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The selection of a web hosting provider is one of the crucial decisions when you are going to set up a blog. The reason why the choice of hosting provider is so important because it’s not just a place where you host your blog but also greatly affects the searching engine ranking of your blog. If you are using some low-quality hosting services and your blog experiences frequent downtime it is more likely that you will lose visitors and search engine ranking.
When I began as a blogger I did deep research in finding the right web host for my blog. A hassle-free web hosting lets you put more focus on productivity and scaling up your business instead of managing technical issues.
So if you are also at the decision of selecting a hosting provider and confused, this guide will help you to pick the right one.
Understand Your Blog Needs
The very first step in selecting the web hosting provider is to identify the needs of your website or blog. However, it is very easy to determine by answering questions like…
What type of website am I building?
Expected traffic on your website?
Whether you are going to use WordPress or any other CMS?
For example, if you are going to build an eCommerce website that contains lots of images and media files then you will need more storage.
In most cases when people are going to start a new website shared hosting is considered the ideal solution. It is cheap and provides an easy to manage the environment. You don’t have to worry about the technical issues as the company take care of security and provides complete assistance to the users.
You should do some research and go for a well-reputed hosting provider. Luckily, now you can avail of reliable quality shared hosting at very affordable prices, for example, from Hostinger.
Technology
A web hosting provider using cutting edge technologies can offer you fast speed hosting services. For example, solid-state storage is known to provide significantly fast data reading and writing speed which means fast data processing. So you must go for an SSD hosting provider. Alongside SSDs, the web hosting provider also using various other technologies like Apache, Nginx, Caching tools, container-based environment, and web firewalls in order to ensure fast speed and secured services.
Scalability
Web hosting providers offers web hosting services in different types (shared, VPS, dedicated) and sizes. So when you are going to start, you will more likely go with a shared hosting plan. If you do like this then look for what other options the company is offering if you are going to upgrade the plan.
In the future, you may need more resources for your growing blog so the availability of more resources is handier than searching a new hosting provider and then migrating there.
A tip here for you, usually when your blog outgrows the shared hosting people go for VPS and dedicated servers that offer more resources and control. So while evaluating the web hosting provider look whether they are offering VPS and Dedicated servers.
Technical support
Technical customer support is one of the most crucial factors you must look at. Whether you are a beginner or experienced user the availability of 24/7 quick support channels is a must-have thing.
At some point in time, you may face some problems that you cannot hold on your own. This is where the availability of support channels will be useful for you. I suggest you go with a hosting provider that provides live chat or Phone.
Put some time in researching about the web hosting provider customer support channels. Generally, there is a page on the hosting company website where you can see the ways of getting help from the company experts.
Price
With a web hosting plan, there are usually 2 types of costs, the first time when you are going to purchase the plan and then the renewal cost. You have to be careful here because what most web hosting providers doing that they charge a significantly low price for the first time bill while at the time of renewal you have to pay a sky-high amount. The reason why the first time fee usually low is due to the discounts.
Unfortunately, this is now the tradition in the web hosting industry to increase the renewal price. What some people do that they grab a hosting plan like for 2 to 3 years then at the time of renewal they switch to another web host and grab their introductory discount.
So when you are going to buy the hosting plan then you should look at the discounted and regular prices which are typically given alongside the hosting plan. You should go for such a hosting provider which is reasonable with their renewal prices. For example, it should not be more than 100% like if sign up cost was $4/month then renewal should not go above $8/month.
Refund Policy
If you are going to start a blog with a limited budget then you cannot bear investing in a wrong web hosting provider.
That’s where a money-back guarantee or refund policy is a crucial factor to consider while looking at the hosting companies. A refund policy helps you to pull your funds back if you are not satisfied with your selected hosting provider’s quality.
There are also some companies offering free trial account which is the safest way to take a drive of their services.
Choosing a hosting provider with a good money-back guarantee ensures you don’t lose your too much money. Most companies offer a 30-days refund policy while there are some companies that a very much confident and offering 90+ day’s money-back guarantee.
Summary
When deciding a hosting provider take your time and don’t be in a hurry. It is the most crucial decision because a significant part of your blog success depends on the web hosting provider. Furthermore, having a quality hosting provider with you save a lot of time that you may otherwise spend on diagnosing issues.
There are many other factors when choosing the right hosting provider. I have listed some of the very important factors that greatly help you in deciding the right one for your blog or website.
