The market is flooded with many web hosting options and it can be so overwhelming that business owners may just opt to go with the cheapest option available and that’s a big mistake.
Web hosting must be seen as an investment in your business and not just as a requirement people need in order to have a website up and running. Web hosting goes well beyond that and it should be considered as the foundation of a website.
What Is Web Hosting
As we mentioned before, web hosting is one of those aspects of website design that is often overlooked when people try to build a website for the first time, so its importance may not be entirely clear for some people. When you create a website you’re basically creating a group of various files, naturally, all of these files must be stored somewhere so they can be accessed through the internet.
A web host provider is a company that will host those files for you in their servers. This means that when a company pays for a web host provider, they’re paying for them to store their website data on one of their servers. This is what makes websites functional.
The servers that a web hosting provider owns are called data centres and, as you can imagine, they carry along other elements, like network connection equipment, security measures, air conditioning systems, backup power and many more.
These servers are so reliable - depending on the provider of course - that they can guarantee that your website is web-accessible 24/7. Web hosting providers must also guarantee server maintenance by making sure that all the software and equipment is always updated and tested for functionality. Web hosting is definitely a big process to keep your website up and running with no problems at all.
What Makes a Good Web Host
Since there are literally thousands of web hosting companies and since web hosts are vital to have a website, it’s important that the person or organisation that is in need of a web host has a clear understanding of what to look for when shopping for one. This is crucial to avoid a costly mistake just by choosing at random. Here’s what to look for in a website hosting provider.
Bandwidth and Disk Space
Bandwidth is related to the amount of traffic that a website can handle on a monthly basis, this includes the number of page views your website can receive. More recently, web hosting companies offer unlimited bandwidth but it may backfire in the event that you experience a sudden massive traffic surge.
There are other options, like shared hosting plans that offer unlimited bandwidth, though you need to look closer because that may not always be the case. In layman’s terms, a basic shared hosting plan can receive up to 30,000 website users per month without losing performance.
Finally, there’s storage or disk space, limits here vary a lot depending on the provider. Fortunately, unless you’re planning on collecting user data or storing videos your current storage options should suffice with no extra effort.
Uptime and Reliability
This is crucial because it relates to your website’s online availability which is the core of everything since being online is what makes a website functional and visible. Most web hosting providers offer an uptime of 99.9% thus leaving small room for all routine maintenance that can make your website go down for a while. A good web hosting provider will stick to the 99.9% uptime rule every single time.
Companies and individuals who are interested in having a website with high reliability must look for a provider that guarantees uptime at all times without risking errors and malfunctions due to not doing proper server maintenance. Pay extra attention because you don’t want a website that starts doing maintenance when you need it the most. You need to find a provider who can provide a guarantee of high reliability and uptime.
Domain Management Solutions
As your website becomes more a more structured it will require more than just the single website you purchased the first time. When this happens it is required to design subdomains that work for the current domain or you can just simply register more domains.
This means that the perfect web host must have the right tools to do flawless domain management, so make sure to ask your provider about that. This also depends on the type of package offered by the web host provider.
Despite that, a good rule of thumb is always looking to choose a package that offers unlimited domains. If that’s not an option for you, try to shop around long enough to find a deal that offers at least multiple domains.
Customer Support
It’s very important that companies and individuals don’t feel like they’re just a number for web hosting providers, that’s why a dedicated customer support service from the web hosting company is a must.
Look for a provider who has a dedicated team of representatives ready to help you when you need it the most.
There’s nothing worse than having a website that won’t go back online no matter what and not having the resources or knowledge to make it work again.
A good tactic to sort good providers from the bad ones is trying to use their customer service first. See how they respond, how empathetic and how much rapport they can build. See how much they care for potential customers and their concerns. Do they have a blog with FAQs? or a resource library?
Explore their methods of customer support and start drawing your own conclusions to whether they are a good fit for your website design needs.
Expanding Options
It is also very important to find a provider that you can work with as an ally, a company that grows with you. If you’re looking at website hosting/design companies to boost the online positioning of your brand it means that the website will eventually grow from its current size.
This means that the web hosting provider you choose must offer upgrading capabilities for that moment when your business starts expanding. We recommend that you find a provider that you can build a lasting business relationship with.
Price
It’s very important that you find a provider with a fair hosting price that is cost-effective and suits your requirements. Of course, at some point prices will vary but just make sure that you’ve chosen a provider who can make price increases with a just cause and letting you know how and why you’re being charged differently.
Why Is It Important To Have The Right Web Host
Simply because it guarantees how successful your website can be in the long run. We can’t stress enough how harmful it is for a website to have a low-quality host. It can have a tremendous negative impact on many aspects in which your website develops. We have gathered some aspects of a website that will undoubtedly have a positive impact if you have the right web host:
It Minimises Lost Sales Numbers: This applies more for businesses, but bottom line, it’s a fact that every minute that your website isn't running properly you’re wasting money and, even if your website isn’t for lucrative purposes - like blogs and similar - you’ll still be losing followers and visitors to your website.
That’s why it's so important to check all the reasons that can make a site to go offline. Make sure that your provider is able to stick to that 99.9 per cent uptime rule.
It’s Your Security at Stake: Website perils are a reality and they can affect your website, this means that it needs protection, just like when you get an alarm system for your house or your car.
There’s no such thing as a complete fail-safe strategy, but there are reliable ways to put a wall to secure your website. The best web host is the one that prioritises security and keeps running tests to deter all possible online threats.
Of course these aren’t all the possible aspects to look for in a web hosting provider, but they sure can help you find a good solution with whom you can build strong and long relationships by growing together.
If you’re looking for the right team of experts who, in addition to all the things we mentioned here that a web host must have, also makes sure that your website content is protected, guarantees to boost of all of your SEO and site performance while being affordable and with the greatest customer support team, then you should definitely talk to one of our staff members.
We guarantee that our web hosting packages can take your website to the next level of success or if you’re just starting, they’ll be the perfect guidance you need to meet all your online positioning goals.