How to choose a professional web host

If you're just building your first website, opt for shared hosting. There are two main types of hosting on offer: shared, which is cheap, but has fewer options, and dedicated, in which you get the works and lots of customizability, but you pay for the privilege. Good shared hosting plans can be had for just a few dollars a month.

Be sure to check the amount of space you will be given from your host. Some web hosts only offer 1GB of free space, while others offer much more. Especially for free sites, the more space you use, the more limited your account will become until you start paying for it.

If you have been used to the same web host for several months, look at the availability of your website. An availability of 99% or more means your website is accessible all the time. If you notice a lower availability rate, look for a web host that does not encounter as many outages.

Choose a hosting service that allows you to instantly and easily view your web statistics. You will want to know things such as how many people are visiting your website and what pages they are viewing. You can even find out how long they stayed on your site, and what search words they used to find you. These can be important in the long run, so use a server who has these tools.

When you are choosing a web hosting company, it is important that you rely on more than just one or two pieces of advice on a recommendation. Many recommendations are from people who haven't even experienced the web hosting company that they are recommending. Choose wisely, do your research, and know many things about the company that you choose.

You should look for a web host that offers a good FTP application. An FTP software allows you to upload new content to your site quickly and safely. If you have to go to your host's site and log in to upload new content, you are losing a lot of time.

A good web host should offer good support. If your site goes down unexpectedly then every minute lost could be causing huge damage to your traffic, your fans and your income. It’s imperative that your web host can assess the issue quickly and more importantly, fix it. Check out the manner of support that your host offers - is it an email ticketing system? An in-hour telephone support. A simple FAQ or is it a live-chat service? There’s so many ways of doing it and to my mind I’ve only found one web hosting service that does it correctly and that’s InMotion Hosting. I’ve been with these guys for a year now and their customer support system is what keeps me a loyal patron. Not only is it a live chat service but it’s also 24/7 - absolutely crucial when you’re desperately tearing your hair out. In fact the effectiveness of InMotion’s customer support was what prompted me to produce my InMotion Hosting review video blog. I’d never been so pleasantly surprised by the support of a digital entity as I had with InMotion.

The web design on a web hosting provider's website is a quick and easy indication of the quality of the provider. If the website is poorly designed, it can indicate a company that isn't planning on being around for the long haul, or doesn't have enough clients to justify having a professional-looking website. Simply move on to a different provider if their website is not up to professional standards.