By Jeffrey Fang
With overabundance of hosting companies offering services, choosing a good web host seems an intimidating task. The technical terminology is hard to interpret and that makes it difficult further. It is better to prepare beforehand and then search for offers rather than acting otherwise. With free hosting out of question for business and dedicated hosting being too expensive, shared hosting is the only and good option for home business. As the name suggests, in shared hosting your site is stored with many others unlike dedicated hosting which stores only your site.
Now let us talk about other features:
Disc or Server space
This is the space on hard disk of your server that will be allotted to your site. Without graphics a typical web page occupies 40 - 50 Kb. Allowing space for graphics too and need for any future expansion anything between 50 -100 MB should be good enough if you are not running a flashy website. Many companies offer space up to 1 GB (1000 MB) but if you do not require, do not fall for the offer.
Bandwidth
A very important aspect and often overlooked. This is the amount of actual data that can be transferred from the web server that holds your website. It is directly linked to the number of visitors to your site. If you have 10000 visitors per month with few downloads you will require anything between 5 -6 GB per month. More downloads means higher requirement. As your business grows you will need more. For starting 10 GB should be good enough. That leaves you with extra margin.
E- Mail
This lets you formulate an e-mail address on your site address e.g. anything@ your sitename.com where anything can be support, live support, help, info, subscribe etc. Anything! This makes your business look professional. Look for you needs but anything around 10 is good enough. Many companies offer unlimited aliases too.
Customer Support
This matters a great deal to your business. You will need this help whenever you run in trouble. If your host is not supportive or is not prompt enough then it could mean loss in your business. See that you are provided a good and meaningful support. Send them a question or two. Study the response. Find out if they are available on phone in case you are in emergent situation.
Make sure that this service is free and they will not charge anything in name of customer support.
Finally, you will have to find what matches your business needs. Search before you settle for a deal. Narrow down your choice to a few prospective hosts. Look for their reputation. Ask them examples of sites hosted.
Check with their existing clients and find how satisfied they are. You can start small and upgrade later provided your host gives you this option. Select the one who allows you to expand if the need arises.
About The Author
The author’’s web site Web Hosting Philippines provides information about web hosting business and web hosting reviews.
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