How to Select a Hosting Provider for a New Site

The web hosting provider that you select for your new site may not make much of a difference in your first month of operations. But in six months or a year, when your business is booming and you are ready for a growth spurt with new features or functions, you will need both a strong site infrastructure and a guarantee that your servers won't crash and send you sprawling toward disaster.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Decide What You Need in a Web Hosting Provider

1. Start by listing web hosting requirements for your new site. These may include certain benchmarks or levels of storage space, bandwidth, data transfer traffic, guaranteed uptime and real-time support availability and compatibility with or access to eCommerce solutions, operating system and web design software.
2. Focus on reliability and reputation. Anticipate what you would do if your new site's web hosting server crashes. Plan accordingly for all contingencies. First and foremost, select a hosting provider with strong multiple location redundancy infrastructure and a proven commitment to regular backups. Then, cover yourself by regularly backing up your site yourself.

Select the Web Hosting Provider

3. Check out eCommerce suites like Microsoft Office Live that offer website hosting and related features in a bundled package (see Resources below).
4. Review other providers by checking out "Web Hosting" search results. Select a group of finalists based on cost, the web hosting requirements you have identified and your assessment of reliability and reputation. Compare their offerings at the starter and intermediate levels.
5. Seek out customer ratings and reviews for your finalists. Once a provider meets your basic requirements, you may let yourself be influenced by other value-added features, such as the availability of discussion boards, survey polls, blogs or interactive calendars. Avoid paying for domain name registration, which is usually provided for free.
6. Avoid signing a long term contract. Make sure that any web hosting provider you select will allow you to export your website later without hassle if you decide to move to a different hosting provider.

Tips & Warnings

• Some selection questions may require discussion with a web designer. These could include whether you need a dedicated or shared server and whether you need Windows or Unix hosting servers. Most business startups will be fine with Windows based shared servers.
• Not all the web hosting providers you find will be around a few months after you read this. Select a service with some history, good customer reviews and testimonials so your website isn't left without a home.