Cheap domain name hosting

Every website requires a home – web hosting. And in many ways a website is only as good as its web hosting provider. You could have the greatest site ever, but if the server it’s hosted on goes down and no one can access it – it’s suddenly not so great is it?

Picking your hosting is a crucial decision – these steps will help you be sure that the web host you pick is right for your needs.

1. Determine your needs

There’s a huge variety of web hosting services available, and for someone new to the area, it may seem overwhelming. Figuring what your needs are now, and what they’re likely to become is a good way to start weeding out plans that are not appropriate for your goals. For example, if you just want to host a small personal blog, then you probably don’t need to look into dedicated hosting, much less a server cluster! In such a situation, looking at shared hosting plans is probably the best place to start.

But if you’re planning on launching an ecommerce website, then it may be a good idea to look at the more expensive VPS and dedicated server hosting plans. These tend to offer better security, stability and flexibility than shared hosting plans. And downtime for an ecommerce site is a far bigger problem than on a personal blog!

What if you are moving an existing site to a new hosting platform?  Then the process is easier – just figure out how much traffic, disk space, databases, etc. you currently have. If you need any specific web technologies such as PHP, MySQL, etc. be sure to keep these in mind as well. Then find plans that have at enough in each category – preferably with some room to expand.

2. List possible hosts

This may be harder than the previous step, since there’s so many web hosting services out there, and by looking at a host’s website it can be hard to get a feel for what they’re actually like. Remember, one guy in his basement can offer hosting, but it’s not likely to be of the same quality level as a company that been hosting hundreds of sites for years! But his website may look pretty good…

So ask around, see who your friends and business associates use – these days most businesses have some sort of web presence. Check out your competitor’s sites to see if you can figure out who they’re hosting with. See if there’s any local hosting companies, although remember that your web host doesn’t have to be local.

3. Research each possibility

Now it’s time to research each possible web host. First step is to ensure that they actually have a plan will fit you requirements. Make a note of their pricing. Try to get a feel for their support, perhaps by checking out their forums. Do a google search on their name and see what sorts of sites and comments come up. It can also be useful to try to figure out when they started – it’s probably a good sign if a web host has been around for a while! See if they have their own data center, after all some web hosting companies are really just renting space in another web hosting company’s data center.

4. See if there’s any deals to be made

Now it’s time to really dig into the pricing for each possible company. See if they have any promotions or other deals, but be wary of companies that seem to offer way too much in terms of storage space or bandwidth for the price they charge – this is probably “overselling” and is probably not a good sign for the quality of the host’s service. You can even just ask the the company if they have any deals or promotions running, or try to pitch a price to them – they may be willing to make a deal, especially if you’re willing to sign up for a longer contract!

5. You get what you pay for

Often it’s tempting to just make a decision based on the price alone. But this is not always a good idea, after all there’s a lot of expenses that go into a quality hosting environment – there’s the data center, support staff, security systems, bandwidth costs. Is it worth saving a buck or two a month to deal with a company that may be cutting corners on any of these things?

6.Plan for the future.

Most people want their website to grow. After all, who puts up a website and hopes that only a couple people ever check it out? If your site becomes successful, you’ll probably need to upgrade your hosting to deal with more traffic and visitors. This process will be easier if you’re with a hosting company that already offers higher hosting levels. For example, if you’re on a shared hosting plan, but the company also offers dedicated hosting, then it’ll probably be fairly easy to migrate to a dedicated server when the time comes – you won’t need to switch companies. They may even offer to take of the move for you for free!

So plan ahead and make a good choice for your web hosting needs – it’s truly the foundation that your website will rest on!