How to Make Sure You Aren’t Short-Changing Your Site’s Success
Cheaper is not always better. Just because your web hosting has a big brand name with low rates, doesn’t mean it’s really working for you. Sometimes spending a few bucks more makes a huge difference in what you really get for your dollar. Do you know what to look for in a good web host for your website? Take this short quiz to find out:
How fast do your web pages load?
If you have to wait more than a few seconds for your website to come up, you are waiting too long, especially if you have broadband Internet service like cable Internet or DSL. Slow load times will make your customers click off to another website and make you lose business. Studies show that 33% of broadband users won’t wait more than 4 seconds for a page to load!
Many times cheap web hosting providers pack hundreds or even thousands of websites on their servers. This is how they are able to charge such low rates, but YOU pay the cost. With so many sites competing for bandwidth, load times can creep to a crawl, sending your website visitors packing. Beware of this sneaky business buster, and avoid the big, cheap web hosting companies who bog your site down.
Does your web host offer free and easy support?
Beware of web hosting companies who don’t offer you an easy way to email them for support. A list of Frequently Asked Questions won’t be enough help if your site goes down.
If you have to really look for this information, move onto another host!
What kind of up-time and fail-safe measures do they have?
A good web host will have their uptime estimates posted prominently on their site. These days, you should expect 99.99% uptime for your website. Every host has a blip now and then, mostly due to hackers trying to slip by their security, but if your site goes down more than a couple times a year–or stays down for more than a few hours at the most–shop elsewhere. Also, look for web hosts that advertise “redundant back-ups,” meaning that they save information in more than one place in case of system failures. This failsafe measure means you won’t lose your critical website data due to their negligence.
Does your web host give you room to grow?
What are your true space needs for your website? Will you be uploading lots of videos or photos to your site? Do you expect to have hundreds of visitors to your site every day or every month? How many email accounts will you need? Most web hosting companies offer plenty of space now. Usually 10 GB is way more than enough for the average website, and 50 GB or more of bandwidth will serve hundreds of visitors unless you have huge files like long videos or tons of high-res photos on your site.
If you do plan to pack in the content, look for the most gigabytes of space you can get along with lots of bandwidth. These accounts usually cost only a few dollars more per month and are worth the savings in possible overage fees. If your web host doesn’t provide a full list of features, be warned! They may be skimping on services.
Does their website look clean and professional? Or is it hard to find what you’re looking for?
If your web host’s site is hard to use, it’s a good bet their service will be, too. If their website is sloppy, unorganized or not updated, move on. If they don’t care about their own image, they probably won’t care about their customers. You should be able to find detailed information about their offerings quickly and easily. Support should be straight-forward and easy to get. What you see on their site is an indication of what to expect from them in the future. Make sure you shop around.
What extras do you get?
All web hosting these days should come with a control panel, so you can go in and set up your account preferences and website settings.
Among the features you should look for are things like email accounts, autoresponders, email forwarding, web based email, free scripts, shopping cart software, and free website templates. All of these services allow you to build a better site and expand your website to grow your business.
What You Can’t See, CAN Hurt You
What people usually don’t see when looking for a web host is how easy or hard it can be to use the web hosting services. Generally, the bigger the name brand on the hosting + the cheaper the price = the worse the service will be. You can usually expect slow load times on your website, excruciatingly slow or difficult file managers, busy pages where they are trying to sell you more services but make it nearly impossible to find anything on the site, and a server that doesn’t perform well or allow certain types of scripting, which restricts your site from being successful.
Is cheap web hosting really a bargain?
If a deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Cheap isn’t always better. Quality web hosts charge in the range of $8 to $10 per month for basic hosting packages. If you’re paying less, make sure you really ARE getting a bargain by using the criteria above to shop smarter.
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