Your website is often the first impression your customers get of you or your business. Whether you’re providing a service, offering a product, or just writing a blog, your website speaks volumes.
A web host provides the means for your site to be viewed online. They are responsible for things like page loading time, storage space, and bandwidth. As a result, your web host affects how customers view your site. This is why you must choose the right provider to host your site.
Here are the factors you need to consider when choosing a web hosting provider:
Table of Contents
1. Speed
Site visitors these days have no patience for a site that’s slow to load. According to Hosting.com, slow websites cost the US eCommerce market over $500 billion annually. Therefore, you need to select a host that offers exceptional load time. Ideally, the host should boast a load time between 500 and 200 ms.
2. Support
A decent web host will provide 24/7 support, but you also have to consider whether you need a managed or unmanaged server. A managed server means that the host takes care of all system configurations, security issues, manages backup, and uploads and updates software, among other maintenance tasks. If you don’t think you can handle a web server’s technicalities, you need a host that offers managed solutions.
3. Security
Security is paramount when it comes to protecting your data and your client’s data. You need to choose a web host with the means and resources to provide a secure web infrastructure. This means it needs to have the latest updates, patches, and active security protocols. It should also provide an SSL certificate.
4. Cost
It may be the most obvious factor, but it’s important to consider your budget when choosing a host. Many web hosting services will offer basic services at a low price and then more complex options at a higher premium. You must evaluate each package based on your needs. Don’t just look at the price tag.
5. Uptime
If your site is inaccessible because of server issues, this will affect your customer experience. No web hosting service can guarantee that they won’t ever have issues, but many providers guarantee over 99% uptime.
6. Bandwidth
In addition to the speed at which interactions can be processed on your site, you also need to consider the volume of data you’ll need from your hosting service. If you’re attracting a few visitors a day and they mostly look at static content, then you don’t need to worry about having a lot of bandwidth. However, if you’re a large website with lots of visitors who stream hundreds of media files, you’ll need a larger amount of bandwidth.
7. Storage
Depending on your needs, web hosts will provide various levels of storage. Once again, you need to evaluate your website’s requirements. If you’re a small site with one landing page, you won’t need as much storage as a large site with hundreds of pages of content will.
8. Domain Names
Once you’ve selected a domain name for your site, your web hosting server should register it for you. Oftentimes, the service will do this for free, but usually only for the first year. This means you’ll have to pay to renew it after the year is up. Furthermore, you should check how much it will cost to renew and check whether it’s up to you or your service provider to file the renewal paperwork.
9. Email
Most web hosting providers will offer email accounts. Once again, you need to consider the needs of your business. If you are a large company with hundreds of employees, ten email accounts won’t cut it. If, however, it’s just you, then a single email account will suffice.
10. Mobile Capability
According to an article by CNBC, 2 billion people only use the internet through their phones. This is why your website must be optimized for mobile. Some web hosts will offer a dynamic website as part of their site-building tools. If you’re having trouble making up your mind, then this could be the deciding feature.
11. Existing Website Transfer
If you already have a website, you’ll want to transfer your existing site to the new hosting service. This can be a difficult task to undertake, which is why it’s beneficial to have a web hosting service that offers you the help to do this.
Summary
Choosing the right web hosting provider is crucial to the success of your website. For this reason, it’s important to evaluate the needs of your site against the offerings of a hosting service. This will allow you to ensure that you get everything you need and nothing you don’t.
