Exclusive Advice on Finding the Ideal Web Host for your Business
When deciding on which web hosting company to go with, it is important to consider a variety of essential factors. Below we have outlined some key questions to ask when considering a web hosting provider.
Top Tips for Choosing the Ideal Web Host
It can be hard to choose the right web host. Even for the experts, trawling through all those different flashy words and even flashier claims can be downright daunting. How are you meant to distinguish which provider is really giving you what you want? So here are the questions you need to ask yourself when selecting a host.
What resources are available to me?
Simple one really, but one that merits thinking about carefully. What is each provider offering and how does it meet your requirements? Do they offer enough storage, or enough bandwidth? Enough MySql databases? Are you paying for resources that you will probably not even use? It pays to think carefully about what you require before you commit so that you can get the best deal.
What level of customer service can I expect?
How well does this hosting company take care of its customers? Important things to consider are how reliable they are and how useful their support team is. In particular, is the support team available at all times or only during certain hours, how knowledgeable are they and where are they based? We’re all familiar with the frustration of receiving telephone support from someone whose expertise consists of being able to follow a flowchart.
How reliable are they?
No host is going to be up 100% of the time, no matter how robust their systems are, but the less downtime the better. This is more important for some kind of sites than others (ecommerce especially) having an inaccessible online business is clearly not an option. Find out what a host’s uptime stats are like – you should be looking for 99% and above total uptime.
Where are the host’s servers based?
Even if the host is located in the same country as you, their servers may still be abroad. This is important because the delay in relaying information between two countries could have adverse effects on your website’s performance, ultimately costing you money. Furthermore, being located on servers abroad can negatively affect your chances of ranking on search engines in your country. Some web hosts offer clients the opportunity to be hosted in the UK or in the USA with a VPS package which can be a major advantage to some sites.
Is there a money back guarantee?
As with most products, you find out the kinks with any hosting package after you’ve actually started using it. One indication of how confident a company is in their product is if they are prepared to offer a full money back guarantee on their hosting. If they don’t, you’ve got to wonder if maybe there is a reason.
Can you go mobile?
With 82% of online transactions expected to be carried out through mobile phones by 2025, those looking for an e-commerce package should be ensuring that there is an option to optimise the site for mobile devices. A well-designed mobile site not only keeps revenue streams open but also increase brand loyalty and customer satisfaction. A good provider will offer an easy option to convert your site to be mobile friendly at a low cost.
Summary
Asking these questions and researching your options thoroughly will enable you to make the best decision for which web host is right for you. Really look through the finer details of what is on offer and ask yourself what problems could arise or what benefits gained by choosing a particular host. Some drawbacks will be easier to live with than others, depending on your own set of circumstances.
Recommended Web Hosts: the techies at AskGuides have spent many hours analysing and contacting dozens of webhosts to find the best ones for our blog readers based on the above criteria. The following are the most featured-packed, reliable and reasonably priced hosts they have found by far. If you are seeking a US web host they would highly recommend this one and if you are looking for a UK web host this is the top one they have come across.
WebHost-of-the-Month: UK2.net offer affordable web hosting solutions.
Their customer support lines are open at all times, allowing you to get tech support from knowledgeable staff by phone, live chat or ticket support. They also have data centres located within the UK and the USA, their two biggest customer locations. On top of this, no advertising is ever placed on your website, and their partnership with goMobi means anything hosted can be easily optimised for mobiles. Best of all, a guarantee 99.9% uptime for our business plus customers comes as standard.
UK2.net offer great deals on web hosting, wordpress hosting, dedicated servers, domains and more. Visit UK2.net Now!
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