When you start a new business, there is a lot on your plate. One of them is picking a web hosting provider. In all honesty, it might seem like a task because there is an overwhelming variety of options available. Several thousands of providers can give you access to hosting services, and each of these providers has different hosting plans.
Moreover, if you ask about their strengths, each of them will tell you why they are the best providers in the business. But, you know what? This is not how it works. You have to be particularly very careful when shopping for hosting providers.
Now, the problem is a lot of businesses make mistakes and end up with the wrong choice. So, here, in this article, we will enlist some of the common mistakes that companies make while selecting the web hosting provider.
Hopefully, reading this will help you avoid these mistakes.
Not knowing the available options.
When you start looking for a web hosting provider, you must first consider all of your available options. Typically, there are two kinds of web hosting services that you can utilize for your website – dedicated server and shared hosting.
You have to share the server resources and the hardware with several other site admins and users in the latter. Of course, this is inexpensive, but there is a good chance that opting for the shared server might make your website suffer latency and reliability issues if the other sites on the server have greater demands.
On the other hand, you can host the website on the dedicated server in a dedicated server. So, you do not share it with anyone. The dedicated server assures faster speed and greater reliability.
However, you get it at a price. So, do weigh the pros and cons, and then pick one that best caters to your needs and fits in your budget.
Putting all your eggs in a single basket
I manage several websites, and back when I started, it felt like a sane idea to have all my websites under one account. Honestly, this option seemed more lucrative because I got a good deal too. After two years of hard work, my websites were receiving massive traffic and were churning good money, until one fine day, when all of them were down at the same.
This is when I decided I should not have more than two websites on one provider’s server,’ comments David, an owner of the review-based website where you can find the best baitcasting reel under 100 reviews.
Well, yes, if all of your websites are intertwined, and they are all go down simultaneously, it can be a costly mistake for your business.
Opting for a free hosting service
You can opt for a free hosting service if you have a website as a hobby or a part-time hobbyist blogger. On a free website, there will be pop-up advertisements and banners. Moreover, the search engines do not think highly of these websites.
Of course, there are several good free website hosting services, too. However, the fact of the matter is, the market is too crowded for you to stand out with a free website.
‘The biggest problem with free websites is they are unreliable when it comes to uptime, speed, and availability. More so, since you have not paid a penny for it, you cannot blame the provider, if your site suffers an extended downtime or disappears from the server suddenly,’ points out Steve, an online reviewer who did the review stating the difference between one piece and two-piece toilets.Â
With the free providers, you do not get any support. Also, there are no top-end features, such as free databases. Also, let’s be practical, how can you expect a brand or a company to find you reliable if your website is hosted on a domain, such as nameofyourwebiste.get-free-hosting.com?
Thus, it is best to stay away from free providers and use a domain name that best represents your business.
Always remember, in hosting and in the world, in general, you truly get what you pay for. So, if you do not pay anything, you cannot hold unnecessary expectations. Further, web hosting services do not necessarily have to be expensive. You can easily find a good website hosting service that caters to your needs and still fits your budget.
Not communicating with technical support.
See, if you expect your website hosting provider to give you a 100 percent uptime, then you, too, have to do your bit towards it. Now, you may ponder, what is it that you can do? James, who manages Razorhood, a website where you can find the reviews for the best goatee trimmers, and alike has the perfect explanation for this.
Hosting service is a technical service. Thus, it is vital to ensure that your provider has a good tech support representative. So, anytime there is a problem, you will reach out to the support representative who can assist you round the clock.
Hence, if ever you experience downtime or need assistance, you should pick up the phone or communicate over live chat to get instant help. At all times, the emergency contact number of your hosting company should be with you. In a business, every minute counts.
So, you cannot let your website stay down for long.
Shopping for a hosting plan sans any refund guarantee or free trial
‘There are so many web hosting companies that provide you with a 100% moneyback guarantee. This depicts that they are confident of the high-value services that they provide you with. Quite a lot of them even have Service-Level Agreements (SLA) to ensure uptime.
However, you will come across hosting providers that do not offer any such assurance every once in a while. There is no trial period and no refund guarantee. Despite all of this, they seem lucrative for you because of their price. Now, the point, in fact, is not that they are worthless and bad.
However, it does mean that you have to extra cautious of their history and track record in the industry. Many a time, affordability masks cheap quality. So, do not fall for it,’ points out Ojas, an educator who offers the best full-stack developer course.Â
Regardless of whether you associate with a new provider or an established one, free trials and a moneyback guarantee are pivotal. This can make it easy for you to trust the provider.
Further, they must also have friendly customer support. So, you can reach out to them when you have queries.