Every business needs a responsive website to interact with their audience. Fortunately, you no longer need to spend a fortune developing a website when a hosting provider can do all the heavy lifting. However, the challenging part is finding a reliable web hosting provider that suits your needs. Selecting randomly or based on price means compromising on safety, accessibility, and scalability of your site. Read on to find out how to choose a web hosting service.
1. Understand Your Business Needs
Before you shop around for web hosting providers, identify the needs of your business. What do you plan to do with the website? Are you streaming live videos?
Your needs influence the choice of the hosting provider. For example, if you will be streaming videos, your hosting needs more features than someone who uses their site to post articles. Similarly, an online store with high-traffic will also require dedicated hosting, instead of relying on shared hosting.
2. Pick the Right Hosting Package
With several hosting packages, it can be challenging to select a suitable service. If you run a medium or small business, you can start with a shared WordPress hosting for your WordPress site.
Shared hosting is easy to navigate and offers an affordable option. After some time, you can move to dedicated options like VPS depending on your website needs. Unlike shared hosting, which can be less responsive, dedicated hosting provides better web performance and customer experience.
3. Decide the Type of Site You Want to Build
Which features are a must-have for your website to function correctly? Just as web responsiveness is essential when choosing a hosting plan, the type of website dictates the features you require. Click To Tweet
Some hosting services specialize in providing hosting features for eCommerce sites. However, others are great for search engine optimization and blogs. If the site requires additional security features, you need a hosting package that caters to all your requirements.
The hosting service also needs to be scalable. Therefore, consider the growth projection of your business and determine whether the hosting provider can handle the growth rate. Besides, hosting relationships are usually long-term. Consequently, you want to grow with your provider instead of looking for a new hosting service every month. The best providers offer both shared and dedicated hosting packages. So that you can move from the shared package to dedicated hosting as your business grows.
4. Get Enough Resources for Your Site
Do not rush to providers because they offer more features at an affordable rate. Instead, look for services that are compatible with your needs. Click To Tweet
You can search for a service with better email functionality for your business and compromise on storage. You should also get the right bandwidth for your website. Some hosting providers can limit your bandwidth and charge you extra money to change your specifications.
When starting a website, you will not need a lot of bandwidth. However, as the business scales, you need to consider getting an unlimited bandwidth VPS. Storage won’t be an issue since most providers offer unlimited storage, even in the shared hosting packages.
What security features does the hosting service offer? No one wants their website to be a victim of hacking. While you should also ensure your passwords are strong, the host needs to make an effort in ensuring there is security. Apart from firewalls, they should provide monitoring services and security add-ons. Customer support is also a vital resource to consider before settling on a hosting provider. It shows their reliability.
5. Consider the Price
While you should choose a hosting provider depending on your budget, do not settle for cheap services. A low price may mean poor customer service, constant downtime, and an unresponsive site. Consider the package that comes with the price you pay and factor in the plug-ins and themes. However, performance and support should always be a priority.
6. Avoid a Hosting Provider Which Cannot Handle Growth
New hosting providers often get overwhelmed with many clients. Therefore, they may not provide the best hosting experience for your site. Established hosting providers ensure high-quality services to all their clients because they are equipped to handle growth. When choosing hosting services, forgo the new providers despite their affordability.
A web host affects the image of your business website. A slow and unresponsive site will attract fewer visitors compared to a high performing site. Therefore, choose carefully with your customers in mind. Ensure the hosting service compliments your business and helps you grow. Do your research and make inquiries before settling on a particular provider.
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