Don’t Pick a Stinky Host
Don’t Pick a Stinky Host
With the dizzying number of options for a web host for your site, how do you know which one to pick? The answer is to follow your nose — and avoid making the common mistakes explained in this article. If you do pick a stinky web host, never fear: you will also find some tips to help you keep the damage to a minimum.Choosing a web host is a big decision for any business or organization. Even someone who is working on their website only as a hobby would like to avoid the kinds of problems we have all heard about: poor customer support, too much downtime, and so on. Short of hosting the site yourself, which has its own issues, how can we make sure that we (and our customers, who shouldn’t even notice) will be satisfied with our web host?
There are plenty of articles that explain what to look for, and what to do, when choosing a web host. In fact, there is an excellent one on our Web Hosters site right here: http://webhosting.devshed.com/c/a/Web-Hosting-Articles/Choosing-a-
Web-Host-Get-What-You-Need/. So you may already know about what to do. I’m going to tell you about what mistakes to avoid, so you won’t feel as if you have to hold your nose while choosing a web host. Some of my suggestions may even help you if you discover after the fact that your web host is a little, um, overripe.
The first thing you want to do is make sure that smell doesn’t have its start in your backyard. A web host can’t be expected to read minds. Know what your website needs as far as resources, and be prepared to keep your web host informed when those needs change. You might find that certain scripts you want to use on your site are not compatible with your host’s servers, for instance. This will also help you when you want to upgrade or move your account.
Once you know your own needs, you are ready to start doing research. While a hobbyist might not consider web hosting to be a major purchase (and many get by with free or budget web hosting), a business that expects to rely on its website should treat their choice of web host with the same seriousness that they would treat choosing any major purchase or supplier. While it is not irrevocable, it can sometimes be difficult to switch web hosts. You can turn to the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) for help if a web host truly engages in foot-dragging about a switch, but ideally anyone would want to avoid the need for this.
Don’t Pick a Stinky Host – Sniffing out Clues
Start your research with the web hosting company’s own website. Does it contain all the information you need? Is it well organized? Does it look as if someone put some real care and thought into putting the site together, or does it look like tons of other sites you’ve seen? Do all of the pages on the company’s website work? If the web hosting company’s own website makes you wrinkle your nose, how do you think it will handle yours?
If you are dealing with a reseller, you need to really put your nose to the research grindstone. There is nothing wrong with reseller web hosts, but you need to know how they work. A reseller does not own its own servers; it resells hosting space from another company. In that case, you should do a little research on that other company. You should also be prepared to ask some gently pointed questions of the reseller. You want to make sure the reseller will offer good support and is knowledgeable about the kinds of things likely to affect your website. This will vary with your needs, i.e. if you are using scripts on your pages. And while the reseller does not own its own servers, it should know them as well as if it did.
Be nosy about testimonials. Talk to other webmasters about the host. Ask the web host for a list of customers you can contact about their service. If they refuse to give you such a list, take that as a warning you may not want to deal with them.
This might be a good time to take your nose for bargains out of the equation. We’re all attracted by the lowest price, but remember, just because it’s cheap – or even free – doesn’t mean it’s going to suit your purposes. Yes, there are good deals out there, but there are also nightmares just waiting to happen. You need to consider a web host’s reliability, features, and customer support as well as the price.
Following up on that point, you might want to think twice before purchasing web hosting space in an auction. Often, there are so many terms and conditions attached to web hosting purchased in an auction that you will find you can’t do much with it, beyond small static HTML pages. This isn’t to say that this is always true, but it pays to read all the details before placing a bid. You might be better off paying more for an account directly from the company itself, which will probably carry fewer restrictions. At the very least, you’ll be less likely to get your nose bent out of shape over not being able to do what you’d planned for your site.
Don’t Pick a Stinky Host – Smelling a Rat
Be prepared to smell a rat if a deal sounds too good to be true. It probably is. There are several variations on this, ranging in irritation from soured milk all the way up to a landfill on fire. Fortunately, most of these are also easy to avoid.
If you’re a business, or trying to look polished, turn your nose up at free web space. Why do you suppose it’s free? The company offering it makes money off the ads it places prominently on your page. Doesn’t that defeat the whole purpose of having your own site? This may or may not matter much to a hobbyist, but if you are making money through your website, you should not, in effect, be giving it away to someone else at the same time. Likewise, very low cost hosting deals may ask for something in return that will eat into your profits.
If you have big plans for your website, don’t lock yourself into a limited hosting package. They may cost less, but again, there’s a reason for that: you get less, probably less than you really need. Every online business should be able to add order forms, statistics, and multiple email accounts to its website. Can the web host do dedicated hosting? Are its servers secure? Can you get as much web space as you need? What about autoresponders? These are just a few of the things you need to think about for your business website.
Another issue with free or low cost web hosting has to do with the way such companies make their money. They often crowd too many websites onto their servers. This means that your customers might not be able to reach your site because of the traffic on the server. When that happens, it is as if your business is closed.
Easier isn’t always better. Take the example of a web hosting company that offers PayPal as a way of paying for your web hosting account. This can be a good thing; after all, PayPal has 78 million member accounts in 56 countries worldwide. But if that’s the only payment method it accepts, then it stinks. A reputable web hosting company will use a secure server with its own billing software, and keep a record of your payment in its own database.
What about those web hosting firms offering a low price for “lifetime” hosting? Wouldn’t it be nice to never have to pay for web hosting again? Sure, but, at best, “lifetime” really means lifetime of the web hosting company. With that kind of revenue model, it won’t be very long. Web hosting companies need a constant stream of money coming in to stay in business, and that’s not going to happen if everyone who signs up makes just one lump payment.
Don’t Pick a Stinky Host – Avoiding the Stench
There are certain things you can do to help you come out of any problems with your web host smelling, if not exactly like a rose, at least not like raw sewage. Others have made these mistakes before. You don’t need to repeat them.
First, and this might seem strange, but make a written record of your web host’s contact information, including the physical street address and phone number. Sure, online contact is great, but what if your web host goes down? Then its website is down…and you’re up a very aromatic creek. Web hosts should provide telephone-based customer support 24/7.
Second, make your own backups. If your site goes down indefinitely, and you want to switch web hosts, it’s better to have that content quickly to hand. There have been far too many cases of web hosts not making backups as required by their contracts. Think about how much time and trouble it would take to rebuild your site from scratch, and compare it to the relatively minor effort of backing up your site yourself. The peace of mind is worth it.
Third, just as you shouldn’t necessarily trust your web host to make back-ups, you also shouldn’t trust them to use the most up-to-date software. With security being a huge concern on the Internet, this is no small matter. Make sure you ask your web host what software they are running and how frequently they update it.
Fourth, don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Yes, it can be less expensive to put several sites into one account; a lot of web hosts give you a better deal that way, and it simplifies the billing process. But what happens if all of your sites are on one server at the web host, and that server goes down? They all go down, and you lose precious work time, to say nothing of customers, money, and reputation. If you want to avoid this scenario, but still want the financial and other benefits of using just one web host, ask your host to split your account across two or more physical servers.
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