How to Choose the Right Web Hosting – Part 1

Posted: Sunday March 4th

When you need a web site for your business, personal use or even any other task there are several important factors you should take into consideration. Web hosting is not about large space or huge amounts of bandwidth. It is mainly about the quality of the service a web hosting provider extends to its customers. After designing a top quality website the next most important task is to find a top quality and reliable web hosting service provider in order to place your web site on the World Wide Web. And what is web hosting..? Web hosting is a service that allows users to post web pages to the Internet. A Web host, or hosting service provider (HSP), is a business that provides the technologies and services needed for Web sites to be viewed on the Web. Following are some of the most important factors you must take in to consideration before you make your investment on a hosting service.

Having a clear understanding about your hosting requirements:

This is the number one rule that you should observe before purchasing web hosting for your site. Make sure you have a clear understanding of what exactly you need. These requirements differ from person to person and company to company and therefore it is vital to precisely determine your needs and wants. Failure to do so can end up with having the wrong web hosting plan with features, that you need for the proper function of your web site, missing and spending money unnecessarily for something that does not fit into your needs and wants. So you must have a clear understanding about your hosting requirements.

The level of customer support being offered:

This is another important factor that you should take into account when you are choosing a web host. Nowadays customer care plays a major role when it comes to any business; “Customer is the king”. So you should go for a web hosting company which treats its customers extremely well with careful attention to customer’s needs. Goviphosting.com is a web hosting company which considers the customer satisfaction as it’s key priority.

There are several more secondary features a customer should look for in a professional web hosting company as far as the customer support is concerned:

-The level of sales support offered

-The level of technical support offered

-Responding time for a help ticket (ie.the average response time is within 60 minutes)

-A fast, friendly and dedicated customer support team who are well trained to treat customers with due attention and regard.

How to Choose the Right Web Hosting – Part 2

Posted: Sunday March 4th

Avoiding web hosting scams:

There are web hosting service provider sites which offer huge to unlimited amounts of web space and bandwidth. Frankly, do not believe in inflated claims such as unlimited web space or unlimited bandwidth. Simply this is something impossible on commercial realities of the current web hosting marketplace. These providers are either overselling their web services endangering the servers and the proper function of your web site or making a false claim. Thus, you need to choose a web hosting service which offers realistic amounts of web space and bandwidth as web hosting is not only about the web space and bandwidth, but also about the quality of the service you are offered and the promptness with which your needs are taken care of.

Make sure your web host provides a feature rich service:

There are plenty of web hosting providers out there who offers lesser features for higher prices while there are web hosts who provides maximum features for lesser price. Although the situation used to be like that, nowadays most of the web hosting companies out there offers everything you ever need to have a high tech web site. And here’s a complete list of all the advance features that generally contains in a budget web hosting plan. So my advice to everyone is always look for the richness of hosting features of the web host your interested in. While at the same time who offers plenty of additional features.

Make sure your web hosting service is backed with “Price freeze or Price locked” Guarantee:

This is very important as what this means is that your web hosting service provider may unethically increase it’s hosting package prices periodically after you purchase web hosting from them. If this happens, you will be very frustrated and wanting to change your host. Changing hosting services means going through unnecessary technical hurdles in order to make a trouble free and smooth transfer. Therefore always make sure to look for a reliable web hosting company which does not trouble you with unwarranted and unethical periodic increases of hosting plan prices.

7 Point Checklist to Choosing a Web Host

Posted: Sunday March 4th

A web host, quite simply, allows you to rent space on a web server. Your web pages are then stored on this server, and the host computer allows other people connected to the Internet to view them.

There are literally hundreds of web hosting companies to choose from. How to choose the right one?

As with trying out any new service, you won’t really know how good a web hosting company is until you try it. Therefore, ask around and see whether you can get any recommendations from those who already use a web hosting company. You might also want to consider how long the company has been in business, how reliable it is known to be, and how expensive it would be if you want to upgrade your plan in future.

Other areas to consider include:

Disk space

How much disk space do you need? Does you website have less than 10 pages? You’ll need only a small amount of space. Is it a huge site that has thousands of pages? You’ll be needing a lot of disk space. Most web hosting plans limit how much space you will have, so make sure the plan you choose meets your needs.

E-mail accounts

How many e-mail accounts do you need? You’ll probably need one for each employee and one for each department (sales, accounts, support). Make sure you purchase a hosting plan that has enough e-mail accounts. Also, do you want full POPS access, Web-based e- mail, or both?

Data transfer

How much data do you need to transfer? Most hosting plans limit how much data transfer you are allotted each month. If you expect a lot of people to visit your site, you’ll need a plan that allows for plenty of data transfer.

E-commerce

Will you be selling goods or services through your site? If not, there’s no need to sign up for an e-commerce web hosting service. If you are, e-commerce web hosting services such as shopping cart software, SSL support and a merchant account will be vital.

Database, script and extension support

Some hosts will try to blind you with all the features they provide: Frontpage, MS Access, MySQL, MS SQL, Peri support, PHP support, ASP support and SSI support. Do you really need all these features? If not, make sure you are not paying for extras you’ll never use.

Operating systems

Do you want a UNIX hosting plan or a Windows hosting plan? Unix is the most commonly used operating system among Web servers. It is known for its flexibility, reliability and stability. Windows hosting plans give you the ability to utilize many forms of dynamic content and specialized databases. Windows hosting plans are often used for sites utilizing Frontpage, ASP, MS Access databases, MS SQL Servers and other Microsoft applications.

Support

Is customer and technical support available 24/7? Can you easily get through on the customer support hotline? Or are you on hold for hours?

How to Minimize Web Hosting Costs

Posted: Sunday March 4th

The first and arguably the most important step as you seek to minimize costs with a web hosting package is to shop around. Comparison shopping is always a good way to save money, and finding a good service for your web hosting needs is no exception. Online searches are probably your best bet for finding those great deals on web hosting, but don’t give in to the temptation to simply pick a company from a list of hits and sign on the dotted line. Instead, take time to compare the services, prices and reputations of various companies. Finding the service provider that offers the best bottom-line price for web hosting might not be the provider that saves you the most money.

Especially if you aren’t computer savvy, one way to minimize costs with a web hosting package is to find a company that offers free setup. While this is a fairly common part of web hosting for most companies at this point, you should be sure what it’s going to cost you to establish the account. If you find a company that offers a great bottom-line price but has you pay an enormous fee up front to establish the service, it will probably take you a long time to recoup that fee in your monthly savings.

By the same token, finding a company that promises no fee to set up the service but then charges a significantly more expensive monthly fee to maintain the service isn’t really going to save you any money either. If you want to minimize costs with a web hosting package, look for a happy medium between the two – a service provider that establishes the service for free and offers a reasonable monthly rate for maintaining the service.

While set up fees and monthly maintenance fees are pretty straightforward, you should also look for other fees that might be charged by a particular provider. Depending on your needs, you might find yourself paying extra for a service you expected to be provided in the monthly fee. There’s no substitute for carefully considering your options as you search for a company to help minimize costs with a web hosting package. If you need services in addition to web hosting, look for a company that can combine all your Internet service needs – that could save you some additional money.

You should look for a company that offers a web hosting package specifically to meet your needs. You might be paying a significantly higher monthly fee for a plan that simply exceeds the needs of your company. If you don’t need a larger space, don’t buy a larger space. But with an eye to the future, know the company’s stand on upgrading an account later if you should need additional space.

Finally, know the company. While it’s a good thing to search for the most competitive bottom-line price, the best set up deal and a plan that fits your needs, it won’t do you any good if you are constantly out of commission because of down time. Each time you find yourself without the web hosting service, you’re running the risk of losing orders, clients and your own reputation – all potentially devastating to a business. Even if you truly want to minimize costs with a web hosting package, saving a few dollars is probably not worth the reputation of your own business.