Trying to select a web host for your website?
Here are the best practices for doing so…
Kudos to you that you already have a website hosted with some web host or you have finally decided to host your website on your own web hosting space. If you are looking for a new web host, then it means either you are not satisfied with the services of your current web host or you are trying to host a website for the first time. In either of the two situations demand extreme caution while selecting a web host. A good web host can contribute both ways towards how your website fares. It may be a big deciding factor as to whether your website will be a hit among visitors or a dud.
We have listed below some of the best practices that you can use while trying to select a suitable web host for your website.
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Consider the bandwidth and disk requirement for your website
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Price should never be the sole deciding factor. Remember the saying, “You get what you pay for”.
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Is there enough space for growth of the website, in both bandwidth and disk space?
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What kind of scripts and software do you intend to use on your website. Does the hosting company and the hosting plan that you are looking for support those scripts and software?
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Does your website need to run background jobs or cron jobs?
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Are you planning on running any sales or marketing events that may lead to spikes in traffic to your site? If yes, then does the hosting plan you are looking for support dynamic or manual spikes in traffic?
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Do you need to run any PHP scripts? If yes, does the host support PHP?
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What types of images and their sizes do you plan on hosting on your website? If the size of the images are large, then, it may result in slowing down of the site’s performance.
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Are automated emails from your site a necessary requirement? Does the web host provide such services, or, do you have the necessary expertise to setup a mailing system by yourself?
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What is the number of domains do you plan to host on this hosting account?
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Is hosting videos in the plan for your website?
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Is your site an ecommerce site?
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Does your site require a shopping cart?
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Do you need to run a customer help desk or support center?
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Do you intend to host a forum on your site?
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Are you planning to host any type of directory on your website?
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Are you happy sharing the resources of the hosting server with other people’s websites? If not, you may want to consider a semi private, virtual private server, or a dedicated hosting server of your own. It needs to be noted that such hosting plans cost more than a shared server.
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Does the hosting company provide free, automated backup as part of the hosting plan that you are considering buying.
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Does the company offer more than one method of contacting their customer support helpdesk?
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Are the hosting servers of the host company up to date? You may experience down time or slow loading time on your sites if the servers are out of date.
The overall considerations for selecting a suitable web host differ based on the specific requirements of your website. A suitable hosting plan should be affordable, easy to use, cater to your requirements, and have great customer service. While it doesn’t take much to publish great reviews, it may be a better idea to ask a few friends and colleagues before zeroing down on a particular web host.
It doesn’t hurt to ensure that the hosting plan covers all your current requirements. Most hosting companies have the provision to upgrade to higher bandwidth and disk space. So, it is always better to stick to a great hosting company and upgrade to a higher slot, rather than moving to a new host altogether.
PS: you can choose the most suitable, best, and cheapest web hosting plan at TuuHost.com