Here are some suggestions on what to look for in a web host, plus a recommendation on a company that satisfies all of these needs.
Choose Your Web Host Wisely
Who you choose to host your website could have a profound effect upon whether your business efforts online succeed or fail. Consider the benefits your web host delivers:
- Gives search engines and information-hungry people a place to find you
- Delivers your content to your world-wide audience
- Represents you around the clock, day after day
- Connects you to your market, and them to you
In this day and age, your website going down is a huge problem! It’s at least as bad as a phone or power outage, and perhaps worse in some cases, because you are alienating people who might otherwise want your product or service.
We call them “Customers.”
Your Silent Partner
Consider your web host as a silent partner in business. You depend upon continued, reliable service, because downtime costs you customers and revenue.
So while web hosting is not as sexy or trendy as Facebook or Twitter, you must pause and carefully choose who you partner with.
Here are some examples of how I learned this lesson.
- A company serving small businesses caused a bottleneck when I needed to administer my websites, because they provided weak, incomplete administration tools.
- A domain-name registrar slash hosting company that was more concerned with selling domain names than answering my frantic emails.
- The company that hosted the websites for the US Army and other major clients was great until they “upgraded” their back end. When each one of my websites started flaking out, they must have been focused on getting the military’s site back up and running, because I couldn’t get them to reply for over two weeks!
The Holy Grail of Web Hosting
I was starting to think that the entire web hosting industry just sucked, and that I shouldn’t expect any better service. I was completely fed up, so I came up with some criteria for an ideal web hosting partner.
- They have to provide straightforward tools to manage your websites
- Must be at least as reliable as the power company
- Gotta be available when things go wrong or when you need guidance
- Actually help you solve your problems and deliver on promises they make
I had faith that I would find such a company, and with some diligent research, I finally did find what I like to call the “Holy Grail of Web Hosting.”
Here’s is why I love them:
- Since I’ve been using them, not one of my websites have experienced any downtime
- I never have to wait on hold for their Live Chat feature (compared to interminable hold times on the phone AND chat with previous two companies)
- They provide user-friendly site set-up and management through cPanel web-based software
- 1-click install and upgrade of WordPress, the free publishing software beloved by bloggers and small business owners everywhere
- When I dug a big hole for myself migrating a website to one of their servers, they went way beyond the expected level of service and rescued me! They took my problem out of my hands solved it, then sent me on my way. At no additional cost.
When you combine such a track record of uptime, amazing customer service, easy-to-use tools, and real help available via chat, you have a real gem of a partner!
If you want a web hosting partner that will just keep rendering fantastic, invisible service for years to come, do yourself a favor, and migrate on over to Bluehost.
