Choosing the right web hosting is a crucial internet
marketing decision. Getting it wrong is not an option!
Once you’ve chosen your web hosting company and the hosting
package, you could be stuck with it for a long time.
Changing web hosts, with all the associated problems of
transferring domain names, moving files, ensuring
compatibility with the previous host, all combine to make it
about as difficult as changing your bank.
Here’s some of the points to look out for when choosing a
new web hosting package:
* Technical support: How good and how fast is it? Email
support is fine if you are guaranteed a fast response time.
But better still is a local telephone help line. You might
need help quickly.
* Technologies supported: As a minimum these days, you’d be
looking for web servers which support “PHP” (a web scripting
language) and “MySQL” (a web database system). It would also
be useful at times to be able to set up and run “Cron Jobs”
(which run programs, such as an autoresponder mailout
system, at regular times).
My advice is to avoid “Windows” web servers, and go for the
more popular “Unix” / “Linux” servers. They are much more
secure. Most of the hacking attempts I’ve detected on my web
servers have been trying to exploit weaknesses in Microsoft
Windows servers!
* Ease of use: If you know how to use an “FTP” program
(software which lets you upload files from your computer to
your web server), you might not need any more help. But,
increasingly, hosting companies are providing their
customers with web-based control panels, letting you do a
whole range of tasks through your browser. “cPanel” is the
most popular and powerful control panel.
* Domain names: How many domain names are you allowed to set
up with your web space? Do you get a free domain name with
your account? You may want to run a number of different
websites on the same server space – even if some of them are
simple two- or three-page sales sites.
* Web space offered: Surprisingly, this is not as important
as it used to be. Many hosting companies are offering web
space in excess of 500 Mb – and you can get a lot of web
pages into even 25 Mb! But, in my opinion, you can never
have too much web space!
* Web statistics provided: Knowing what is happening on your
website(s) is vitally important to an internet marketer. You
need to know (on a multi-page site) on which pages people
are entering your site (it’s not always your home page),
where they came from (other websites and search engines) and
a lot more. Some hosting companies give you good summary
reports. Others just give you the raw log files which you
have to analyse using special software.
* Cost: I’ve left this to the end because it shouldn’t be
your most important consideration. Free web space is best
left for little personal websites, but for internet
marketers, “commercial-grade” web space, meeting the points
I’ve mentioned above, is a must. Having said that, you
should be able to get excellent web hosting packages for
about $10 to $20 per month. Don’t make cost your main
consideration!
If you use these criteria to screen prospective hosting
packages, you should be able to pick a good one. But before
you commit yourself, just do a search for your short listed
hosting companies on Google Groups and see if there are any
negative comments about the hosting companies you are
considering.