We all learn from the mistakes in a way or another. However, there is a better approach to learning by learning from other’s mistake. If the matter is about availing hosting services for your business website, it is not a good idea to learn from mistakes, but to avoid committing any single mistake at the first point. Even an hour of server downtimes can cost you big and also adversely affect your reputation.
There are many incidents where startups and small businesses fall prey to the victim of substandard web hosting services. If you can look at the reviews of many hosting providers, you can see the pain points. All website owners need to consider these points before identifying a good hosting service to take up your job.
You not only need a good hosting service but also should look for an easily approachable and also reliable provider whom you can trust. If you heard that it is so easy to set up a website and get into an online business, then thing it twice before going by such rumors by expecting surprises. It takes a lot of time, effort, and money with a deeper understanding of the World Wide Web to run the show successfully on the web.
All responsible business owners need to be fully aware of the advantages and disadvantages of the web hosting solutions they consider and then choose the apt one. Further, in this article, we will try to uncover some of the common pitfalls to avoid in choosing a web hosting and some essential practices to follow.
Mistakes to avoid in web hosting
- Looking for the free or cheapest hosting service
The primary principle to understand is that nothing in this comes for free, especially in terms of business transactions. So, why hosting is offered for free? It is true that providers are offering free hosting services, but you may encounter any one of the below problems in future on availing such services.
- The
hosting provider may put unsolicited advertisements on your portal.
- With free services, you may not be able to run some videos, scripts, or animation, etc.
- There can be issues with the loading speed, which will adversely affect your website SEO.
- Many times, you may receive warning messages as ‘Shut Down’ or ‘Upgrading’ from the host.
- You may not have any clues as to when the server had gone down.
- There is no support team to address your concerns and no initiative to fix the technical issues quickly.
- You don’t have the option to scale up your site when needed.
- Many hidden costs are popping up over time when you are looking for add-on services.
- Search engines don’t give your website any value in SERPs. If people search for the products related to what you offer don’t see your website, you are surely losing some serious sales.
You may not take such risks, especially during your establishment face. Compared to free options, paid hosting is much risk-free.
- Choosing it wrong between shared and dedicated hosting
You can choose any of these when it comes to a paid website hosting providers with rates ranging from just $5 to $50 per month. In shared hosting, you actually share the server space with many other site owners. If one among these hundreds of websites encounters any virus or malicious codes, then you have to face the adverse complications. There may be issues related to slow loading also in case of shared hosting.
Advantage of shared hosting is that it is offered at a significantly reduced cost. However, your online activities may get a hit if you don’t wisely invest in shared hosting. However, this doesn’t actually leave you only with the alternative option of dedicated hosting. But, if you find it as a big revenue loss if your site goes down for hours, then dedicated hosting is the most cost-effective option to choose. However, being just a startup and looking forward to selling less than 10 products a day, you may not have to move to costly dedicated server hosting initially. When signing up for shared hosting, make sure that you have the scope to scale up to dedicated hosting as and when needed.
- Not keeping in touch with tech support
If 100% of uptime is what you expect from the hosting, then you also need to take some initiatives to ensure it. Hosting is a technical service for which you need to have the assistance of a good technician who is available 24 x 7 to assist you. In case if you are stuck with any operational difficulties, you must be able to get someone over the phone or chat to seek immediate help. For any premium hosting service, it is crucial to have a hotline number handy.
- Not paying attention to the fine prints
We tend to ignore the terms and conditions while availing services, which later create a lot of confusion in the deal. Hosting companies tend to highlight those points which they want the users to read and be reassured. In fact, there are many other aspects too in your agreement which may later act in adverse to your preferences, which are out there in the fine prints. Some such areas you need to have a close eye on are:
- Service
Guarantees
- Service termination policy
- Cancellation policy
- Refund policy etc.
All terms of the agreement should be carefully read, and doubts must be clarified before signing up with any provider. It is your accountability to verify service descriptions and the deliverables before committing for the service.
- Do not inquire about the disk space or bandwidth
If you subscribe to a packaged service, for example, 10 GB of bandwidth and 50 MB of disk space, you may have set it right for a medium-sized business. With a 10 GB bandwidth, one may not have to be concerned about transfer limits even while your website gets a lot of hits daily. But if you have opted for a 2 GB option, then you may be facing some shortfalls or downtime issues.
In a nutshell, one should be able to effectively figure out what your hosting company offers and what not in terms of your customized requirements. It is essential to avoid the pitfalls mentioned above if you want to enjoy a hassle-free and cost-effective hosting service.
