People who wish to buy hosting for the first time are usually allured by fancy web hosting offers and extra-ordinary web hosting features. The market is flooded by a wide range of web hosts that claim to be the best! Analyzing all the web hosting options available and finalizing the best one can be an intimidating task at times. As a result of abundance of web hosting providers, it is natural for the first time web hosting shoppers to fall prey to a web hosting provider that might not deliver what is promised.
However, if you are a first time web hosting buyer and if you are aware of some basic important concepts, then buying a suitable and affordable web hosting package will be easy for you. It is important to protect yourself against a bad web hosting provider.
Below mentioned are 5 common web hosting myths and the truth about them:
Myth #1 : Any web hosting provider is good to go!
This is the biggest myth that all web hosting providers are the same and you can sign up with any of them. A web host plays a huge role in your website’s success therefore it is important to make a wise decision.
Your decision of selecting a web hosting provider should be based on the following factors:
- Server Reliability : You will find that every provider provides an impressive uptime guarantee. It is important to scrutinize these guarantees against the actual uptime records. Even a small drop of 0.5% in your website’s uptime will cost you loss of customers and traffic for two days; this can be a huge loss if your website is your only source of revenue. Look for a 99.9% uptime while selecting a web host.
- Website Response Speed : Load time and response time of your website are two extremely critical factors for ensuring a good online customer experience. If your website has a slow response time, your customers will immediately abandon your website and look for some other options. A slow website also has an adverse effect on the search engine rankings. Therefore, ensure that your website is hosted on efficient servers with sufficient resources to keep your website fast and secure.
- Cost : There are some web hosting providers out there that take advantage of the first-time shoppers by charging high for their web hosting packages. Beware of such providers. Once you have made up your mind for any particular web hosting package, make sure to compare the price of that same package with many other web hosting providers.
- Number Of Domains Allowed : Some web hosting providers allow you to have just one domain while others support multiple domains. For some companies, one domain might be enough but for those companies that would like to launch multiple websites and sub-sites, taking this factor into consideration is important. If you would like to host more than one website, talk to your web host about registering multiple domains first before signing up.
- After Sales Services : This is one of the most crucial factors! You are the apple of the eye for the web hosting providers when you purchase the web hosting package, but then they might stop interacting with you as much as they did earlier once you purchase the web hosting package, and this does not sound good at all! A good web hosting provider will ensure continued support and guide you with an informative knowledgebase, blog or tutorials along with round the clock customer and technical support.
Here is a little more information about uptime:
Even a small drop of 0.5% in your website’s uptime will cost you loss of customers and traffic for 3 hours 36 minutes in a month. In order to understand the importance of uptime, refer to the uptime/downtime table mentioned below:
| Uptime | Downtime Per Year |
|---|---|
| 99.99% | 8 hours 45 minutes 36 seconds |
| 99.98% | 1 hour 45 minutes 7 seconds |
| 99.97% | 2 hours 37 minutes 41 seconds |
| 99.96% | 3 hours 30 minutes 14 seconds |
| 99.95% | 4 hours 22 minutes 48 seconds |
| 99.9% | 8 hours 45 minutes 36 seconds |
| 99% | 3 days 15 hours 36 minutes |
Myth #2 : Free web hosting provider is the best!
You might be rejoicing with the fact that you don’t have to pay anything for your web hosting package, but how long is this going to last? No good web host will provide you with free resources to host your website and there might be some disadvantages or short comings to a free web hosting package, it is important to take this into consideration.
If you opt for a free web hosting package, you might not get professional assistance or support and this goes on to say that you might not be able to ensure a good online experience for your customers in terms of fast website load times or response times. This in turn will lead to another disadvantage – paying additional hosting cost without earning any client-based income. The hosting providers that offer free hosting might be having some other source of income. There are chances that along with a free web hosting package, they might place advertisements on your website that you won’t be able to remove. Also, you cannot count on a free web hosting provider as they are not dependable and reputable. If you opt for a free web hosting package, apart from living with the risk of website downtime, there is also a risk of your web hosting provider shutting down overnight, and this means that your website disappears as well.
Therefore, instead of opting for a free web hosting provider look for affordable and budget-friendly hosting providers. It is not at all difficult to find affordable web hosting that provides a decent array of services and features.
Myth #3 : All cheap web hosts are bad!
It is a myth that if it is cheap, it is bad. It is important to take this fact into consideration that a good web host will not cost you a fortune. The web hosts might differ in terms of services and features provided. Therefore, it is important to analyze all of them to find a good and affordable web host.
Myth #4 : You need to be an IT expert and technically sound to host a website!
This is one of the biggest myths of the IT world! For starting a website, your idea about the website and its functioning is enough, the web hosting provider will provide you with all the information and support to make your website live. There is absolutely no need for you to have any IT expertise or technical knowledge to host a website. Many web hosts offer a user-friendly interface to manage your hosting account which is also known as the control panel (cPanel/Plesk). And while there are graphic designing companies that will make your website look beautiful, there are many other content management systems (CMS) that will help you to create your website easily with your preferences.
WordPress and Joomla are two of the most popularly used and user-friendly content management systems (CMS) that provide a wide range of plugins, themes and extensions to design your website and to manage it. They also provide free guides, support articles and forums that can be easily accessed online.
There is no need for you to know about coding in order to create a dynamic website that operates on databases. It is true that knowledge of coding will help you to customize the look and functionality of your website to a great extent; however, you will find a huge range of built-in features in the web hosting platforms and content management systems through which you can create your custom website.
Give it a try….things will start falling in place when you start!
Myth #5: You must find a web host with no negative reviews
Let’s get to the ground reality here! People are not likely to provide any feedback or reviews when they are angry or upset with something and in contrast they will readily oblige to provide a feedback when they are happy and when they have had a positive experience. It is important for you to know that some web hosting shoppers have unrealistic expectations that cannot be always fulfilled by the web hosting providers; and therefore, you are more likely to find negative reviews about some web hosts.
The fact is that every web host provider, irrespective of how good or leading they are, might have negative reviews. This does not mean that you should totally ignore the negative reviews, read those reviews and then also analyze how the web hosting provider has handled the issue and read the reply of the web hosting provider. If you find that the web host took efforts to address the concerns and complaints of the customers, then it is definitely not a bad web host. Moreover, it is also important to note if the web host actually took the time to investigate and address to the negative review or is it just left like that. Also take note of the tone used by the web host while replying to a negative feedback. Investigating the negative reviews will provide you with a better insight on the web hosting provider and you will be in a better position to decide whether you should sign up or not.
Now Get Going!
You will find lots of information on selecting a web host, however, there are some common misconceptions related to choosing a web host which are mentioned above which you should be aware of. Research well about the web host that you would like to sign up with and ask questions. With proper analysis you will surely find a great web host that will comply to all your website needs.
