Web Hosting Basics That You Must Know

Many people say that choosing a web host is a rather simple process, but that is only the case if you understand all the different charges. You need to be aware of the fine print and understand the different things that can cause you to pay more money, or in some cases, have your site completely shut down.

This article will show you what to look out for when selecting a hosting company.

Shared or dedicated hosting, which is the better solution for you? If your site is huge and complicated and you get a lot of viewers, shared hosting may inhibit your growth and advancement. The bigger your site, or your plans, the more you should consider dedicated hosting.

When transferring your site between hosts, have a copy of your website at both your old and new hosts for a few days. It’s important to do this because it takes 6-48 hours for the DNS to propagate. During this time, some visitors will be sent to your old website, while others whose ISPs have updated their DNS info will be sent to your new site.

When choosing your web hosting service, do not rely on someone’s recommendation, or only on the info you’ve read online. Most services have affiliate programs and the people recommending the service may not have any direct experience with it. You should take more than recommendations into consideration when choosing your web host.

Always have a backup plan for web hosting providers. In the event that you experience significant and ongoing problems with your hosting service, you will want to have an alternate already researched. If you are without service for more than a day, start immediately putting your backup plan into action. This will save you the potential for even longer delays if your provider has serious problems.

If your web hosting service does not notify you of planned outages, you should change. A professional service needs to do some maintenance on their servers and be able to plan when your site will be done. If you never receive this kind of notification, look for another service who communicates with their clients.

Read the terms of service when dealing with a web host who offers “unlimited” services. Many times web hosts will offer unlimited bandwidth or sometimes hard disk space. Read the terms carefully, as they may reserve the right to ask you to upgrade your plan, if you are a higher profile customer, that has increased usage.

Choose a web hosting service that offers a simple and easy to navigate eCommerce system. Even if you do not initially plan to offer products for sale on your website, realize that this can be a valuable asset as your company grows and expands. You will save yourself a lot of time and energy if you can easily add this service if the need arises.

If you will be using more than one domain name or run more than one website, it’s important to select a web host that allows add-on domains. You can find hosts that allow you to have up to 20 different websites on one account for free which should allow you plenty of options.

Free web hosts are available if you’re looking to save money. Ads will be sprinkled over your website, and you’ll have very little space for storage, let alone bandwidth for visitors. Use this type of host if you have no other option, but also keep in mind that a more professional look can often be obtained by using a paid host.

Make sure that you factor in the price of a host when selecting one. If you’ve ever heard that something is just too good to be true, then it likely is. This definitely applies to web hosting. You shouldn’t purchase a web-hosting plan that is really cheap. When a plan is extremely low in cost, then it likely won’t provide high-quality hosting. Therefore, purchase a service that provides a reasonable price for the quality that you expect.

As you are now aware after reading the article above, choosing a web host is not always cut and dry. There are many elements that make up a web hosting service and if you are not aware of these things, you could end up paying a lot more money.

Apply the advice from this article so you are more confident in selecting a host provider.