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One of the most important aspects of getting your business website up and running is finding a place to actually house your website – that’s where web hosting comes in!
What exactly is web hosting?
Think about it this way – You live in your house or apartment, where all of your personal belongings are contained, right? If you lose your house, then you have nowhere to live, right?
It works similarly with a website. Your web hosting is where all of the important files and information are housed to bring your website out to the public. Without web hosting, your website has no home.
And you can’t live just anywhere, right? So it’s important that you know what to look for in a good web host. Check out six key things to look out for in your search to determine whether or not a particular web host is right for you.
1. Honesty/Transparency
In business, you would want the person you are working with to be straight-up with you, right? Your web host should be the same way! If there is any downtime or technical difficulties going on on their end, you should know about it. If you have an issue that needs to be fixed on your end and they can help you, they should be able to explain to you what’s going on, if they can fix it, how they can fix it, and at least an estimation of how long it will take. Some hosts may not want to tell you about certain things until everything falls apart and you need them to fix it – that way they can charge you an arm and a leg to help. That’s wrong and not helpful to you! So find someone who will always be honest with you and have your back at all times.
2. Customer Service/Support
This is one is a HUGE deal, especially for people who are first-time website owners or just don’t understand the world of websites and web hosting. If it takes you all day to get in touch with someone about your website, that’s not a good thing. Of course, there will always be times where things are backed up and customer service is moving a bit slow – no biggie. But if every time you have a question you have to wait on the phone for 2 hours or wait a week to get an email response from you? Nah, son.
3. Simple Interface
One thing we do here at J.D. Scribes is make sure that our customers are able to properly access and navigate through the front and backend of their websites, at least for the most part. If we find a web host with an uber-complicated backend or an account system that is set up to where you have to go through leaps and bounds to get to your designated area, we either are not going to pick that host for you or we are going to recommend that you go elsewhere. You have a business to run and a brand to build – you don’t have time for all of the unnecessary complications!
4. Uptime
Uptime is extremely important because if your web host can’t keep their systems up and running, why should you allow them to host your website? You’ll constantly have to worry about whether your website is up today and gone tomorrow, and nobody needs that kind of stress in their lives, especially not you.
5. Reasonable Price
This is one we can all agree on! Price plays a huge role in all buying decisions, and it’s no different when shopping around for a web host. Granted, you don’t want to be too cheap because you can get what you pay for. But there are some hosts out there who ask for a ton of money and don’t do anything. So be sure to shop around and compare the quality of service to the price. If you’re curious as to who we would recommend, we’d say NewBlogHosting. They’ve been so patient, kind, and just all around awesome! Also, you get a free SSL Certificate with your hosting, which will save you a ton of money and make Google very happy with you!
Keep in mind that there are several different options available out there for you. Check out this great resource from digital on the costs of web hosting and how to choose a proper web host!
6. SSL Certificates
Speaking of which, this one is a big deal, especially right now. Google announced that it will soon be marking websites without an SSL Certificate(Secure Sockets Layer) as “not secure.” This is not good for you because that means that that will be the first thing or one of the first things, that visitors will see when they access your site. Also, websites without SSL can be more open to hacks and the work of cyber criminals – nobody wants that! With this new change brought on by Google, most web hosts are working with Let’s Encrypt to allow free SSL without any problem. Or, if your web host is like our amazing web host, a free certificate is automatically included when you buy the hosting! NOTE: If you are doing some sort of heavy eCommerce and are requesting personal account information(address, phone, credit card numbers, etc.) on your website, you will probably be better off purchasing an SSL. But, if you have a basic personal blog or a website where the most you’re asking for is an email address or something more basic, then you can swing a free SSL with no problems.
Searching for a web host may seem like a daunting task, but we promise that if you do your due diligence, it will be so worth it when you realize how much money, time, and energy you will save by making the right choice! Still not sure how to go about picking the best web host? Don’t have time to set everything up? We’d be happy to help! J.D. Scribes would be more than happy to help you set up your web hosting, domain, SSL, and even your website! Be sure to call us at (662)586-1156, email us at info@jdscribes.com, or contact us here on our website so we can get your website set up for success!
