How To Pick a Great Web Hosting Provider

Let's talk about the basics required to know that you have found a great web hosting provider, shall we? There are several key areas that we will look at to determine this:

Back End/Network Operations Centers
It's important to know how the web hosting provider handles your accounts. Sometimes they have their very own operation center and sometimes they lease from a much larger network. If they don't have their own operation center, then your accounts will be subject to the network that they are leasing from. Also, you need to ask these important questions: Do they use fiber optic connections? Do they provide any type of redundancy? What's their security like? Are they managed 24/7, including holidays? You need your accounts to be online and protected at all times.

Customer Service
Customer service is of utmost importance when choosing a web hosting provider. Don't give your business to a company that acts like you bother them whenever you have questions or concerns. Choose a company that will take the time to answer your questions and address your needs in a timely manner and in a friendly fashion. Don't deal with a company that places you on long holds or never responds to your emails. Also, make sure that their reps know what they are talking about. All these things will be of the utmost importance if you site has a problem in the middle of a big sale. A great way that a web hosting company can communicate with their clients is through a network page that lets customers know if there are any network problems or unexpected down time.

Technical Support
Technical support is just as important as great customer service. You need prompt technical support. You should always test their response times by sending them a basic technical support question and see how long it takes them to respond. Also, do they make you pay for the call or do they have a toll free technical support number?

Ticketing Systems
When choosing your web hosting provider, you really need to see if they have a ticketing system in place. This is the best way to know whether or not your web hosting provider is serious about improving their service. A ticketing system tracks their performance times and is an indicator that tells them whether they are improving or doing worse.

Domain Names
A web hosting provider that provides the ability to purchase domain names with their service helps the customer to have all of the services they need in one spot. This makes things easier for you and most web hosting providers will give you a discount on new domains that are hosted with them.

Branding You
Branded support is a great way for a web hosting provider to stand out from the crowd. By offering this service, they are telling you that they are interested in your growth and success. Branded support will allow you to have your very own technician that represents your company. It also allows you to have your very own control panels and name servers. Adding this feature to your services should be really easy to do.

Scalable Discounts
As you grow and give more and more of your business to the web hosting provider, you need to take advantage of any discounts that you can get. See if your web hosting provider will give you discounts and better pricing to help reduce your costs.

Financial Overview
Make sure that your investment in a web hosting company is a secure investment. You want to make sure that the company is financially stable and not a fly by night operation. Make sure they're in it for the long haul. Are they experiencing growth? If so, how are they prepared for it? Are they planning to sell or do they plan to expand their services? These are very important questions that you should ask of them. If they sell off or are facing financially hard times, this could drastically affect your online business.

Copyright © by Rate My Host All Right Reserved.

[ Go Back ]