The concept of web hosting is quite simple. Website content and information needs to be hosted somewhere, so it can be accessed throughout the world and by the billions of people trying to access it. While the concept of web-hosting might seem simple enough, the actual process of selecting a web hosting company and getting your site live can be extremely frustrating, confusing and time-consuming for anyone trying to set this up the first time around.

To help with this process, we are going to cover five key points that you should look at when choosing a web hosting company. With each of these in mind before getting started, it will lead to a much smoother and faster process to find a web hosting solution that's right for you.

Reliability

While there are many things to consider when choosing a web hosting company, the most important is going to be the reliability of hosting and keeping your site online. This is especially true if you are planning on making money with your site or have an e-commerce site. Just one second of down time is enough to lose several visitors to your site and can cost your site thousands if not millions of dollars over the course of a year. To check the reliability of your web hosting company simply Google the hosting company name and type in “reliability and uptime”. There are several online reports that can give an overview of who are the leading web hosting companies and how often they go down.

Costs

For most site owners, a shared hosting plan is going to be more than enough to get your site or blog up and running. In most cases, these shared hosting plans are relatively cheap at around 5 to $10 per month depending on what hosting provider you go with. In some cases the web hosting company will even provide you with a domain name for free. When signing up for your own web hosting account, be sure to uncheck any upsell or optional services that might be added in at the time of sign up. You can also save money when signing up for a 12-month, 24-month or even a 36-month hosting plan. This is something you will want to do in the beginning, as you won't be able to make this change later while having the same promotional discount applied.

History

With billions of websites on the internet, that is a lot of sites being hosted from various hosting companies. However not all hosting companies are the same, nor is their reputation or amount of time that they have been in the industry. Big names like GoDaddy, Namecheap and Bluehost are collectively hosting millions of websites and domain names around the world. Before signing up for a hosting company, be sure to put in the time and effort to look at the history of the company, customer reviews online and how well they have been providing support and hosting for their clients.

Server Specs

In addition to the reliability and costs when choosing a web host, you should also be looking at the type of servers and web hosting that's offered as well. For example WordPress is one of the most commonly used CMS platforms on the internet today. With that in mind, there are many web hosting service is dedicated to just WordPress-powered sites. Most shared hosting accounts are setup on Windows or Linux servers, which is fine. However, if you already have a server or platform in place that you need specs or requirements on, make sure your web host has these available as well. The most important thing to consider is that your web host can scale and grow your business should that time come.

Customer Support

While customer support might not seem like something you need for many services or products you purchase, it's definitely something you should consider when signing up with a hosting company. If there is a problem with your web hosting, your website or you simply can't seem to figure something out, you will want to get in touch with someone as soon as possible. The best web hosting companies offer email, chat, phone and social media support. Hosting support is something you can also easily research through Google when searching for hosting reviews online.

Before selecting a web hosting company to keep your website, blog or business online, be sure to consider each of the key points listed above.