How to Find a Web Host For Your Website or Business

Finding the best web hosting service for your website or business is an absolute necessity. Customers and site views -- both of which are key to making a profit -- can be lost if you select the wrong web hosting package, or sign up for an unreliable web host. Naturally, in order for your website or online business to succeed, you need to find a provider which will adequately support you in your endeavors.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. Consider how much storage space you will need. Storage space is basically how much data you can upload to the web host's network, and is usually measured in megabytes (MB). Most websites do not need that much storage space unless they are media-intensive.

2. Estimate how much bandwidth you will need per month. Essentially, bandwidth refers to how much data can be passed along from your website to the rest of the internet. Bandwidth is measured in bits per second or 'bps'. The higher the bandwidth, the higher the amount of data that can be transferred. How much bandwidth you will need depends on what you are using your website for, as well as how much traffic you estimate your website to have. If your website is media-intensive (i.e. lots of files to download), you will likely need a lot of bandwidth. However, if your website is a blog, you won't need that much.

3. Make sure you choose a web host that has a variety of features. FTP, PHP, CGI, SSI, ASP, Perl, Telnet, et cetera, are all important additions to any web hosting package. You'll also want to make sure you have an email service (not just forwarding) as part of your web host package.

4. Check around for packages that offer discounts or packages for multiple domains if you are wanting to set up more than one domain or subdomain.

5. Demo the provider's control panel. Since you're going to likely be using it a lot, it's best to pick a web host that has a platform you find easy to use and navigate.

6. Compare prices. This is obviously the big one with most people. However, keep in mind, just because a webhost is cheap doesn't mean it's going to suit all of your needs, and just because a web host is more expensive doesn't mean that it's not a good choice.

7. Choose a web host which provides exemplary technical support. Make sure they provide a thorough FAQ and have a 24/7 technical support. Sometimes you may need immediate help and the last thing you want is to waste a day of business waiting for an email response.

8. Look up reviews of the various web hosting providers. Read user opinions about their experiences with a particular web host. Find out what people are saying are the pros and cons of a particular provider. No web host service is perfect, but some are definitely better than others. Make sure to find out how reliable a hosting service is.

[keithcs]

on 7/6/2009 Thanks for the tips! 5* & recommended