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Web Hosting

by Web Dandy on October 1, 2014

Not All Hosting Is Equal

Every website needs web hosting. But not all hosting is equal.

When next considering which hosting company to use it's worth remembering:

  • Most hosting companies claim 99.9% uptime, but very few provide any statistical data / live data which shows this, therefore the onus is on the customer to *monitor hosting uptime.
  • A great many hosting companies have an uptime guarantee on their sites however they do not have any process in place by which you "automatically" receive compensation, nor so they inform their customers when they do not achieve this uptime. Again customers are expected to monitor and request compensation when the stated uptime is not achieved.
  • Hosting companies provide support in various ways. Most companies provide a support ticket system, some provide contact forms and others a direct telephone number. In some cases they provide all three. Think about which type of support best meets your needs.
  • Your hosting can go down day or night. During what hours do they provide support?
  • How helpful are the support staff? Clearly a hosting company can't support all eventualities but just how flexible, knowledgeable and helpful are they?

Uptime Monitoring

*There are a number of free and paid for services available which will help you monitor your hosting e.g. Pingdom or SiteUptime. Reports include information on the uptime, downtime and performance of your website and can issue network and server and alerts when there are problems.

It's Also Worth Checking/Considering

  1. Your SEO can be affected by the location of your web hosting company/the server you are hosted on. You can use Google webmaster tools to set the geographic location of company/business if you host outside the country you are targeting. Having said this, we would recommend that if you are targeting the UK market, host in the UK.
  2. The versions of software the host uses on their servers are up to date otherwise you may find your hosting is not secure and you may also have issues installing scripts which rely on your hosting having the most up to date versions.
  3. How much disk space and bandwidth comes with your account?
  4. Do email accounts come with the hosting or are these extra? Can you access email via your web browser?
  5. While price is always a factor, you should realise that you often get what you pay for (and that includes support). Cheap hosting may often result in downtime and other problems.

See also: Choosing a Web Hosting Provider.

Current host not performing as expected? Looking to move your website or email to new hosting? Contact us to discuss you web hosting requirements.