Note: This is part of an ongoing series of articles that chronicles the steps taken to create WebBusinessFreedom.com.
For anyone launching a website, a critical action item on your to-do list will be finding a good web host. With all the thousands of options available, how do you make the best decision?
To me, the primary criteria are reliability, customer support and a focus on web hosting.
First, you want a company that truly lives up to their claims for 99.9% uptime or whatever their number is. Of course, you can’t really verify this for yourself until you’re a customer. But you can certainly do research ahead of time to see which companies rate well. Start by asking friends or business associates with websites who they use and what their experience has been. I chose my current host, Fused Network, on the basis of a web designer I trust.
Another very good information resource is Host Jury. If you’re considering a hosting provider that isn’t listed there, then get half a dozen customer references and call them up to find out how satisfied they are.
Keep in mind that no one can (or should) guarantee you 100% uptime. Even with the best host, your site will go down occasionally—especially if you are on a shared server. So the questions you need to get answered are:
- How fast will you be notified about any hiccups or outages?
- How fast will you get a response to a call or email?
- How fast will the provider actually resolve the problem, on average?
These questions point to the second major deciding factor—customer service. In my experience, the best hosts will:
- Let you know your site is down before you discover it (or one of your customers or prospects does)
- Answer your phone call in less than five minutes, with a live human being who will address your issue
- Personally reply back to an email or posting to their tech support form, within 5-10 minutes (note: automated email responses don’t count!)
- Send you a detailed explanation for any planned or unplanned outages, telling you the reason in easy-to-understand terms
I can’t stress the customer service aspect enough. I’ve been with web hosts who took forever to respond (if they ever did), which is unbelievably frustrating if your website is down.
The third consideration is the provider’s vested interest in hosting. Really outstanding web hosting companies specialize in web hosting…and that’s it.
So those are my main criteria. Notice I didn’t emphasize price, because most hosts are by necessity price competitive. Just watch out for super-cheap pricing, which is a red flag in terms of the support you can expect to get. On the other hand, if you have massive file storage needs or anticipate heavy traffic, you might need to consider a dedicated server, which will cost significantly more.
After narrowing down a list of potential hosting providers, it’s a good idea to contact their sales team to make sure you select the right package. That is also the ideal time to ensure they have the features you will need to easily access your files and maintain your account. When in doubt, invite your favorite web developer to ask the questions for you.
By taking the time to chose a web host carefully, you will be able to launch and run your website with confidence. Doing so will hopefully spare you the time, expense and irritation of having to switch providers later.
Photo credit: Tim Dorr
November 20th, 2008 at 1:11 am
Brandon,
Excellent post — not solely because we're mentioned in it but because it brings up a number of exceptional points as well. In regards to one of the points listed, specialization, I can't tell you how often we get calls from people who are hosted with a friend or a web design firm that specializes in something else but offers hosting on the side. With web hosting — there's already far too many corners to monitor, cover and keep a close eye on — anyone with even a drop of the bucket in clients knows that they're going to start devoting tonnes of time to their web hosting clients.
That's where the problem tends to arise with those offering it on the side. Suddenly it detracts away from their core business model and their design firm starts to flounder. It's surprisingly frequent. There's a quote (I can never remember who it's by) that states 'do one thing and do it well' and it is especially relevant to web hosting or any industry for that matter. Don't diversify too much — the same reason why we don't offer design / code services. :)
We stick to web hosting. It might not be the most enjoyable industry but it's exciting, diverse and working with clients is a tonne of fun.
Keep up the good work yourself!
November 20th, 2008 at 1:30 am
David, thanks for your comments! Fused Network does an incredible job of responding very quickly and courteously whenever I have any issues. That says a lot these days.
February 15th, 2009 at 5:55 am
Hosted Exchange, PART I – another hosting issue that a lot of businesses face is "how do we handle email, messaging, calendering, etc.?" A lot of small businesses use a traditional POP email services, which is really a consumer-oriented email technology and not up to the task of meeting the needs of most businesses. Web-based services like gmail and hotmail are an alternative, but they are not quite up to the same level of capability of something like Microsoft Exchange. Small businesses often bristle at the cost and support problems that goes with settng up an in-house Exchange server.
February 15th, 2009 at 5:56 am
Hosted Exchange, PART II – An alternative that seems to be getting a lot of traction is internet-based "hosted exchange." Hosted exchange is what some people might call software as a service (SaaS) or "cloud computing." I was very skeptical about having a mission critical system like my primary messaging system set up by an internet-based service provider. But I've had experience with three service providers and have been happily surprised to discover that the service is excellent, stable, fast and inexpensive.
Being able to use a full-blown exchange server can make a big difference to a business. Even better, every hosted exchange provider I've heard of also offers Blackberry Enterprise Server capability for a modest additional fee. For a small business (or any business for that matter) to have the power and capability of Exchange and Blackberry Enterprise Server…that's a big benefit and not nearly as expensive or difficult as purchasing and maintaining these systems "in house."
March 15th, 2009 at 4:08 am
Hi nice post, i have come across your site once before when searching for something so i was just wondering something. I love your theme, would it happen to be a free one i can download, or is it a custom one you had made? In a few weeks i will be launching my own site, i’m not great with designs but i really like the style of your site so it would be cool if i could find (or pay for) something with a similar look. :) Thanks!
March 16th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
Charles, this site design is based on one of the excellent premium WordPress themes from WooThemes. If you click on the advertising in the upper right column, you can check out all their offerings. Of course, if you do click through and purchase a theme, I will get a small commission, for which I will be most grateful! Good luck with your new site.
May 4th, 2009 at 10:11 pm
I found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts. I just added you to my Google News Reader. Keep up the good work. Look forward to reading more from you in the future.
May 15th, 2009 at 7:41 am
Great site! I am loving it!! Will come back again – taking your feeds also, Thanks.
May 30th, 2009 at 10:10 pm
Whoa… this site is pretty awesome :) your layout is really well designed, and your blogs are (judging from what i’ve read) very interesting. heehee… consider yourself favorited. :-P
July 10th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
Thank you for your help!