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Web hosting is the backbone behind your business’s online success because it allows prospects, clients, and other organizations worldwide access to your site. Before settling for a specific hosting service provider, do your due diligence to determine if that host will be able to meet your business needs and goals. This article outlines key considerations when choosing a hosting service.
1. Reviews
Reading a website hosting review will help you determine whether a particular service is appropriate for your needs or not. Reviews are usually from experts and people with first-hand experience, and this is why they’re vital considerations when looking for a reliable web host.
2. Average uptime
Uptime refers to the amount of time your website is available to visitors. For example, a 100% uptime indicates that your site was up and running throughout the year. Such a scenario is technically impossible due to server maintenance schedules that cause site downtime. However, don’t settle for a provider with less than 99.9% uptime.
3. Bandwidth
Bandwidth refers to the amount of data that can be transferred within a given period. To calculate how much bandwidth your site needs:
- Estimate your site’s average page size
- Multiply the estimated page size with the average number of monthly visitors your site receives
- Multiply the result by each visitor’s average page views
For example, If your page size is 3MB and your site receives an average of 3000 visitors with each visitor opening around five web pages, your bandwidth will be 3*3000*5 = 30,000MB = 30GB monthly.
4. Load time
Load time refers to the speed of your website, and directly impacts your site’s SEO performance, user experience, and conversion rate. Slow load time prompts your visitors to leave your site, reducing web traffic, and conversions. To ensure fast load time for your site:
- Consider shifting from shared hosting, which serves hundreds of thousands of other websites, to a dedicated service that serves your site only. This drastically increases your site speed, resulting in minimal bounce rates and hence more conversions
- The further away your visitors are away from your server, the slower the loading time. Choosing a hosting service with multiple server locations will enable you to reach a wider audience. You may also consider a content delivery network (CDN) to improve load time by reducing the physical distance between the server and the user
- Choose a hosting service that uses solid-state drives (SSD) faster than traditional hard disk drives (HDD)
- Optimizing your images leads to fast load times
- Adopting browser caching ensures a more efficient loading process
5. Customer support
Having a host who offers round-the-clock support is crucial, especially when you have a worldwide customer base. It ensures that if any website issues arise, they’ll be sorted out fast helping to avoid site downtime. A reliable web host offers 24/7 support to its clients through emails, live chatting, or phone calls.
Endnote
A web host can make or break your online business. Considering these factors will help you choose an excellent hosting service that suits your business needs and goals.
