Web Hosting

Monthly web hosting service fee is definitely important from keeping running costs down, but there are also five important things you should look on choosing best web hosting company for your website. These 5 things to look are:

1. Location of web hosting servers
2. Server software platforms available
3. Which additional services are provided
4. Safety of web hosting servers
5. Support available to fix any troubles

These are 5 most important parameters, you should look even if you aren't overly obsessed with technical details of web hosting service qualities.

Let's see all them in more details

1. Location

Web hosting service consists server harware, software, internet connection and service component to maintain hardware and software all day around without interruptions. If web servers are very far away from your main target visitor groups, delay of displaying each page may be longer than of your competing website.

If people see, that other websites run faster than yours, they tend to abandon your website sooner and go to see other websites. Google counts speed as ranking factor and gives you lower positions in search results.

2. Server software

Most of modern website platforms like Wordpress, Drupal, FastLion or Joomla are using PHP for scripts and MySQL for database structures. You may have some special needs, like Postgre data platform or some different scripting languages. Configuration of software versions, ftp users, MySQL databases is usually possible from some administration console, like cPanel or Plesk or Webadmin or some other similar software.

Before you decide to commit to any particular web hosting company, it is suggested to read, which software they offer and consider, if this is filling your needs.

3. Additional Services

Besides of just Website Hosting, you may need also e-mail server service, DNS - which stands for Domain Name Service, some security software, help with scripting or some support on server administration. Some web hosting companies are offering domain names free, if you sign up for a year or two.

Be sure, that you understand, which services are provided and which are available for additional fee. Pricing may be structured differently and first impression of cheap price may be become more expensive, if there are many additional fees you need to pay later.

4. Safety of Web Hosting

It is definitely one of the most important things in web hosting. Some cheap web hosting providers don't have clear safety procedures, software and professional administrators available to fight with spam, hacking and all sort of viruses attacking websites. There are certainly many things you could do from your website side, but overall status of web hosting servers is important too.

Read what others are saying about particular web hosting services, how good are the web hosting uptime parameters and see, if there have been many security incidents with this web hosting provider lately.

5. Web Hosting Support

Professional web administrators are the core foundation of good web hosting service. Server hardware and software are working as well as good are web hosting service people in particular company. Some web hosting providers offer support only on work hours, others have some support available around the day 24/7.

It is always not the long working hours, but also professional abilities of web hosting staff to solve problems. Some do only jawboning and real problems will stay unsolved. It is specially true when you need to do some server configuration things, what are impossible on web console, but need some professional administration skills.

These were 5 most important things you need to look before you commit to any particular web hosting providers. It is true, that you may change service company, but it is time consuming and interrupts usually regular workflow of your website. It is better to choose good web hosting company right away, than changing horses later, when you have considerable amount of visitors on your site.