Web Host Troubles: What You Should Know About Web Hosting
With the advent of digital technology, more and more businesses are starting to establish their online presence on the internet each day.
However, in the process of launching a website, one should pick the right web hosting service to avoid problems.
These days, a lot of companies out there offer seemingly excellent hosting plans, such as 99 percent up times and other relevant features. But without enough information about web hosting, it can be quite challenging to pick the right service provider that can cater to your needs.
To help choose a web hosting service that’s right for you, you need to focus on your common web hosting troubles and how you can keep away from them.
Recurring downtimes
This is one common problem that will surely undermine your site. Not to mention, it can cause you a lot of stress in the long run. These regular outages will negatively impact your site traffic, and even cost you to lose your audience.
But admittedly, even the best hosting providers out there do have downtimes. The problem begins if these downtimes are constant and worse than that. Your web host can’t give you a clear explanation of why it’s happening.
So before signing up with a web hosting provider, double-check their claim first. Even a host that claims they have 99 percent uptime isn’t always the case. Read online reviews of their previous clients, and also check their websites.
As much as possible, read independent review sites versus those PR write-ups that you see online. Chances are, some of those are just masquerading themselves as reviews.
Hidden charges
In one way or another, you might be enticed to sign up for a web hosting package for dirt-cheap rates. The next thing you know, you’re already paying more than it’s advertised prices, and specific extras and add-ons pile up in your bill without you knowing.
What you can do is to read carefully what the promo is all about. Check the exact duration that you’ll be enjoying the promo before the offer goes back to its original rate.
A lot of web hosts out there give lower rates if you sign up with them for an extended period. Meaning, you have to pay a little bit higher if you’re only signing up with them for about three to six months.
Ideally, web hosts should be transparent with users and should tell them of these costs upfront.
The moment it becomes a bit shady with its billing system and rates, then it’s better to look for another web hosting provide elsewhere. To know which web host works well for you, make sure to read and see hosting reviews online.
Low level of security
There are some web hosting companies who won’t be able to protect you from receiving malicious attacks, getting hacked, and to identify any theft going on.
For some, it will just give its users a false sense of security just to get hosting orders. Thus, a web hosting company needs to assure its customers that it’s safe and secure to run business transactions on their sites.
Before you pick a web hosting company, see first whether or not it’s giving you the required security that you need or not. Only if you’re satisfied with its security terms should you work with them.
For instance, if you have a growing business, you should seriously consider getting a dedicated or VPS hosting. For shared hosting, there are various levels of security.
Search for a web host that has a secure data center and enables two-factor authentication. That way, it’s more difficult for unauthorized parties to access your site.
Slow website loading speed
You depend on your web host to keep your site up online. Ideally, you want to have a fast and reliable server, so that visitors and customers can access your pages quickly.
Keep in mind that people these days have extremely short patience when it comes to slow-loading sites. Even a delay for just a few seconds can make you lose precious leads.
Keep in mind that several factors significantly affect your site speed. If you have images that aren’t optimized and have so many videos on your site, this can also cause slow site speed. If you’re on WordPress, then using too many plug-ins can be the culprit as well.
Lack of scalability
An excellent web host makes it convenient to scale your business. Remember that your business might continue to grow and evolve, and so does your needs.
For instance, you might need to upgrade from shared hosting to a VPS or a dedicated hosting server, so does you host to let you have an unlimited data transfer?
Make sure that you work with a host that will grow along with you, and is flexible enough to meet your needs.
Unreliable support
If you run into technical issues and problems along the way, see to it that you have a reliable support team to get in touch with. Always getting a busy tone when you call, or getting an email days later can be frustrating.
If you want to know if a web hosting company does offer their support services 24/7 (as advertised) try calling during late at night or on weekends.
See to it that you’re asking about the package you’re eyeing and other related queries and if they can properly address those questions.
Over to You
Those are the primary things that you need to consider when picking a web hosting provider to work with. You must work with one that carefully considers all your needs.