The Value of a Good Web Hosting Firm

Every web master values good hosting services for obvious reasons. When a website is done due to poor hosting services, your business is brought to a standstill and your clients are not able to reach you. This means that you lose business and more so, the confidence of your clients when they cannot find you online.


Every minute your site is down, you are losing business and your current customers begin to lose faith in you. Your website may be well optimized and ranking extremely well in the search engines but if it is down too often, you will lose all the benefits you have worked so hard to achieve. So when it comes to web hosting services, what should you be looking for?



An online search for webhosting services will show you the many companies that are offering different web hosting services. The greatest challenge that you will face is finding the right service provider who will understand what you need and offer it to you. You will need to do your research in order to identify the right service provider for your hosting needs. The company may be small or big but ask yourself one question, “are there current customers happy with the services they are getting?”

What uptime guarantees does your provider give you? While 100% uptime would be most ideal, it is usually unrealistic. Still, you should get high uptime that is 95% and more. This will ensure that your website is accessible most of the time. A good host should also carry out routine maintenance on days and times when business is slowest, say at night or on Sundays. These are the times when clients are not looking for your site.



Bandwidth and disk space are very crucial and you do not want to run out of either. A good host should give you enough for your website and advice you when you need to upgrade, usually as your site grows bigger to unlimited bandwidth and disk space. If you are on shared hosting, consider getting VPS hosting or virtual private servers as your site grows. You will get more value this way.



Websites get viruses all the time and hackers are always on the lookout for sites they can hack. You need a host who gives you good support in case of such eventualities. You also want regular and proper communication in terms of invoices, payment and general customer care.



When engaging a new host, it is very important to be wise. Do not over commit yourself to a host you have not tried and tested. Ensure that you pay for hosting services monthly and not more that batches of 3 months on the onset. This gives you to room to test the services you are getting and make changes should they be less than satisfactory. A good host should understand this and give you the flexibility you need.



Do you want to succeed in business? Then do not make the mistake of taking your website for granted. Now more than ever before, a website is extremely important as a marketing, branding and selling asset.