Before go through this topic have a look at What is web hosting service? in order to have an idea about web hosting. Also go through different types of web hosting based on application which is discussed in http://arjudba.blogspot.com/2009/06/different-types-of-web-hosting-services.html
In this topic, I am trying to present the guidelines for the best web hosting which will help you to pick a good web hosting provider.
1)Speed and reliability of the servers and hardware:
Be sure about the hosting server's actual hardware configuration as well as the speed of the hosting provider they offers.
- A good hosting service provider must have a high speed Internet connection (T3 or higher).
- It should opt for unlimited bandwidth for your website.
- Good hosting servers must support redundant servers. So that if one server fails another can operate.
- There must be an host administrator to do backup jobs of your web hosting data.
2)Amount of space needed for hosting and flexibility:
Your website contents must need space in the hosting server where it would be reside and if your site is dynamic(in case of blogs. forums, social marketing site), day by day your volume of space needed must increase. So before hosting your web site be sure the amount of space needed for you. Ask them up to how much they can support.
In the market you can get lower cost of 500MB hosting space in one hosting company than in 50MB space of other hosting company. In case of web hosting, this is much true that "The less money you spend in hosting, the poor service you receive".
Also besides choosing space ask the web hosting provider whether they can accommodate your changes in future. Like, in the near future you may need oracle database support or mysql database support which are not belong to your current package.
3)Customer Services:
This is one of the most criteria to choose a web hosting service. Make sure your web hosting service offers 24x7x365 support. That is you can reach them 24 hours/day, seven days a week and 365 days per year with real people on the phone or by email to help you without cost. Before doing hosting, you can easily test this by simply emailing them and check how much time they are taking to response you as well as measure how much effective their mail is.
Also,
- Look for the big customers they are offering service currently.
- Take the existing customers feedback.
- How many years your hosting company have been in the business.
- Are their hardware new and ask for RAM, processor configuration etc for their servers.
4)The features provided by hosting company:
Check for the features that are provided by the company that you are going to host your web site. Some basic and common features are,
- DNS registration for your web site.
- At least 20MB of space to host your files.
- Unlimited bandwidth - to upload files, to support traffic to your site.
- Free Technical Support.
- POP3 E-Mail Accounts - Based on the service you can get many email POP accounts, but they must offer at least 3 email POP accounts.
- Email Forwarding - So that you can forward email to your yahoo/gmail that you check often.
- Email Auto-responders - Some programs that will respond clients answer automatically. May have intelligence into the program or may be generic answer. Vacation response might be a generic auto response.
- Email Aliases - Allows you to create groups and you can assign several emails into the groups.
- FTP Access (File Transfer Protocol) - This is the protocol used on the Internet for sending files.
- FrontPage Support - If your hosting company support FrontPage extensions then you can edit the site online using the program.
- Own CGI-Bin Access (Common Gateway Interface)
- Server Side Includes (SSI) - can be used to dynamically insert information such as local time, date or file information.
- Password Protection - To access your web site contents there must be a authentication.
- Database support - MySQL, Oracle etc. database as you need them.
- Web Statistics - Though you can use various tools to see your web statistics but ask hosting provider whether they support any.
- Secure Server - You should process online credit card transactions through a secure server so the credit card numbers are encrypted.
- Shopping Cart Software - To enable eCommerce on your site you will need some type of method for processing orders online.
- Online Web Site Manager - There should be panel by which you can make changes to your site, maintain your site, account information and emails.
- Search engine submissions - Many hosting service provider offers for extra services like Search engine submissions.
- Virus Scanning - On windows hosting web hosting servers are responsible to do scanning and ensure your files to keep virus free.
- Reseller/referral program - Common program that exist almost in every web hosting company. If someone register to the web hosting service using your referral links then your referral program can pay 20% of the money that someone spend using your referral.
5)The amount you like to spend for hosting:
I already said, the more you spend the better service you get. There may be a little exception into it. However, for a small web hosting package of 20-50MB of allocated space for a site your cost may range from $5 to $100 per month. Anyway, before pick any package look for technical support they will provide.
If you follow the above basic guidelines, prior to choose a hosting company I hope, you will have a reliable, efficient and satisfying hosting service that will contribute to the success of your business for many years to come.
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