If you act like most business owners, then your website is at least part of your income, and if there are problems with web hosting, it can affect net income. There is nothing worse than a web hosting company that is down without warning or explanation, too long for solving problems, can not secure your page or offers overpriced extras.
5 unavoidable mistakes of web hosting shoppers:
1. Not checking the hosting reviews
You have landed on the website of a hosting company and their packages sound like a dream – almost too good to be true. This should already serve you as the first red flag. But even if the offer is similar to other hosting companies, you should always check the ratings.
If you are looking for reviews, look for the following warning signals:
- Complaints about customer service
- Complaints about the downtime
- New complaints that seem to be in a cluster (this can be a signal that the server is overloaded by too much growth)
- Complaints about viruses and other security problems
The best phrases in the search are “complaints against ABC hosting company” and “blog entry rating from ABC hosting company”. In all likelihood, you will quickly recognize the reviews that were created or paid for by the company and can screen them out from the rest of the reviews.
2. No consideration of the restrictions
Some web hosting companies trick. They publish “unlimited” in big, thick letters, but if you dig deeper, you can find out what “unlimited” really means.
In this article, Unlimited hosting is a good deal to say:
In reality, unlimited hosting is always limited.
Remember the limitations of the physical world – it’s simply impossible to own unlimited semiconductors to produce unlimited RAM and CPU. It is impossible to offer unlimited bandwidth if only limited data transmission cables are available in the world.
The fine print will then tell you how much bandwidth and size you can actually use before web hosting throttles businesses. This is a very important piece of information, because if your site is close to these limits, then you’ll suddenly find your page offline indefinitely.
Our restrictions, which you should pay attention to:
- No multiple POP accounts
- No SSH
- You can not add statistics
- No installation of your own software (some security restrictions are understandable, but most open source software should be installable)
- Restrictions need not be listed on the login page. Ask questions to make sure that you can operate your site the way you imagine. If you use a shopping cart – is this allowed? Are you able to use SSH?
3. Using a free memory or a host that provides free memory
If you’re just starting out, it may be tempting to use some servers that provide free storage. But the saying you get what you pay for is really true. If you choose free storage then you should understand that many other people do that too. As we mentioned earlier, the capacity of servers is indeed limited.
This type of web hosting involves serious restrictions to the detriment of your business. Your page is used by the actual web host to show ads. And the customers on your website are simply skimmed off without you making a profit. That’s not what you want.
In a shared hosting plan, you compete with other websites for resources that you pay for. But with a free hosting plan you are now competing with anyone who would like to sign up, free of charge.
Even if you opt for a paid plan – if the server offers free space, you should ask pertinent questions like:
- Do the free and paid websites share the same servers?
- What happens if the free website uses too many resources?
- What about the paid website? Is there an option to upgrade before it is shut down?
- Is there advertising on the free website? Paid hosting should never include advertising, as they drive traffic away from your site.
4. Choosing a new company
Some of the “best” bad deals you will ever find come from new hosting companies. They are so excited about the new company and want to convince anxious customers that they offer many fringe benefits, freebies, software, exciting offers and great prices. Unfortunately, their experience in the industry quickly recovers them. Many of us have been here already. This new host is great for a few months. The customer service is brilliant, the loading time great, no downtime, etc.
Then they crash against the wall. They reach the magical number X customers who can no longer handle their resources. The server crashes, users take advantage of all the free features and it seems like you can no longer handle the situation. Yes, there are growing pains – but do you really want your website to be the victim of your website hosting company several times?
As a rule of thumb, I would avoid any company that has not been on the market for 5-8 years.
Choose a host who has been in the business for at least a couple of years and has properties that can be expanded on a growing website. Your corporate image depends on the reliability and service of your webhost.
5. Not testing the customer service
- 24/7 customer service!
- Our customers love us!
- Read reviews!
- Get an instant answer to support questions!
Sounds great, right? I signed up once with a hosting company that offered 24/7 support via phone, email or live chat – as they said. My website was down and after three days I still have not received an answer. Since then, I’ve been testing customer service as best I can.
If customer support does not have the time to answer your questions before signing up, what do you think about what happens after signing up? Even if you just “think about” signing up, the company has something to gain by providing you with good support. So my first step is to come up with a list of specific questions that cover the needs of my website, but are not answered in the information section.
I split these questions and try all available options of customer service. If you offer email support, then I will send you some questions by email. If you offer phone support, then I ask questions on the phone. Live Chat? You know that I test this, too.
Still, that’s not enough for me to be sure that current customers are getting good customer service, so:
- I check the support messages to see how long people have to wait for an answer and to see if that answer is sincere and helpful or sometimes rather rude.
- Check out the “current customers” page and send an e-mail to ask for their opinion about the hosting company. You will not hear from everyone, so choose five or six.
In addition, the telephone contact is very important to ensure that customer service is something that you understand clearly.
If their agents sound like they do not even understand basic English and are unable to solve technical queries, avoid the host. This will give you a lot of headaches if something goes wrong.
Once you’ve checked all these things, you can be sure that customer service is a priority within the organization.
Trust your instinct
Everything can sound great after matching your needs, reading reviews, and testing customer service.
However, you have the strange feeling that it is too good to be true – then it is best to trust your own instincts. Sometimes the subconscious mind picks up something small. With so much excellence and cheap providers out there, there is no reason to take a risk. Note even small things, such as a server that is not backed up by copies of your webpage, or an annual payment that you will spend 12 months before you entrust your website to a host.