Do you want to start blogging? You have different Content Management platforms to guide you for your blogs. Do you want to set up an online store? You have different ecommerce platforms offering you the right platform you need for your store. But, what is the crux here? If you don’t have a good web hosting provider, no tool or platform will give its high level of efficiency or promised services.

A bad host can easily roll water on your expectations. A bad web hosting provider can negatively affect your search rankings, ending up wasting your money and other resources and in the long run affecting your online ability. With small and medium businesses set to increase the adoption of cloud by around 72% in 2017, is a clear sign that online hosting solutions will gain more importance both from user’s and investor’s point of view. Precaution is better than cure. Let’s study some important concerns that should be considered while selecting a good web host.

Don’t go by big names and brand names

Big web hosting companies have developed their brand names due to the success that they have achieved over time. However, there are times when we are so amused by their brand names that we forget to give considerate thoughts whether their solutions will be helpful to us as per our business needs or not. And practically their solutions are not meant for everyone, many people end up facing issues with them as well. It is better to spend some time on researching web hosting providers and then select accordingly.

Low-cost hosting services will not be always beneficial

Don’t go by the price or some other aspects. Focus as to how the hosting provider’s solutions will be beneficial for you suiting your business needs. Different hosting providers offer different features and low cost services will not provide the features which you want as per your needs. To gather more information about features being offered by different hosting providers’ checkout their website or the reviews by third party online. Of course, third party reviews aren’t reliable enough as they will give information which will favor their business.

Third Party Reviews

Deciding a web hosting provider is an important decision if you are taking your business online. You are aware of the features which your website needs so, find out which web hosting provider will provide those features as well as the price they are charging. Visiting their website will not help you thoroughly as they will not reveal information which will discourage people from buying. Third party reviews are based on some analysis and use cases. But what exactly you should find in a review? Let’s have a look

Uptime

No web hosting provider can offer 100% uptime. If any review says that it offers 100% uptime, you know what next is to be done. Straight away remove that provider from your list. Uptime is offered measured by “Nines"

  • 99 percent – Two Nines is seven hours and 12 minutes downtime
  • 99.9 percent – Three Nines is 43 minutes and 12 seconds downtime
  • 99.99 percent – Four Nines is four minutes 19 seconds downtime
  • 99.999 percent – Five Nines is 26 seconds downtime
  • 99.9999 percent – Six Nines is three seconds downtime

Speed

Speed is a very important factor for any website. Speed of the website is also considered by Google for rankings on Search Engines. Search for a web hosting provider which offers features making your site load faster. Faster loading websites have improved conversion rates and bounce rates.

Support Services

While facing any problem with hosting, support services are something which is always helpful during such times. It is necessary that you choose a web hosting provider which provides customer and technical support to their customers. Many hosting providers offer 24x7 365 days customer and technical support. If at all you are confused between 2 or more providers. Better is to test and examine the customer support of providers. Look out how they deal with your queries, how much time they take to solve your query? Etc. By judging on certain criteria, you will be able to shortlist the one which is best for you.

Strength of Security

Security strength is very important. All features on one side and Security Strength on other side. You cannot afford to compromise on this aspect. Some security aspects which you should consider are

Daily backups

If you do not have a backup plan and your website’s content is lost irrespective of who is at fault, you are at a complete loss. Daily Backups is a must.

SSLs

If you are planning to have an e-commerce website and customer’s payment data will be handled by a third party service, you will need a hosting provider offering SSLs. Consider SiteLock as well which scans for malware and prevents your website from being backlisted. eUKhost is a web hosting provider offering MTvScan which will scan your website for any malware and threats.

Various web hosting providers offer different features which are diverse from one another. One needs to find which features will be best for them. You may not be satisfied enough by following the above mentioned points. Explore more and more ways to answer your questions or else is to ask the questions yourself as this would also enable you to get the sense of how customer support looks like. To be precise, conduct a short study and carefully understand the pros and cons of each hosting provider and then accordingly select the one which is best for your business needs.