answer your email. Pick a question (even one you know the answer to), and call or email the hosting company. You can not only judge them on the speed of their response, but also the quality of their answer. Be on the lookout for anything that might indicate that the company is rushing through things. You need a hosting provider that will take the time to treat you as an individual not just as a number. While not a requirement, 24 by 7 support is a nice thing to have.

How long has the Web Hosting Provider been in business? Look for a company that is established. The longer a company has been in business, the longer they have had to work out problems and be that much better with the service they provide.

You will see the term "Control Panel" used a lot in the Web Hosting industry. A Control Panel is the web based interface that you will use to configure any special settings your website might need. It is also used to set up email accounts, ftp accounts, file permissions, and many other optional settings that you may or may not need depending on the complexity of your website. You want to make sure that your hosting provider has a full featured control panel that will be available to you 24/7.

Many hosting providers do not provide Domain Registration services. This can become an administrative headache when your domain registration provider is different that your web hosting provider. Look for a provider that can provide both services, not one that merely passes off this service to a different company. Having all your services under the same roof can save you a good deal of time in the long run.

Be aware of the features that different web hosting companies provide. Look for a large amount of Disk Space and Bandwidth. Even though your website will most likely never need it, you want room to grow. Make sure that you are getting enough email accounts, and that you can send mail using the hosting provider's mail server. The most common scripting languages are PHP, Perl, ASP, and ASP.net - If your provider does not support them, you might have problems down the road if you need a script written in one of these languages. For the same reason, you should look for a web host that supports the 3 main types of databases - MySQL, MSSQL, and MS Access.

An SSL Certificate are necessary if you want to accept credit cards or other sensitive information from your website. Make sure your hosting provider will support a secure certificate for your website if you require one. Many providers offer a free "shared" certificate to their customers. This is good if you are not ready to purchase your own SSL certificate, but you want certain data to be secure.