If you have a web business or are in the process of launching one it’s important that you select an affordable and reliable web hosting provider. The web hosting provider of your online business can make a difference between a successful website and failure, it’s that important.
Below are the 10 things you need to look for in a web host
1 ) Your target market
Google evaluates your website or blog based on the location of your servers, the Google spiders assume that if your website is hosted on servers based in US then your target market is US. Hence it gives your site preference when a users goes on Google.com and types the keywords you are optimising for, if you want to rank on Google.com you need to have servers hosted in US. Location of your web host is important for your web ranking and searches on Google.
2) Unlimited hosting space
When you have a website or blog you need to ensure that you don’t run out of hosting space as you add content and images to your website or blog. If your site has limited hosting or bandwidth that you will run out of disk space when people are trying to access your site.
2) Unlimited bandwidth
It’s important that your host be able to deliver your content in the event that a lot of people are visiting your site at the same time. In a Web 2.0 environment where your blog post has an equal opportunity to go viral on networks like Digg or Stumble upon it becomes important to ensure that your hosting has large or unlimited bandwidth capability.
3) Unlimited websites
You may initially start with one site or blog, but find that you want to launch a few more blogs or sites based on the opportunity in a particular niche. My first site was an adsense related site, my second site was a web forum for movies and music, this web marketing blog is my third site, my fourth site is a web directory. All these sites are hosted on one server
When I launched my first adsense related site I had no idea that in less than a year I would have four growing websites. All these sites are hosted on the same server that has the option to host unlimited websites, I can host as many sites on my hosting as I wish, it’s important that you have the option of unlimited hosting on with your web host.
4) Free website and blog setup
There’s no reason you should be paying setup fees or transfer fees. Web Hosts like Bluehost has FREE transfer set up facilities, which means that if you choose to host your blog of site with them they will take care of your entire website or blog set up.
5) 99.9% uptime guarantee
No one can guarantee 100% uptime, but some hosts can get awfully close to give you a 99.9% uptime and that is what you want to have for your web business. You want your websites to be up and running when your users visit your website. Having a 99.9 % uptime means that in a year your website will be down at least for four days if not less. That’s a lot of time for your web business to be down.
6) Installed software for systems, database, scripting, email and more
This will appear as CGI, Perl, MySQL, SSH, POP and other acronyms I don’t understand. It’s ok, you don’t need to understand them either. Most web hosts wil have these unless you prefer a free web host.
7) CPanel web hosting
This is the defacto control panel making it easy to administer your site, this is an essential element of your web hosting. Ensure you have a CPanal hosting with your web host.
8 ) Strong 24/7 support system
I have been with hosts who didn’t answer their phones when my site was down and had database issues. It’s scary. Support is critical and 24/7 support is the most essential feature when you choose a web host. Bluehost specializes in customer satisfaction and has 24/7 support for live chat, email and toll free number.
9) No contracts or hidden fees
Ensure you read between the lines when you sign up for a web host, some of the web hosts have hidden charges that are not upfront when you sign up. Ensure you read everything that your host offers before you decide on a web host.
10) A fair price
Most hosts start at $10 or so per month which is not bad but there are better web hosts that will provide a lot more value for your buck.
I’ve used a number of web hosts in the past few years and had some nightmarish experiences. So I am frequently asked who I recommend for web hosting.
The host I’ve found that meets all of the above requirements and beats the price on all others is Bluehost. In fact, all of my sites including this blog is hosted with them. I am happpy with Bluehost’s web hosting service and I think you will be as well.
Bluehost’s web hosting service gives you a lot of FREE online promotions and pay per click marketing credits, with Blue Host you get a FREE domain name, FREE ecommerce shopping cart script that can be very easyly integrated into your website or blog, FREE $ 25 credit with Yahoo pay per click search marketing and FREE $ 50 credit with Google pay per click adwords marketing.
The value of FREE credits from Yahoo Search Marketing and Google Adwords itself is worth $ 75, which covers up for your hosting charges for a year.
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