For your site to be visible to people it needs to be hosted. There are many companies in the market offering different types of hosting plans. Studies have shown that many people don't know the best companies that they should go with. To help you out here are the nitty-gritty things that you should look out for when choosing a hosting company:
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| 4 Things To Focus On When Choosing A Hosting Company |
Server sharing
Unless your website is up and receiving plenty of traffic, it's recommended that you first go with shared hosting. The shared plans are not only affordable, they are also easy to use.
Different companies allow different number of computers to share their servers. Do your research and find the company allowing the least number of computers to share the same server. This is to avoid your site loading too slow.
While shared hosting plans are affordable and great for startups, you should avoid using them if you are starting an eCommerce site. You should also avoid them if you are expecting your site to attract many people within a short time.
The best solution is to go for other alternatives such as virtual and dedicated servers.
Connection
Just like different companies have different hosting plans, they also have different internet connections. Some are fast while others are slow. The fastest companies provide T3 connection. When searching for a hosting company, go with one providing at least T1 connection.
To avoid extremely slow connection avoid companies offering dial-up connection.
Terms of payments
Hosting companies have two ways in which they can charge you for their services: pay per use and monthly rates. If you don't have a lot of traffic on your site you can go with the pay per use, but if you are having plenty of traffic, go with the monthly payment plans. This is to avoid spending a lot of money than you should.
Customer service
The online world is volatile and anything can happen. One day you can wake up and find your site is no longer online. To restore it back and get explanations for the problem you should have a hosting company that is easy to reach. The company should also provide you with the service that you need within the shortest time possible.
Before you get into business with any hosting company, try out the customer service and see how it responds to your concerns. As rule of thumb avoid a company that takes too long to respond to your concern.
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