What to Look for in a Good Web Hosting Company

Ok, you have your website ready to go and you have already purchased your award winning domain name for your website. Now we need to find some place to host it. Web-hosting is the activity or business of providing storage space and access for websites. This isn't done by simply registering a name for your website. You actually have to upload the website files to a remote location, and point the domain to that location, in order for your website to go live. But it is best to do a little research before purchasing a web hosting company. Here are a few things that I advise looking out for:

Does the hosting company really provide what they say they do? If you buy a certain package, will it actually do what they advertise. A lot of hosting companies say one thing and don't follow up. I would make sure that you have a 30 to 60 day money back guarantee for any hosting company. Even if the hosting company offers cheaper prices for paying for a longer term, I would never ever pay more than 6 months out. It is actually best to start out month to month and then spread it out longer if you need to.

24/7/365 Support - We are in the year 2015 and beyond and anything short of full round the clock support should be unacceptable. Computers have gotten to point where they should very rarely go down and if they do their better be a darn good reason and get back up quickly. That is the era we are in. This isn't 1998 anymore where the tech with the screwdriver sits for hours upon end trying to figure out what component doesn't work anymore. We are in a new day and era. No such thing as 9 to 5 hosting, not with today's technology.

Control Panel Ease - The back end control panel that allows you to manage your website and provide statistics should be easy to use. I find that if a web hosting company provides a back end panel called "cPanel" then it is very user friendly. This is important when it comes time to make updates to your website.

Excellent Uptime - If for some reason you have been working really good but all of a sudden you start having long outages that should be a red flag. Obviously you should be notified in advance when server's get updated. Also, things happen, computers go down, that is part of the industry. As long as they have a way to get it back up in a fairly respectable amount of time, it is ok. However, if they start having chronic downtimes then the issue may no longer be a server issue but a management issue. When this happens this is a hugh red flag.

Policy Consistency - Once you notice a change in policy that should be a real big loud red flag. Trust me, this now happened to me twice now. A web hosting company is the greatest thing since sliced bread, then it goes south like sliding down like the summit plummet, only to find out it has been sold; new owners come in and wreck the great system and/or the excellent top notch support and sales staff that were already put in place by the original owner. And for what ... the name of consolidation? What do you think made the hosting company top dog in the first place? What was the reason why the Big Bad Wolf wanted to buy you in the first place. Now you want and go and change that and ruin all your customer's websites along with your company?

So when a CEO tells a customer that he will never sell, don't ever believe him! EVER!! Once that Big Bad Wolf comes knocking at your door with a pile of cash, are you going to say no? Of course not! Neither would I. That's not being mean, its capitalism! Isn't that the golden rule, those who have the gold ... rule? However, you the loyal customer, it doesn't help you one bit because what makes a great hosting company is the same as what makes any great company, who runs it and their proprietary method of operation. If you go and change that, mix the jug of marbles together, then you are not getting the same brand, just the some company mask. Once that is gone, then anything is up for grabs.

In conclusion, do a lot of research on different web hosting packages before going to a web hosting company. Here is a link Ten Hosting Reviews and PC Mag Web Hosting Reviews to see which companies are good and which are not. Once you find a solid web hosting company that you can work with, you will then need to figure out the different types of web hosting options available!