When choosing a web hosting company there are a whole
lot of different factors that should go into your decision
making process. One of the biggest factors should be:
1) Phone support. Email support is nice, but email occasionally
falls in between the virtual cracks. Getting someone on
the phone when your site goes down can take a lot of mystery
out of the entire process. A lot of the bigger web hosting
companies offer toll free support and weekend hours to
boot. Phone support is a great benefit for any web hosting
client.
2)Another factor to use in deciding whether to use
a particular web hosting company is their history. How long
has this company been in business? Web hosting companies
that have been in existence for less than a year might
not be the best choice. A hosting company with a proven
track record and a ton of happy clients is certainly a
good sign and might work well for you.
3)How about the company's software? This varies widely
between web hosting companies. I am rather fond of Cpanel
merely because I am used to it, understand where the buttons
are and what the features do. It's much easier to stick
with something you know than switching to a new User Interface.
Some web hosts offer Frontpage features and others don't.
Another specific area you might want to research are the
statistics programs. What sort of web statistics software
is included with your web hosting account? Is Awstats
included? This is one area you definitely want to heavily
research before signing up.
4)Fees. I'd rather pay a little more to get all the features
than fight it out with a sub par web hosting company who
I can't reach if my site goes down. I've found decent
web hosting for as cheap as $4 per month but generally
pay around $15 per month if I want all the bells and whistles
that I'll need to host a larger site. A lot of people
worry about hosting fees, but I've had the experience
that I generally get what I pay for.
Finally, I'd look carefully at the web hosting company's
refund policy. Most offer a full refund if you aren't
happy with your service. If you are paying for a full
year of web hosting up front, you might want to examine
the company's refund policy in detail.
About the Author
Richard Martin is a contributing writer at LegalClips.com.
LegalClips.com has injury lawyer articles.
