Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Top Tips for Finding Better Cheap Web Hosting

By Joe Davis


Anyone who needs web hosting will always want to get the best deal, but price is not the only criteria you should use when choosing the right web host company. There several basic minimum selection criteria which must be met by any company you are considering to host your website or blog.

Good Customer Service and Effective Technical Support Are Essential

As with any business arrangement communication is key. You will find that if you do not understand anything or have a problem or query then you need to be able to talk to your web hosting company whether they are a cheap web host or not. Your ability to ask questions and get sensible answers in a timely fashion is extremely important.

Submitting online support tickets with a 24 hour or worse turn around is not really the best way to go as you never know if your request is being attended to or not. It is always better to have 24/7 phone or online chat support to technical staff at the web host so you can call and check that your issue is being resolved when you have a problem. Also if you just have a question it is good to be able to talk to someone when you need to.

It also makes great sense to put in a question to the technical team before you sign up as you will then get some idea of how good they are at servicing your needs. Just ask something about the type of hosting you are looking for and check what they say and how helpful it is. If you do not like what you do then find a different web host.

Get Web Hosting that has Good Reliability, Security, Power and Capacity

There are also some essential requirements for the physical hosting aspect of your website or blog. You will need to carefully check what is on offer in relation to disk space capacity, bandwidth and any up time guarantees. In all cases these should be as high as possible, so compare web hosts companies to see what they all provide before you decide what you want.

If you have other technical requirements, such as FrontPage or database support then compare what different web hosts can provide. Many web hosting plans now offer you the ability to host multiple or unlimited domains, websites and SQL databases. If you require other special software like Joomla or Wordpress then ensure that your web host will support it.

You must also check out how powerful and reliable the servers at your web host will be. Also consider all the relevant security aspects of what is provided as you do not want hackers getting in and messing up your site. Consider what each web hosts provides before choosing.

Make sure that you are provided with an easy to use control panel or dashboard for managing your web hosting plan. The best around is Cpanel and you need to make sure this comes with Fantastico, which will enable you to do very easy installs of blogging and other software such as WordPress.

Finally Look For The Lowest Prices And A Guarantee

With cheap web hosting cost is always one of the important criteria, but make sure that all your other essential requirements are met before you look at the prices. Web hosting is so competitive that there are always special offers being promoted and you should be able to get a great deal with typical monthly prices well under 10 dollars. If you are in a hurry check that instant account activation is available so you can start building your website or blog immediately.

It is always a good idea to get a web host plan that promises to give you your money back if you are not happy with the service provided and you should be able to get these for 30 or 45 days. If this is not available then you may find you are wasting your money.

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