10 Tips For Selecting A Good Web Hosting Service

The web host is used to host your website and it can determine the overall site experience you offer to your organic visitors. For this you need a web host you can rely upon. You will want a web host that integrates with the CMS like Wordpress, Magento etc that you are familiar with.

Web host that is good and reliable is an SEO-friendly web host.

Understanding your hosting needs

The factors to consider before selecting a hosting service are the amount of traffic your website gets, the bandwidth required and technical needs. Other factors are the customer service provided by the host, the security and the reputation of the host. If you want to optimise your website you can approach website SEO services.

Types of web hosting services

The different types of hosting services are as follows:

Shared hosting: This is a budget-friendly option where many users share the same server system and resources.

Virtual private servers: The users can store their data in dedicated space on shared physical servers.

Dedicated servers: The users are provided with a dedicated server to store their data.

Cloud hosting: The data is stored across a network of servers to increase flexibility.

Managed hosting: The users store data on a dedicated server and the hosting service manages the security and the maintenance.

E-commerce hosting: The businesses are provided with the infrastructure and tools to run an online store.

These are the point to look for while selecting a web hosting company:

1. If you decide to use a cheap web host service then it will affect your speed and your website may load slowly. This will lead to poor user experience and the search engines may penalize you. Loading speed of a website is a ranking factor in Google. A good web host will help to run your website faster.
   
   Performance and speed
   
   You need to decide on the arrangement for your website. Whether you need servers physically close to you or a good host which may be located far away. Do you want to use a CDN to improve your speed?
   
   When you use Cloud hosting then your data will be distributed across a network. This may place your website physically close to many users. This will help to speed up your website. Check if the host provided CDN support.
   
   
2.  Sometimes the website can go down because of the problems caused by the web host. Your website may not load at all and may become unavailable to the users. This will lead to a worse user experience and your potential customers will drop you. Google will flag your website as unreliable and your rankings will drop. While selecting a web host go for the one that guarantees 99.9% or 100% of uptime. This will translate to around 1.44 minutes of downtime a day and 8.8 hours per year.
   
   Reliability and uptime
   
   If your website is down for a long time or frequently crashes then it will affect your SEO negatively. The uptime is important as your website should be available and functional. You should choose a hosting provider you can depend on and offer an uptime guarantee. 
   
   You should check if the host provides automated backups daily.
   
   
3. While visiting your website if there are errors like ‘Internal Server Error’ or ‘Database Connection Failed’ then your website is having problems in accessing the required files. These errors are encountered when too many people are accessing the website because a video or article went viral. A good web host should have the safeguards to make sure that the server does not get overloaded. It can make use of alternative servers or offload the popular pages so the number of connections to the database are reduced. Selecting a Virtual Private Server (VPN) or a dedicated server is another way to increase the reliability.
   
   
4. In shared hosting your website is on the same server as hundreds of other websites. If any of the websites is run by spammers or scammers then the IP address may get flagged as malicious and your rankings will drop. A good web host will immediately kick the spammers off and prevent this from happening.
   
   
5. Server location is important if you want to offer a good browsing experience. You should select a server located close to your target audience as it leads to faster redirection. Servers themselves should be fast and they should also have a Content Delivery Network to boost the performance further.
   
   
6. Top Level Domains (TLD) are the domains that come after the dot like .com, .net, .org and more. TLDs also affect the search engine rankings. TLD should be easy to remember and share with other people. Using a TLD that is hard to remember can cause loss of traffic. If you are targeting other countries then using a geographical suffix is a good alternative to rank in local results. Select a local host if you want to target the local audience.
   
   
7. If you own a website where business transactions take place then your website should be highly secured. Your web host should offer firewalls and other security measures. Your website host provider should have proper backups of your website so that you can recover easily in case of a security breach. Check how frequently they save backups. Most good hosting servers have daily backups.
   
   
8. Check the different value add-ons provided along with web hosting. Check if the web host provides automatic backups so that you can recover easily if something goes wrong. Check if it provides HTTPS and supports SSL. Check if it provides different hosting plans so that as your traffic grows you can shift to your own dedicated server. This will be faster and easier than changing the hosting provider.
   
   Security measures
   
   You need to find out how safe your data will be with the hosting provider. You should make sure that the transmission of data to and from your website is secure. You can take total control over the security of your website or use a managed host who offers complete coverage. Check for protection from DDoS attacks. 
   
   Additional features and extras
   
   Some of the hosting plans offer a website builder which helps to get your website running. Some offer website-building tools to help you code your website. You can check out the premium plans if you need more features.
9. Before deciding on a host, read their online reviews to get valuable information. Check the hosts that appear on the Top Web Host lists and read their reviews. Verify that the hosting plan chosen by you will give you what you need. Get some suggestions from your web developers.
   
   Reputation and customer review
   
   Before you decide on a hosting provider you should check the host’s reputation in the industry. You can check reviews and ratings on the review sites. You can also check social media to get an idea about the platform.
   
   
10. A good host will provide 24x7 services for free. You should verify the operating hours of its support team and how to contact them. Good web hosts provide customer support widely through social media like dedicated support Twitter accounts.
    
    Customer support and technical assistance
    
    Your web host should provide 24/7/365 support via live chat and a ticketing system and support with troubleshooting. Read the customer reviews to know if the service is right for your needs. You can compare the various packages and services. 
    
    Scalability and flexibility
    
    Check if the hosting provider offers tier plans that include a certain amount of bandwidth. If you exceed the amount of bandwidth then you can pay extra. 
11. If you want to move from one host to another host then check if the host provides for site migration.
    
    Pricing and value for money
    
    The price of web hosting will depend on the features and the package you choose. The services are usually charged as monthly subscriptions. You should look out for the special features and functionalities offered by the provider while purchasing a plan. Check if there is an option to add more features to your package in the future. 
    
    Migration and website transfer assistance
    
    Some providers offer free website migration tools and you check if your provider assists with site migration.
    

Conclusion

Understanding your website’s needs will help you decide which hosting service to use. You should make your decision based on your needs.