Hosting Serivce: What To Look For In A

You want to select a hosting company based on their service and support, the reliability of the company, the speed and quality of their servers, cost, the web space and bandwidth they provide, and the availability of features such as pop email accounts, statistics, and autoreponders.

Reliability of the Hosting Company

Make sure the hosting company is reliable, has been in business at least two years, and has good ratings with the Better Business Bureau and Dun & Bradstreet.

Cost

Hosting for a basic business web site shouldn’t cost more than $6 too $25 per month. You could pay higher fees if you need more features but don’t pay for features you don’t need.

Bandwidth

Bandwidth is how much data can be transferred at a time or the speed of the server. Make sure you won’t have to pay additional fees when your transfer volume increases. 10 GB bandwidth will be enough for most sites. Images, audio and video files take up more space and bandwidth than text files. If you’re offering a lot of downloads, you might need more.

Web Space

Most web hosts offer more storage space than you’ll ever need. You may need additional space if you are offering a lot of free downloads like software demos, videos, images, free ebooks, and similar items.

POP-email Accounts

POP email accounts allow you to use email software to receive your incoming emails instead of having to log in to a web site to check your email. I believe that most hosting accounts provide this feature today.

Support for ecommerce

Many hosting companies provide ecommerce tools such as a shopping cart system. Even if your host provides a shopping cart, you may need a more sophisticated system from a specialized company.

Statistics

You need to know the number of visitors you receive daily, weekly, and monthly, which sites they came from, and which pages have been accessed.

Autoresponders

Most hosting companies provide autoresponders but most are not sequential autoresponders and they are not working with web forms. You may need a more sophisticated autoresponder from a third-party company.

The most important part of hosting is reliability. In addition to the features you need, it’s important for your web designer that a hosting company provides a user-friendly control panel. Your professional web designer can help you choose a hosting company.

Service/Support

It’s vital that you can reach your host 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If your web site is down for several hours, it might cost you hundreds or thousands of dollars in sales. Customer service is the most important consideration in choosing a web host.

A server should be up at least 99 percent of the time. Ask if the host has back-up servers available they can use when the server is down. Request testimonials and a list of satisfied customers.