Many small business owners try to control costs in any way they can, and that includes website hosting costs. However, purchasing a web host as cheap as you can could cause lots of problem that can result in a loss of profits. Keep reading to find good website hosting tips for your website.
Evaluate the types of sites that your web host offers. Many free sites will only offer static pages, meaning that you really cannot add in your own language scripts. If you need to be able to do dynamic scripting, you may have to pay a web host for that service.
Most web hosts have various add-ons for their packages, however, the features offered varies host by host. When you’re looking at all the options, be sure that what people are offering matches what you’re looking for. For instance, one host may offer a low price package, but you can find you really have to get the higher priced package to get the feature you want.
Before committing to a single web hosting service, explore all of your options. If you only choose between two or three, you won’t really be exploring the possibilities, leading to a potentially negative outcome.
Free Web Hosts
What security precautions does the hosting company provide? Websites are a frequent target for attacks, and are susceptible to many other threats. Be sure your host has procedures to deal with various hackers and viral attacks. Ask about risks involved if your web hosting provider is a victim of hacking or another type of attack.
Are you looking at free web hosts? If so, then check into the service that the free web host provides and be sure that you back up all of your data. This is important because free web hosts typically don’t back up your data. If you choose not to do this, a problem with the site could result in substantial data loss.
Is free web hosting something you’ve been contemplating? Be sure to make backups of anything you do not want to lose, as free hosts normally do not offer any kind of backup services. Keep in mind that the service is free, so there will probably not be any frills included. Therefore, if your data is lost and you do not have your own backups, there will be nothing you can do.
Your website hosting provider should offer packages that allow your site to increase in size without switching providers. While a simple HTML page is small, as soon as you begin adding pictures, video, or other media, the size can balloon quickly. You’ll want to have at least 100 megabytes of space allotted to your account with the ability to add more at a reasonable price.
Service charges coming from hosting providers could be correlated to the traffic your site generates in some time period. Ask your host how your bill will be computed. The formula varies between providers with some charging a flat rate based on amount of traffic, and others charging a varying amount according to usage by month.
While checking out a web host’s website is a key part of the research you must engage in, you should go beyond just their site to find accurate information on their reputation. Look around for online reviews from independent websites that talk about the quality of this host provider. This will give you a better picture of the actual quality of service and features, and who has had issues with any of them.
When selecting a web host, figure out which one will give you in-depth information and data about how many visitors are accessing your site. Put a counter on your home page, and compare the number it shows to the number your host gives you. Use these statistics to help you change aspects of your website to attract more customers.
As you can now see, it is not the best idea to keep costs low in the area of web hosting. If customers cannot get to your website, you will quickly lose your customers and then your business. Apply the advice from this article, so you can avoid the common mistakes that small business owners make when choosing a hosting service.
If you want to save some money, try out a free host. While the cost is obviously less, you will have other people’s ads on your site, and you’ll only have limited storage space. Use this type of host if you have no other option, but also keep in mind that a more professional look can often be obtained by using a paid host.