If you are thinking about launching your very first website this year then there are a quite few things and mistakes that you should definitely avoid when choosing a web host for your new online business.
While the Internet, especially these gigantic sites like YouTube, Twitter or Facebook are filled with ads promoting some hosting providers and there are thousands of affiliate websites that just want to make a quick buck and they advertise sites that pay them the most, not the best ones, you can not fall into these ads and you have to make sure that you do not make the mistakes that we are going to cover in today’s article.
I am guilty of some of them and now I am here to reveal them to you so that you do not make them yourself, because some of them might cause you a lot of headaches aka problems sooner or later.
1) Choosing In A Hurry
The first and probably the most common mistake is that new webmasters choose their web host in a real hurry.
I am sure that you have at least once bought something without giving it a second thought because you were so excited about this thing that you did not really think rationally.
Likewise, if you want to build a website, you want to have it set up and running as quickly as possible and you can overlook many important things that you should reflect deeply upon first before hitting an order or buy button.
Choosing a web host without a doubt is a vital decision and it is a one that you should make consciously.
2) Starting With A Free Service
Did you ever hear that saying that you get what you pay for?
It is a one that is as old as the hills but it is still 100% relevant these days.
People love freebies and the word free is so tempting but what is free, most of the time is not good and the same applies to web hosting.
If you use such services then you are basically stepping into the minefield.
What does it mean?
Any time your site can get deleted because the site that you host on a free web provider, is not really yours, therefore they can do with your website what they want to.
Say hello to slow load times, constant downtimes, a very poor and rude support and huge fees if you want to upgrade your account to the paid one.
Are you ok with many unrelated advertisements displayed on your blog without your permission?
They will not even share any profits with you from the ad revenues and to make things worse, they will not even allow you to add your own advertisements unless you pay them a ludicrously big fee.
The bottom line is that the “free” web host will in the end cost you more money and you will encounter so many issues that choosing the real paid hosting is the best decision for you if you are really serious about your online business.
3) Reading Paid Reviews
While I completely understand that most of you would want to check out reviews of different web hosts, but you need to know that sadly most of these reviews are written because website owners are paid to publish them.
These so called review sites receive commissions for every sale they refer so if you use their affiliate links and you sign up for the hosting company that they advertise, they will make money.
Well, there is nothing wrong with making money online, but these shady websites always publish overly positive reviews about a few hosting companies and they do not really care if they provide a quality service to their customers.
All they care about is how much cash they will earn.
They will rank big hosting providers like HostGator at the top of their list, since only these huge companies with massive budgets can afford to pay a lot for these fake reviews.
The most recommended web hosting providers on affiliate sites, are usually the sites that you should avoid at all costs so you just ignore reviews from these phone sites since they are dishonest, deceitful and fake.
4) No Money Back Guarantee
It is not a smart idea to sign up for a web hosting that does not offer a refund guarantee because if you find out that the service that they provide is not good, you will not get any money back from them.
There are many companies that offer huge discounts to attract new customers, but they will not offer a money back guarantee since they just want to make quick cash before they close down their business.
All quality web hosting providers have a minimum of 30 days money back guaranteed and the one that I use have a 45 day full money back guarantee policy.
247-Host will not ask you any questions if you are not satisfied with their service and you want to get your money back but I do not think that you will ever need to take advantage of the refund policy if you decide to use them.
5) Choosing Based On The Price
Another common mistake that most new webmasters make is that they choose a web hosting provider solely based on the price of their service.
Most people, in general, are tempted by low prices but I am sure that at least once you have regretted buying something that was so dirt cheap.
Many years ago, I have been with the one hosting company that offered a shared hosting plan for less than three dollars and guess what happened?
It was a one of the worst decisions I have ever made.
My website suffered from downtime every few days and the support was beyond terrible. Not to mention their servers were very buggy, oversold and super slow all the damn time.
If you choose the cheapest hosting provider out there, you are going to face lots of issues and this choice can be a very fatal in the long run for your website.
It is better to pay a few bucks more and sleep safe knowing that your online business will not face any issues while you sleep.
6) Untested Customer Service
And last but not least, another mistake you have to avoid is to not testing out the customer service.
If you are a newbie to making websites, then you most likely do not have any coding skills so you will surely need a helpful support that will always be there for you to fix some issues that you will encounter.
You need to remember that the quality of support service is very important so you have to test the customer service first before you make a decision if you will join this web hosting or not.
It is best to contact their support first and you should use the live chat to contact them, submit tickets and send an email so you actually test the wait time as well as test if they are really helpful for their clients or not.
A great customer service is a must have if you are a new webmaster that does not have any knowledge on how to manage a site and especially how to manage, monitor and maintain your server.
A poor support means that you will have to wait many hours to get a reply if let’s say your database crashes and you will have to wait another few hours or even days before you get the issue fixed.
On the other hand, a quality technical support will always be there if you need any help or if you have just a question, literally at any time of the day or night and the most importantly, they will resolve any issues quickly and effectively.
Conclusion
If you care about your business then you have to make sure that you do not make these mistakes so you choose a great web hosting for your new website.
247-Host is a very stable, reputable and helpful web hosting that has been providing a quality service to their clients since 2004.
I have been using them for some of my sites for five years now and they are the best provider that I have encountered since I started my first website in the 1998 year.
When I need to get something fixed or when I want to change something on my server, they almost always react within a five minutes or so.
At the end of this long article, I want to emphasize that avoiding these mistakes can save you not only from lots of issues but also from lots of stress down the road.