The most frequently encountered trip wires in the web hosting industry are the hidden charges. It’s easy to find a good price online that initially looks like great value but when you calculate the lifetime cost to actually accomplish what you want to achieve the cost can escalate rapidly.
For instance, you might find free web hosting but that hosting comes with such a meagre bandwidth that after a week or two you need to upgrade your package to avoid having your web site suspended.
Other things to watch out for are extra charges for FrontPage Extensions (these allow functions like search and forms to operate using Microsoft FrontPage) and extra charges for superfluous anti-virus and anti-spam software.
Now this isn’t to say that cheap is always bad. The best price, for the best quality, is the best deal. The important point is to ensure that you are getting the best quality, for the cheapest price possible.
You should always choose a web hosting firm that offers telephone contact. Be aware that sometimes even big companies don’t do this or add a surcharge for doing so. This is all well and good until you have a problem, say your site is down because of a power outage at the datacentre, and you can’t get in touch with anyone. There is nothing more frustrating than sitting in front of a PC sending email after email to your host and not getting any responses.
I would even recommend testing the telephone service first – leave a message on answer phone and see how long it takes to get a response or just ring up with a query. The bottom line is that all hosts will have problems; you just need to choose the one that will solve those problems in the most professional manner. As with choosing any partner business, you should go for reputation, history and proven good service.
As an adjunct, you should consider the URL or domain name that you want to use very early on. Go for a domain that you can buy as a .com or .co.uk, if possible buy both options – they will only cost you a few pounds every year. Of course, if you happen to be in a niche industry that has a domain extension associated with it (such as .TV for a media company or .MOBI for a mobile business) its well worth buying that as well.
From a search engine perspective, I would avoid web sites named after famous records, books, personalities or events. As a result, it probably means that you might need to consider this when choosing your brand name itself. If you don’t you will find that six months down the line you are still struggling to get your company’s URL above the Amazon listings and web sites associated with the original.
Ultimately, the value available when you buy an affordable web hosting package, domain name or complete web site is incredible now, compared to even a few years ago. For twenty pounds a year, you can buy a web hosting account that once would have cost two hundred. In all likelihood, it will come with a free domain name, free support and countless add-ons such as free design software, free scripts, free Google AdWords vouchers and free e-books. This represents great value for the price of a round of drinks.
So, the crux of the matter is, while a little knowledge will go a long way, make sure you pre select 3 or 4 potential web hosting companies, do your research and test, test and test some more.
Originally I bought my hosting locally and found it very reasonable, that was until I needed to add a mysql database amonst other things, the cost of this was severe and in my honest opinion they could’ve given away the domain names for free for what they charged on the extras, what I like about Compila is the “Batteries ARE included” setup where I know exactly what I am getting for my money and with no hidden charges
Hi Paul
Thank you for your comment. It is great to hear that you are happy with the way Compila provides it’s services. Providing customers with exactly what they want is one of our main aims.
Regards
Harvey