If you started a site to display your most creative work, and then decided to sell that work, how would you handle it? You have to place a shopping cart onto your website. You will need a website hosting service set up for this. Not all of them give you this option. There are a lot of other things to consider with a web hosting service. Read on to learn how to shop for a web host.
Shared Hosting
Dedicated or shared hosting, which one is right for you? If your site is rather large and complex you may find out that shared hosting cannot handle the heavy volume of visitors that your site receives, as it will limit your ability to properly serve the customers. The bigger your site, or your plans, the more you should consider dedicated hosting.
Make sure to register your site’s domane name independent of your host site, so that you can retain control of it if there is ever a dispute between the two of you. If you register your domain with your host, your host will control the registration instead of you.
Your web hosting company should do business out of the country where your target audience lives. For example, if you want to sell things to people in Ireland, then you should choose a web host that has a data center in Ireland.
Choose monthly payments instead of subscribing for a whole year. You never know what the future will hold when it comes to your business or the web host. If you become dissatisfied with service or your site grows too big for the host to accommodate, you would lose the money you had already paid to the service, unless the host decides otherwise.
Expensive Host
Closely comparing the hosting companies on your short list will help you choose the one that is best for your business’s bottom line. Rates can range from $2 to $60 per month — and it’s often the cheaper models that are the most reliable. Even though an expensive host might offer more bandwidth, there are no guarantees you will have less downtime than a less expensive host.
When selecting a web host, look for a company that offers you detailed site statistics and traffic information to your website. Add your own site counter to track the number of visitors your site gets, then compare that to your web host’s stats to check for accuracy. When you run an online business, this data will help you customize your strategy in reaching out to your audience.
If a web page hosting provider claims to offer a world of unlimited services and features, beware. For instance, an offer of unlimited disk space may limit the types of files you can store. Additionally, some plans that include unlimited bandwidth are actually tiered payment plans. Read the fine print and see what “unlimited” actually means. It may be less than what the company wants you to believe.
If you are on a budget, consider using hosting that offers free service. A free web host will place ads that are out of your control on the site, and you will not have as much space as you might want. On the other hand, commercial or security-sensitive sites are best left to paid hosting.
Web Host
Check on whether or not your web host offers some sort of money back guarantee. If you become unhappy with your provider, what are the consequences of canceling your service? This is a question you must be able to answer from your contract. You can have a reasonable expectation to be able to cancel within the first month of your contract. This is because although a web host may advertise certain things, the things they advertise may not be true.
Make sure that companies you consider offer the features that you’ll need. Don’t make the mistake of spending too much for services you are not in need of, or sacrifice what you do need for a low price.