The first thing you should consider when looking for a web hosting company are the needs of your site. Will it be an e-commerce site, a blog site, a portfolio site, or a simple web page? Knowing this information up front will help you to make a decision on choosing the right web hosting plan. You must also take into think about how the site will grow and change in the future. Choosing the cheapest plan can sometimes backfire on you, so be sure to call a few hosting companies, ask questions, research carefully, and take into consideration the information listed below.
Consider The Following:
- Top Level Domains — Common top-level domains are .com, .org, .net or .info. It is a good idea to register your domain name with both the .com and .org domains so that someone else doesn’t come along and have your same domain name and register it with one or the other and then redirect YOUR traffic to THEIR site instead. By registering multiple domains, this allows the user to easily find your site without having to remember which domain it is, .com or .org?
- Uptime / Downtime — If you’re not receiving 99.9% uptime, then consider not going with that hosting company.
- Bandwidth — Be wary of hosting companies that promise “unlimited bandwidth”. Find out how much bandwidth they will allow before they start charging you extra, and find out how much those extra charges will be up front.
- Storage Space — Again, take into consideration how large your site will be and if it will use alot of video and large images, as well as how many pages it will have.
- Dedicated Server or Shared Server — Decide up front if you need to go with a dedicated server or a shared server. A dedicated server is one in which your site is the only site hosted on it. A shared server is shared with other sites and you have no control over whether or not those other sites contain questionable content. They can be bad news, as some search engines will ban them, and you will receive lots of spam, phishing and other unkindly activity.
- Server-Side Scripting — Make sure that your hosting provider supports any PHP, .NET, or ColdFusion that you may be using within your site
- 24-hour Support — Make sure that your hosting company provides 24-hour support. It may not be a bad idea to look the hosting provider up on the Better Business Bureau’s website and read the client reviews.
Choosing A Domain Name
Once you’ve decided on a hosting provider it is now time to think about a domain name. Below are some tips on choosing a domain name that will work for you:
- Top Level Domains — Common top-level domains are .com, .org, .net or .info. It is a good idea to register your domain name with both the .com and .org domains so that someone else doesn’t come along and have your same domain name and register it with one or the other and then redirect YOUR traffic to THEIR site instead. By registering multiple domains, this allows the user to easily find your site without having to remember which domain it is, .com or .org?
- Domain Name Availability — Just in case the first name you choose for your site is not available, be sure to have alternate names available that you can use. Using short domain names are ideal, but long ones will work as well and tend to be more memorable and indicative of the company name.
- Ownership of your Domain Name — Make sure that YOU own your domain name and not the registry company or the hosting company.
- Register Your Site Right Away — Once you’ve done a search for the availability of the domain name you would like to use, if it’s available, be sure to register it right away or someone else might grab it and then try to charge you more money for it.
When I was considering a web hosting service I researched a few of them. But the two that I was most interested in were BlueHost and GoDaddy. I ended up going with GoDaddy after reading the nightmare reviews on BlueHost.
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