What if you could get free web hosting? Sounds great, right? Some companies offer you this, while stating that all they need in return is for you to post their ad in a small area of your web page. They don’t tell you that unreliability might be one of the other trade-offs. Read on for more insight into what makes a good web hosting service and why you might be better off paying for one.
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.
Avoid choosing the cheapest web-hosting service out there, and certainly think long and hard before you go with a free one. If you are running a business online, your reputation can be severely damaged if you choose an unreliable hosting service. In addition, the free ones will often have advertisements that make it obvious you are not willing to pay for a basic service that is important to your livelihood.
Read the terms of your contract before subscribing to a web hosting service. You should look for a guarantee that your content will be updated right away when you upload it to your server. Remember that your visitors want up to date content and you will not be able to meet their expectations with a slow web hosting service.
Find out what other programming services your potential web host offers. You don’t want your sites to be limited to CSS and HTML. The best web hosts offer the ability to code sites using PHP and ASP as well. Even if you don’t think you need these languages, you should use a web host that offers them. As your knowledge of web design grows, you might want to use these languages to help your site reach its full potential.
Some web hosting services will charge you by how much traffic your site gets. Learn how your host bills customers. Some companies charge flat rates for service along a scale, wherein your site moves up a category as you pull in more traffic. Other hosts simply adjust your monthly rate depending upon how much traffic you experienced.
“Unlimited” bandwidth might not mean what you think it means. Many hosts will tout this as a feature, but what it really means is that they will let you use as much bandwidth as they think is reasonable. If you have a true high-bandwidth site, be sure you understand the rules and costs that your host may impose.
There’s no question that free web hosting is useful to some people. It depends on the reason for your website. If you plan on doing business online, use the tips above to help choose a web hosting company that can give you fast, reliable service so that you can build a strong business foundation upon which to grow your sales.