As a business owner or individual, you may have decided to have your own web page. You may have decided on the contents of the web page and all the security features required for users navigating the web page or ordering products online.
The next step you need to take is to decide who is going to host your website.
To choose a web hosting company, compare the services provided by various companies. Before you make a decision on which company is to host your website, you need to keep the following factors in mind:
1. Resources - Make sure the web hosting service has sufficient equipment and capacity to provide stable and reliable service.
2. Allowed Content - It may also be necessary to find out what is the policy adopted by the web hosting service for illegal content on customer web pages. Servers hosting illegal content are frequently blocked. You may not want your business to suffer if the server hosting your web page was taken down due to objectionable content hosted.
3. Price - The bottom line should always be in view as far as price is concerned. There are free webhosting services available, but there are stringent restrictions on resources and customization on such servers. Therefore, unless you are on a shoestring budget, it is better to avoid free webhosting services. Consider a commercial service that quotes reasonable rates coupled with realistic Quality of Service (QoS) guarantees.
4. QoS Guarantees and Money-back - It is common to see webhosting services claiming to provide uptime close to 100%. While no server is infallible, a QoS claim backed up by an offer of refunding charges paid or free service in lieu of equipment downtime is an indication that the service provider is committed to providing good service to customers.
5. Maintenance and Backup Policy - Before you sign up with a provider, find out the frequency of equipment maintenance and backing up of data on the servers. This is a good indication of the reliability of the service and safety your data in case of server failure.
6. Technical Support & Customer Feedback - Most companies claim to offer technical support 24X7, and the veracity of these claims can always be verified by talking to other customers utilizing the service.
7. Domain Name Ownership - Find out if the webhosting company will register the domain name with you as the owner as resolving disputes over domain name ownership can become quite expensive.
