There are a lot of web hosting plans and providers available in the internet. But if you want to know a good web hosting provider, there are specific criteria that you have to pay attention to that includes bandwidth, security, customer service, upload and download speeds, disk space etc. You will find below a detailed explanation for each criteria.
1. Upload and Download Speeds – If the pages in your website take longer to load, then you should change your web hosting provider. Computer users easily lose interest when they have to wait for a long time just to be able to view a site. You should verify with the web hosting provider their upload and download speed and how they are able to maintain it. The speed in loading pages is very important and can make or break your business.
2. Disk Space and Bandwidth – Disk space is the space allowed by your web hosting provider for all the files in your website while bandwidth is the amount of data transfer permitted in a specified period. If you have a lot of disk space, it will allow you to further enhance your site since you have a lot of space to save your files like images, HTML, etc. On the other hand, bandwidth identifies the traffic that you can accommodate. Check how much space and bandwidth you website require in order to maximize results without having to spend much.
3. Customer Service – Find out the customer service that they offer in case you require their assistance. You need to know if their service is free or not and if they can provide 24 hour support. Having a reliable customer service will help you in case you encounter problems in your website.
4. Security – The servers of web hosting providers are housed in a building called a data center. It has to be completely secure and monitored 24/7 by trained security. There are also different measures implemented by these providers such as backup power sources, fuel supplies, smoke and fire detection and environmental controls to keep the equipment functioning properly.
5. Guarantee – Some web hosting providers offer free trials so that the potential customers can be able to avail of their services and find out if it will work for them. There are also other providers who offer uptime guarantee which means the percentage of time that your site will be guaranteed live when a visitor checks your site. The uptime guarantee usually ranges from 99.95% to 99.99%.
6. Testimonials – Find out testimonies of customers who have availed the services of the web hosting provider. You need to weigh in the positive and negative reactions in order assess if the web hosting provider will be good for you and your business.
7. Upgrade and Downgrade – Make sure that you do not sign any contract that have lock in periods because if you encounter problems, you will have difficulty in downgrading or you will have to pay a certain amount just to get out of the plan. There are web hosting providers that will allow you to change plans whenever you want to at no extra cost.
