Choosing a Web Hosting Company

Choosing a Web Hosting Company – A lot of things in life are invisible. We can not see ethics or morals. We can not touch a wireless internet connection. We can not view the mechanics of a smartphone capturing an image. But this fact does not lessen the importance of any of these ideas or activities. The unseen aspects are essential in allowing individuals to enjoy the end product. The same is true for web hosting. It is a process that very few individuals surfing the World Wide Web think about. They do not consider where the images, text, videos, and more are stored and accessed from. But this does not make the web host any less important. Without it, or with a bad web host, people would struggle to view websites and organizations would struggle to share their information with the world. And it is for this reason that understanding and avoiding mistakes when it comes to choosing a web host is crucial for any organization:

1. Test Customer Service

Companies make a lot of promises. They ensure 24 hour customer service. They pledge to get back to customers with immediate responses. But this is sometimes a very empty promise. As soon as a customer is signed up and they need help, they will end up on hold for hours at a time. They may not hear back from a company for days on end. When you are running a business and something goes wrong with your website, this is not acceptable. Your clients and customers need to be able to reach you, buy from you, and find out more about you. If they can not, you will very likely lose them to a competitor.

A good rule of thumb is to contact the web hosting provider in every method that they allow for. This may only be one or it could be five. If they have a live chat option, test it out. If they have a phone number, call in and see how long it takes to talk to a real person. If they have an email, time them on how quickly they respond. Their expediency matters. If they fail to impress you with fast responses before you are even a customer, imagine what happens once they have your money.

2. Explore Your Limitations

As stated in the last section, web host providers can make a lot of promises at first glance. Their goal is to attract to customers with great deals. But you need to be wary. Many providers will offer special promotions and deals that are excellent value for money. However, to make sure that you are getting one of these deals and not wasting your time and money, look a little deeper into what the web host offers. Ask if ‘unlimited’ really means ‘unlimited’. Ask if shopping cart will work on your website, if you can use Secure Shell (SSH), if you can maintain multiple POP accounts, and more. Find out what your website and customers need and then see if the web host provider offers that and what the true cost will be over the long-term.

Choosing a Web Hosting Company

3. Get A Refund Guarantee

Choosing a web hosting provider is a big decision. For many businesses, especially small ones and entrepreneurs, they may not know exactly what they are looking for. They were just told that the next step is signing up with a web hosting provider. So they choose one.

Unfortunately, sometimes businesses learn that they need a specific privilege that either the package they chose or the host that they went with does not allow for. Alternately, maybe the business grows so fast that they need a host that can accommodate the unforeseen additional needs. Whatever the reason, if there is no refund guarantee money must be thrown out the window. It is always safer to partner with a web host that wants you to be happy and is willing to give you your money back if you are unhappy or unsatisfied in any way. This type of policy also makes it much easier to switch to another package that that same host provides.

Before making any permanent decisions, it is always a good idea to look through the return policy and see the terms and conditions. Make sure that the policy provides enough time for you to really check if the host is for you. Decide whether a pro-rated refund is enough or if a full refund is really what you need. If you know all of these details and you are comfortable with them, you will not be unpleasantly surprised if you do need to switch packages or to another provider. It also proves to you just how much the company cares about your satisfaction.

4. Understand The SEO Implications

Not all web host providers are created equally. And the packages that these providers offer are also not created equally. You need to be careful when picking the one for you, especially when it comes to just relying on guaranteed uptime. Uptime is far from the only concern. If a host is unreliable it can do significant damage to a website’s ranking on search engines, not to mention how customers view the company. Even if a business has the best SEO team in the world, a host that has slow site speed, poor quality shared hosting, and database connection errors will undoubtedly de-index your website from Google—and repairing this type of damage can be nearly impossible.

When you are choosing a web host company for your website, make sure you understand the basic ins and outs. Look into the host, read customer reviews, and speak with customer service. One company that seems to be passing all of the quality tests is OrangeWebsite. To see if OrangeWebsite is the right web host for you, please contact us.