Searching for a web host for your website is a lot like looking to buy a new home. In your quest for a web host, you are actually looking for a place where your website will reside for the duration of its life time. In fact, if you compare the two activities, you will see that they have a lot in common. The care you take and the rules you follow when buying a new home can also be a reflection of what you need to do when choosing a web host for your site.
Here are five metaphors to consider when choosing your web host:
Expensive Doesn’t Always Mean “The Best”
One of the first things people notice about a home on the market is its price tag. Some might make the mistake of assuming the homes in the higher price-range are the best ones on the market; but, like any commodity on the market, homes are known to come with exaggerated prices just to reel-in these kinds of buyers. Every web hosting provider has its own prices for its services, and many of them are on the expensive side. Now, unless you are looking to host a site that needs a bunch of bells and whistles, your site can survive with a lot less – so don’t be sucked-in by the big dollar signs.
Square Footage is Always Appreciated
When you buy a home, you’ll probably prefer the luxury of having some breathing space. If you have a family, you will want to share some quality time in a wide yard. The inside space should be large enough to store everything that you could possibly need. And if it isn’t, you should have the luxury of being able to put up a shed or temporary structure on your property so you can store superfluous furniture or maybe some holiday decorations. In web terms, this would be having enough disk space and bandwidth. You should be able to store all your content on one host – pages, images, data and documents. You should have enough bandwidth to cater to any unexpected influx of traffic. If you run out of either, your host should be able to offer you an expansion plan without your site crashing or going offline.
You Need to Examine the Inside
No matter how good a house looks on the outside, you would never pay for it without thoroughly going over the inside: water damage, mold and infestations can easily be covered up. Serious buyers would go as far as hiring a professional to give them a second opinion and provide insurance that the house won’t collapse within a month of sealing the deal. Before making up your mind about a web host, always make sure you take it for a “test drive.” Most respectable hosting providers will have a free testing period or money back guarantee of some sort. Load your site and test every possible scenario for as long as you can, and only agree to get on board if it all runs smoothly.
How Easy Will it be to Modify?
What would you do if you found a house that was almost perfect? If everything else is fine, you might go ahead and buy it with the intention of doing some modifications later. Of course, you will need to do some projected calculations and also consider how easy it will be. When it comes to web hosting, you might want to look into what tools are available for you to make modifications to your website. What if you wanted to build your site up from scratch? Would you be able to do so using the host’s site-building tools? Would the end result look like something a professional built? Would all the features function exactly like they are supposed to? Test the building tools, and make sure you can scale for eventual growth opportunities.
How Secure Will Your New Home Be?
It won’t make too much sense if you buy a home only to find every thief and burglar has a field day with your property, night and day. This is especially true if your house happens to be located in a crime-ridden neighborhood. You will want high walls around your property and alarms on gates, doors and windows. You will also need to have a reliable police force to fall back on when you need protection.
The online world is also filled with thieves and burglars, making it a crime-ridden electronic neighborhood. You only have to tune-in to the news to hear how hackers have managed to steal enormous amounts of data from some of the most respected businesses and financial institutions across the world. You, therefore, need to make absolutely sure that your new hosting provider has the latest security software and technology in place. This doubly applies if you hope to venture into e-commerce and need to store the personal and financial data of your customers.
So, there you have it. The next time you go out shopping for a web host, keep these five points in mind and you should be able to find the perfect one for your website.
