Hey there, been a while I haven’t had a long guide on this blog and here you go; “Choose Right, Say No To Doubtful Offers” when it comes to web hosting. Keep in mind, this is a long guide so you may wish to go grab a cup of coffee or tea and maybe some cookies too!

How Should You Choose a Web Host?

Web hosting comes either for free or for a fee. As businesses become more and more dependent on the internet, their activities have to be efficiently handled by the most reliable and reputable web hosting company.

Before getting into any commitment, you should first make clear to yourself the specific requirements and at the same time consider the offers that any web hosting company offers to you. Among the many of them that seem to offer you the best of services, you should be able to choose and figure out the one who tells the truth and who just makes use of deceptive tricks.

Among the many considerations that you have to make, the three most important ones are database server software, scripting software, and operating system. Linux is known to be the major web hosting provider. Customers differ in their choice of additional services for their businesses. The wide range of choices that the market has today allows clients to tailor-made their web hosting preferences.

Once you have chosen one that suits your needs, make it a next step to find out if it has a web content management system (CMS). This is also very important so that you don’t have to seek the assistance of a web master or web designer every time you do minor revisions or faced with minor problems regarding your web hosting. Content management systems allow you to have a better control over your website design such as changing themes for your website and more.

Some Web Hosting Offers That Turn Out as Scams

Does it offer free web space?

You might be attracted to the 5 to 10 MB free web space that an ISP may offer. Of course this is beneficial to your business, but then you have to answer these questions. Is the free space enough for your needs? What else does it give you?

This 5 to 10 MB of free space may be sufficient for a small business (could be personal or something that doesn’t need to grow quickly). However, if your business has to grow rapidly, this free web space would be more of a limitation than an opportunity.

In addition to limiting your web space, find out if the web hosting company offers along with the web space some other services. Does it have a reliable and secure server? Does it provide enough bandwidth that would allow heavy traffic without extra cost? Does it have a back-up of your files? Does it allow you to install small programs? Is it compatible with Java script? Does it have e-mail forwarding or autoresponders? Does it provide 24/7 support service? Does it allow you to add pages to your site without too much labor?

How About Free Domain Names?

Another attractive offer that web hosting companies have is free domain names or subdomain names. Free subdomain names offer allows you to append your business name to their company without any charge. However, these are the downsides. First, it would be difficult to remember your URL because it is very long. Second, because of the many slashes in your URL, you lose a lot of page ranks. Third, granting that you need to have your own domain name because your business already needs to, you lose all your web traffic and you have to go back to zero.

And additionally, with free domains offer, if ever the company will allow you to transfer your domain name, it might provide erroneous information so your transfer may be delayed. In order to avoid the foregoing situations, make sure that when you decide to purchase a domain name, it is explicitly stated that it is your name or your company’s name that will be listed as the registrant or owner. Not having this will cause you to lose control over your domain name.

Is It a Template Wizard Web Host?

You may also be blinded by the opportunity given you to design your own website through the do-it-yourself strategies. Those with very limited knowledge in computers or web design might find this offer very advantageous, believing that they can really do it with the set of “simple” instructions that go with the template. Having been convinced, you will give it a try and later would find out that the simple instructions that they are giving actually need a professional web designer to understand the terminologies used.

Here is another problem. If you cannot go about it by yourself, the company will offer you“support” software, but this time you have to pay for it. You cannot turn back anymore because you have already committed yourself to their “services”, say for a year. The lesson is, you cannot simply rely on alleged simple instructions because you have no way of finding out how complicated it is until it gets to you.

Sooner or later you will have to give in to the offer. You will have to purchase their “support” package, often at a very exorbitant price. There are some that give help through their help desk which contain only generic information about HTML, and does not specifically answer the problems that you have.

It would be late for you to discover that they are already making money out of you through the extra services that they provide. At one time or another, you will have to seek for their services. What started out to be a cost cutting strategy on your part turns out to be a more expensive and tedious job.

Aside from the added cost, there are other problems associated with template wizard web hosting. There are lots of these softwares that are not compatible with the present HTML versions. More so, your keyword ranking would also be affected because their pages will not validate.

By now you would convince yourself to opt for a paid web hosting company. After all, it will end up to be more economical, because on the average, reputable web hosting companies cost around $9.00 monthly fee, as compared with the $30.00 for a free site that have hidden charges.

Be Weary of Kidnapping Domain Names

Some unscrupulous web hosting companies once discovered would still lobby, employing some more of the “better” things that they got to offer to you. They may threaten you to remain with them until your contract ends. It could also be that when you request for a transfer, they will transfer you to a site that they also own. The worst, they will just offer you to concede to redirect your site to your new host, but your domain still remains with them.

If you get into this situation, the best thing to do is to cut off your business with them. The above suggestions from their side prove that they have self-serving motives. They have less concern over your site, as long as they get what they want.

Bear in Mind that Web Design Templates are Not Yours

Hiding at the back of beautifully designed web pages and images, they try to blind you and will urge to use these in order to enhance your site. True enough, these pages served their purpose and these have become one of your “trademarks”. How about if when to decide to switch to a different host? No, they won’t allow you to take those designs with you. This leaves you your pages bare and “lifeless”. Eventually you will have to hire another designer in order to regain the grandeur of your “borrowed” templates.

Does it Offer Free Search Engine Submission?

Also remember that Google, Yahoo and MSN Search all come for free. So if the web hosting companies try to lure you with their promise to offer free search engine submissions from Alta Vista, AOL, Hotbot, Lycos, and Netscape, do not be fooled. All these engines are in themselves free because they are fed by Yahoo, Google, or MSN Search. Better yet, you do not even have to submit to search engines because they will automatically find your site.

Find Out if There is a Valid Contact Address of Phone

One of the proofs that the web hosting company is not a scam is having a physical address or a phone number. Try contacting these contact information in a weekend so you will find out if they are true to their 24/7 service availability. Send a message to their email address and see if they respond promptly and sufficiently answer your query. Companies that only have FAQ as support are not reliable because these are only generic answers and may not even be related to your specific problem.

Beware of Reseller Hosts

You could get into trouble if you happen to get a web host that does not really own one. What they do is buy a space from a host and having this space sold to you. You may be able to set up web hosting transactions without problems at first. Sooner or later, something will just prevent your “host” from going on with its service, leaving you with no one to ask help from.

Web Hosting By and Large

What you have just discovered are some possibilities where you would get scammed. Choosing a web host should not only be centered on being free. It is better to pay a certain cost upfront than to gamble on a web hosting site whose reputation is questionable.

By: Kaung | ChitChat247.com | KMKBlog.com

Tagged in: web host | web hosting