How to select a web hosting company is critical for your website’s overall performance and in general for SEO and ranking purposes.
Therefore, the number one step you should consider prior to developing your website is to answer the above statement.
If we were to categorize a range of factors that are important, we could have categories such as security, support, performance in terms of speed, pricing, and last but not least additional key extras that can smoothen out the process of hosting.
There are many factors involved and must be considered for making such decision such as:
A. Security
Security is essential from all aspects, and therefore the hosting provider of your choice must have the necessary ingredients to safeguard security measures such as server firewalls, data processing agreements, DDoS protection, the latest OS patches, removing and scanning of any malware, backup systems, and the provision of SSL certificate (https).
In the condition that your preferred hosting provider fulfils most of the above criteria then you have a good ground to start from.
As per our experience, we recommend SiteGround which is an all-inclusive hosting package provider that offers a superb and user-friendly hosting experience.
B. Support
Your hosting provider’s customer support is an essential parameter in every aspect of your hosting experience.
Does your hosting provider’s support have the necessary knowledge and experience to answer all your questions within this field? If yes, then this is another indication that you are on the right path.
Some key factors you should consider around support is the response time; in other words how fast they can assist you with your queries, how long it takes them to resolve your questions and issues, what are the operating hours that you can receive support; especially the 24 / 7 basis, and the availability of different contact methods such as email, phone, live chat and support ticketing systems.
C. Speed
Speed is a key parameter for Google when it comes to website ranking. A website’s performance is exclusively associated with your hosting provider.
In the scenario where the hosting provider is weak in speed and does not provide the necessary elements for website performance then you should immediately reconsider.
Your visitors will stay on your website as long as they have a fast loading experience, otherwise it will have a huge negative impact on your traffic, domain authority and website ranking.
Therefore, when it comes to speed, you should take into consideration the following elements such as storage and bandwidth (limited or unlimited, type of storage, e.g. Solid State Drive Storage, shared hosting that will not create issues if used along with other websites that consume more resources, the server location for optimum performance, the server technology for superbly fast speeds, the Content Delivery Network (CDN), the caching experience (some companies have it at server level, others don’t and you will need a tool or plugin for caching purposes, and the scalability especially when your website’s traffic will be growing dramatically thus helping you to avoid any disconnections or errors.
C. Pricing
The pricing package which your hosting provider has to offer must be fair and satisfy all levels of webmasters either beginners or advanced, newly established or established websites and businesses.
The cancellation and refund policy must also be clear and fair, and most importantly ensuring that there are no hidden costs.
The above pricing criteria should be easily viewed within your hosting provider’s website, as well as being able to ask their customer support for any additional information that you may need.
D. Additional extras
With every hosting provider, you should take into account any additional extra features that will make your hosting and website journey as easier and joyful possible.
Some additional extras that good hosting providers offer, such as SiteGround, is the ability to create business email accounts for free, setting up your SSL certificate (https) for free, performing automatic and manual backups of your website, your database and surrounding components, as well as being able to create subdomains, and many other lovely elements.
Having said the above you are now in the position to answer the question of “how to select a web hosting company” without hesitation but with absolute confidence.
Should you need any support from our experts you can always contact us.
