How to Pick a Web Hosting Service

by Hovhannes Avoyan | Oct 26, 2009

Most people and businesses pay attention to what they think are a few important features when picking a web-hosting service. First there’s price, which, more than ever, seems a major consideration these days.

Another consideration are features that the service provides, for example, data storage and bandwidth capacity.

Businesses also want the comfort of support guarantees – for example, live chat, email and phone for help trouble shooting and more. Along this line, service is another big factor in choosing a web hosting service. Companies want assistance not just building their sites, but also marketing them, for example, with SEO services and reporting of traffic and other statistics.

In terms of choice, there are certainly many providers to choose from, including some well-known companies: Arvixe, BlueHost, FatCow, GoDaddy, Green Geeks, HostClear, HostGator, HostMonster, InMotion, iPowerWeb, ix Web Hosting, JustHost, Lunarpages, midphase, MochaHost, Rackspace, StartLogic, SuperGreen, WebhostGIANT, WebHostingPad.

But there are many other important factors that, unfortunately, many fail to consider when choosing web hosting services, among them:

– Ranking – a list of the effectiveness and popularity of hosting services, for example site traffic reporting. This information is easily accessible and comes from very reliable sources. For example, Google ranks hosting services, and the higher the number the better. Meanwhile, Alexa’s rankings show the lower number as the best. Compete also ranks services, and, like Alexa, the lower the number the better.

– Uptime. Ask your prospective site-hosting service for daily, weekly and monthly uptime statistics, as well as downtime statistics. From this information, you can make a good determination about the reliability of your prospective provider’s performance.

– Virtual capacity. Check into your prospective provider’s ability to host from any point globally. Ask such questions as: “How connected are you to top-tier network providers?” Also, consider a provider’s location and whether that will impact their ability to provide 24-hour assistance – whether for troubleshooting or off-hour marketing and other assistance.

These are just a few suggestions to help you get the most out of your web hosting service.

Further, I highly suggest you read more on what to expect from your web hosting service and how to monitor their performance, including using such tools as an on-demand load tester.