Web hosting should never be taken lightly in regard to the features the provider has so your site run optimally. Doing your homework on what kind of services they bring you is essential, especially when you consider how web hosting is never cut and dry. You have different methods of web hosting, plus various ways of providing a help desk. The same goes with security features and what they do to help you rest easier in a time when all security seems compromised.
A web host’s overall reputation needs vetting more than ever in a time when web hosts are numerous with convincing advertising. You’ll even find some web hosts that hire notable people for marketing, despite some of these companies having less than pristine records of keeping uptime.
Any web host provider hiding information from you is already a surefire sign of covering up negative things. As a result, transparency and what they promise to do needs your full investigation and attention.
Here’s some of the most important things to look for and their details so you’re sure you get more than just an overly general promise of service.
Hosting Options
You’ll want a web host that provides as many web hosting options as possible since you may want to change midstream. It’s possible you’ll need shared hosting now, but may want to change to a virtual private server, or even dedicated or managed hosting later.
All of the above hosting options have different degrees of features that could either help or hurt you based on how you’ve structured your business. Don’t pick a web host that offers only one or some of these options. Having to change to a new web host provider in the middle of a busy time isn’t preferable, mainly because of the research time involved.
Customer Support
We don’t always stop and think about customer support when working with tech providers, yet it should always be in your top three things to vet first. How your web host communicates with you on scoping out problems matters when you have an emergency and need it resolved immediately.
Will their customer support occur remotely, or will you have to call them on a landline and be put on hold? The latter isn’t preferable since it gives painful memories of old help desks of yore that usually didn’t resolve an issue successfully.
Make sure your web host has a way to talk to a technician 24/7 so there isn’t any wait time. You can test their customer support before you make any commitment to a long-term contract.
Fast Upgrades
Most web hosts provide the ability to scale when you need to upgrade your hosting capabilities. Nevertheless, how fast they can do it for you is another matter. Let’s say your business gets covered in the national media and you suddenly have a spike in business. Your prior web host service could crash if you don’t upgrade as quickly as possible.
Obviously, you have to realize that resources aren’t unlimited. Yet, if your web host balks at any form of scalability, it’s time to find another provider.
General Reputation
A web host might look good on paper and in the present tense, yet what happened in the past matters in what possibly happens in the future. Did your web host happen to have numerous downtimes in the last year? How many incidents occurred, and how long did they last? Plus, if your web host is new and has no long track record, you have nothing to go on to test their worth.
Here at Applied Innovations, we’re here to supply the best web hosting, design, and overall optimization to keep your business successful.
Contact us to find out about our comprehensive services and to prove our proven background of features and reliability.