Choosing the right hosting provider can make or break your site. Choose a good provider and you can maximize uptime, speed, and reliability. Choose a bad one and you can end up dealing with a variety of headaches. Below, we will be going over tips to ensure you choose the right web hosting company.
How to choose a Web Provider
#1 ReputationIt’s very important to conduct research on the reputation of the provider within the marketplace. You can conduct sufficient research by checking web hosting guides that are published by authority resources within the industry. For instance, the Huffington Post offers good insights into who the market leaders are. Generally, you want to play it safe when choosing a provider to ensure that you are making a wise decision. Therefore, it is better to opt for a hosting provider with a lot of experience and expertise within the industry and one that has been continually vetted and well received by the market. Take time to read reviews, find out more about web hosting Australia.
#2 Understand Your Hosting RequirementsYou want to have a good understanding of your hosting needs. By knowing what you need out of your host, will give you a better understanding of the right provider to select. Are you looking to host a video on your site? Will you have users uploading their own content? Are you going to be hosting multimedia content like infographics or images on your site? Along with this, you want to factor in the total expected traffic you will be getting to your site on a daily basis. Without having these expectations set forth, you could end up spending a lot more than you need to on a host. Likewise, you could end up paying for a server that cannot keep up with the traffic demands on your site. Accurately predicting your site’s needs is key to finding the right host. To help you organize webinars, you need a hosting platform. Here’s Shane Barker’s list of recommended webinar hosting websites to help you host webinars with ease.
#3 Security
You will want to understand the host you are choosing and their track record with Cybersecurity. It’s important to find a host that offers ample security measures for the stability of your site and the protection of your users. Ensure that you are choosing a host that offers distributed denial of service (DDoS protection). Along with this, you want to find one that has web application firewalls in place as well as full encryption. A lot of companies have lost a lot of money and the trust of their users or customers because they didn’t thoroughly vet their chosen hosting provider and demand better Cybersecurity from them.
#4 Infrastructure
Other important criteria that you want to base your decision off of would have to be your host’s infrastructure. You want to check to see how many uplink carriers they have at each hosting location and analyze their network topology in order to ensure they have diverse carriers. Also, you want to check the total number of peers they have. The more peers they have, the lower the IP transit cost will be and the more reliable the network will be.
#5 Scaling Potential
You are likely going to want to find a host that offers ample scaling potential. After all, you will likely find that your requirements will vary considerably as your website’s needs change. Thus, you want to choose a hosting provider that will be able to offer you the flexibility you need in order to accommodate your website’s growth potential. This will enable you to save yourself significant trouble down the road by factoring in the potential for your needs change down the road. Instead of needing to switch hosting providers down the road, you will be able to adjust your hosting with your respective chosen provider.
#6 Do You Need Professional Help?
A lot of hosting providers look to offer options for all kinds of businesses. However, some offer unique specialization which could make them the optimal selection for you. If you are a business that is using a specific technology or you are in a specific industry, you might opt for specialized hosting. A specialist web host might be able to assist you with your application layer by using programs like WordPress or something else. These hosts will typically include various products and features that can give you advantages over much more general hosting providers.
#7 Price
The price that you have to pay is always going to be a deciding factor. However, you don’t want to make it the sole deciding factor. Choosing a provider purely because they are cheap is the wrong way to go about choosing a hosting provider. Instead, you want to look at the total package you are getting and compare it to the value you are getting with other providers. That way, you can find one that is both affordable and competitive priced yet ripe with the features and reliability you need.
#8 Free Trials
A good thing to look for when you are searching for a host is a free trial. A lot of companies will offer free trials which is a good sign for any hosting provider because it displays a level of confidence that they will be able to satisfy their customers. Taking advantage of a free trial will allow you to see whether or not the provider works for your needs.
Final Thoughts
Take the time you need to weigh your options and you will be able to pinpoint the right hosting provider for your needs. Be sure you are looking at everything including the company’s reputation, the price to value ratio, the security that’s in place, and more.
