There are hundreds of cheap web hosting providers to choose from when setting up your website, offering everything from high-end dedicated servers to beginner-friendly shared hosting packages. So what are the things to look for when looking for discounted web hosting?
- Amount of disk space: Web pages, images, and content that you plan to upload to your website take up space, just like data takes up disk space on your own computer. Most web hosting packages will have limited space, although unless you plan to store large files, you probably won’t need a lot of space at first.
- Reliability and speed: You have to make sure that the host you choose is really reliable and fast. Everyone advertises 99.99% uptime, but asks to see a report. When your site is down or slow, you not only lose frustrated visitors, but it will also hurt your search engine rankings. Google spiders have millions of websites to crawl, and if yours is too slow, it will go to the next site.
- Broadband: When you download things to your computer from the Internet, that uses bandwidth. Similarly, when people visit your website, they need to download all the images, files, and content. This puts pressure on your web host’s servers, so if you plan to transfer a lot of images and large files frequently, or update your pages a lot (like a website forum), then you will need more bandwidth.
- Additional features: Your discounted web host should offer you many extras, such as cgi bin, unlimited emails, an auto responder, and website templates.
These are just some of the important things to consider when looking for the best discounted web host. Another point when comparing prices, be sure to see how much it costs to upgrade to the next hosting package. As your website grows, you want to make sure that you are not only getting a good deal now, but you want to have the same value as it grows. Don’t be fooled by low introductory fees.
