13 Jun 5 Mistakes to Avoid When Choosing a Web Hosting Company
It’s very difficult for a business to survive today without having a website. However, a website alone will not immediately bring success. Both the visual and operational elements must be up to the latest standards. While you can have some leeway when it comes to design, functionality depends solely on the web hosting service capabilities. Choosing a poor web hosting option can negatively impact the ability of your business to draw in and retain customers, which is why it’s important to avoid making mistakes when it comes to choosing a web hosting service.
Defining Web Hosting
Web hosting services involve websites being stored and posted to the internet for access by visitors. A web host, or web hosting service provider, is a business that provides the technologies and services needed for the website to be viewed online. The websites themselves are digitally stored on computer servers operated by the service provider. These websites are then accessed by internet users via website URLs.
Top Five Common Mistakes to Avoid When Choosing a Web Hosting Company
Not selecting the best web hosting service provider can lead to such problems as slow load speeds, security breaches, impaired customer service and more. All of this can ultimately impact both your website and your business. In order to choose a good web hosting company, avoid these most common mistakes:
1. Falling for “Free” Web Hosting Services — As we addressed in our previous blog post about free web hosting, companies that advertise “free” web hosting services are extremely limiting when it comes to design, functionality and SEO, and they can ultimately end up being very costly when you want to upgrade with them. It’s much better to know the cost upfront rather than get stuck in a situation that’s hard to get out of, especially for businesses and larger organizations.
2. Basing Your Choice on Price Alone — Prices alone don’t give you the complete picture of a web hosting provider’s capabilities and performance. The features they offer are what your website and business will depend on, after all. Higher prices do not always imply that the web hosting provider is trustworthy—sometimes these high prices are simply for marketing purposes. However, the flip side is also true for lower-cost providers, especially those offering discounts for new customers. Low prices do not always equal low quality. This is why it’s essential to first evaluate the features that best fit your digital and business priorities. You can then search for a web host provider that best suits your needs.
3. Being Deceived by “Limitless” Promises — You may come across ads online offering unlimited features, particular from shared hosting providers. These features are not entirely truthful, however. For example, unlimited storage or bandwidth are not possible, since shared hosting means users can only use a very limited capacity of the server’s abilities. This causes problems with frequent downtime, slow page load speeds and overall weak website performance— among many other potential issues. In order to avoid falling into this situation, make sure to meticulously read through the web hosting details and fine print.
4. Not Checking Online Reviews — Online reviews left by previous customers of web hosting providers are essential to determining the quality and trustworthiness of a web host. Reviews can help you gauge general performance, customer service quality, potential security problems, common complaints and other issues. However, it’s also important to make sure that the review site itself is also reputable because shady web host providers can also post fake reviews online. It’s best to check multiple reviews and multiple review websites to get a solid picture of the quality of web hosting services a company may provide.
5. Ignoring Customer Service Quality — Even the best web hosting service providers cannot guarantee you a glitch-free experience all the time, which is why quick and reliable customer support is very important. One way to see if a web host provides high quality customer service is to check if they offer both phone and email support, if they provide live chat options and how quickly they respond to your questions about web hosting. When issues inevitably arise, you don’t want to be left without support or answers.
Selecting a web hosting service provider is a big decision. After all, they will be providing the resources to store your website for users to access online. If something goes very wrong, or if the website doesn’t perform up to standard, it can be very difficult to move all of your web page files over to another server. You may even have to start over from scratch in such circumstances. Carefully researching and evaluating potential web hosts will ultimately be well worth the time.
Whether you’re looking to digitally and securely store your documents, collaborate on-the-go or add features to your existing website, Virtual Stacks Systems UK provides a wide range of cloud-hosted business solutions. Contact us today to learn more about your options and our state-of-the-art capabilities.