Every business needs a website that will run on fast and reliable web hosting. Your decision on which web hosting provider you will use is extremely important because it will determine the performance and security of all business being done over the internet. That also reflects your business and brand as a whole. With so many different web hosting services to choose from, how can you feel confident that you’re making the right choice? Let me be the first to tell you that when choosing a web hosting provider you should plan to spend a little bit of time researching companies first. Switching from one provider to another isn’t the hardest task in the world, but it does take time. With that in mind, it’s better to spend some extra time early to and save yourself the headache from having to do that later on. In this article I will lay out 5 key things to consider when choosing a web hosting provider.
1. Average Uptime – The very first factor to look out for is average uptime. This is basically the average amount of time your website stays online within a given period of time. It’s listed as the first factor in this list because if your site is not online then you’re not getting sales. Your website won’t be getting much traffic if visitors can’t access it when they visit. Just one hour of downtime means your business is already losing lots of potential sales. This is why you’d want your average uptime to be 100% or as close to it a possible. An average uptime below 99.90% means you should start looking for another web hosting provider. Many hosting companies provider a link to their uptime page where you can see their servers average uptime.
2. Support – People tend to forget about technical support until it’s needed. The problem is, if the company you’re using has bad technical support then you won’t find that out until it’s too late. Getting helpful customer support means you can deal with website issues faster and more effectively. Look at the web hosting providers you are considering and see if they offer phone, chat, email, or ticket-based customer support. Test them to see how quickly you receive a response and how knowledgeable their support team is. You don’t want to run into a problem and then find the hosting provider offers poor support. Instead, look into this before you purchase so you know if any issues arise you won’t have a problem reaching someone and getting it resolved.
3. Load Time – The amount of time it takes to load your webpage is another thing to consider when choosing the right web hosting provider. Similar to uptime, your page load time will also affect how much traffic your website gets. Plus, it can also play a role in your search engine rankings. This is all because the slower your webpage loads the more frustrated the visitor will get. One study done by Google revealed that 53% of mobile visitors leave if it takes more than 3 seconds to load a page. This is exactly why you want to choose a web host that can provide page load times of 3 seconds or less.
4. Free Domain – At this day in age, many hosting providers will offer a free one-year domain registration with your hosting purchase. After the first year, you’ll need to start paying the traditional yearly renewal fee to continue using the domain. This can be a great perk as it’ll save you about $10 on purchasing a new domain and considering hosting normally runs a couple bucks per month, it’s like getting a few months of free web hosting.
5. Security – Your web hosting provider should have security features like server monitoring, DDoS protection, LetsEncrypte SSL, RAID, and others. When looking for a web hosting service, never forget about security. Choosing a hosting service that offers great security means both your website and your customers’ data will be safe. If you’re looking for an additional security layer, take a look at the security features and available plans when choosing a web hosting provider. Some companies offer additional security options so you can safeguard your website from hackers.
