Monday, August 10, 2009

How To Choose The Perfect Web Host

By Daniel Rodriguez

The first and most important thing to keep in mind when choosing a web hosting provider is what type of website you want to create. Not all web hosts are created equal. If you want to create a large social networking site or an online store, you are going to need a host with different capabilities than if you are just making a site to share pictures.

At this point, the aspiring web developer must decide what to look for in a web host. This can be a bit confusing, but the following list of features should make this task far less daunting. Keep these in mind when searching for a web host:

Cost: Because your website will be small, you arent going to need to pay for the convenience of having you own server. Therefore, you can choose a low-cost shared hosting plan that offers a smaller amount of disk space and bandwidth. If you plan to grow your website, choose a web host that will allow for growth in the future with disk space and bandwidth upgrades at a reasonable cost.

Ease of use: The great things about finding hosting for simple websites is that cheap hosts will most likely take care of the control panel operations for you, since you are sharing the server with other sites. This makes your job easy, and you are free to focus on creating great content rather than having to worry about the behind the scenes aspects.

Tools: Even the most basic of sites needs some quality tools. Perhaps you want to put a blog management system, such as wordpress, on your site so you can easily post updates. What about a contact form so users can send you feedback directly? These are all items that come into play when talking about the tools and features of your web host.

Access: You may get a great idea for a new fruit salad recipe while eating lunch in an Internet caf on vacation in France. Can you upload your files and access them from any computer, or do you have to be at home on your own computer to work on your site?

Support: Make sure your new hosting option offers some form of phone/email support. Even using a simple host and making a simple website can lead to problems every once in a while. Make sure your host is there to help you.

Once you know what you need to look for and the questions you need to ask, finding a simple web host for a smaller site is not nearly as hard as it might seem. Make your list, keep track of their answers, and make your decision. Your new site will be up and running in no time!

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