Depending on the design technologies used on your website and the intended use of your website, there are some considerations that you should make that will be more important to you than others. The most important questions that you need to answer while looking through the pointers are to determine what your primary considerations should be.
What are your requirements for the efficient optimization of your website, based on the technologies used to make it and on the intended and actual use of the website? For example, is your website static or dynamic?
eCommerce or not? Data-intensive or not? Requires a Linux or Windows server? If you can’t answer such questions, you need to ask the person who designed your website.
Once you have a list of the most important considerations, you can then better understand and realize which of the considerations mentioned below will be most important for your purpose.
Minimal server downtime
You should be looking for minimal server downtime because there is no such thing as 100% uptime. The best services uptime is measured according to 5 nines, as in 99.999% which is usually equivalent to about 5 min of downtime a year. If you have an eCommerce site, uptime/downtime is more vital for you.
Technical support
The availability of technical support when your website is down or has issues is vital. Make sure that you can test it and that it suits your needs.
Storage Space
The assets on your website will require space on the server’s hard disk. If you have a few web pages, then you don’t need much space at all. If, however, you will have videos and large files uploading to the server for your audience, you will need much more storage space.
Storage and bandwidth (or data downloaded from your website)
A few GB (1-2 GB) of bandwidth will typically be sufficient for most sites. If you know that your website is not data-intensive, then you will not need a service that offers you unlimited bandwidth. If your site includes many videos and files for download, then you may need much more bandwidth and maybe even an unlimited package.
Ecommerce
If you have an eCommerce site that you wish to launch, there are unique technologies that you will need to work on all the time correctly. This is the reason why you may need a more robust hosting company that can support your demands. A hosting service not optimized to host eCommerce sites should be your last choice.
Optimization for services like blogs
Hosting services these days offer single-click installation of websites or blogs created using WordPress. If you have a WordPress site, you should look for this; otherwise, installing your website on the hosting server may be a tedious process.
Domains accessible through the hosting service
If you only need one domain hosted through the service, then you don’t need to look for an elaborate company that offers you hundreds of domains accessible through its service. It will cost you unnecessarily more.
FTP accounts and emails available
Depending on your current staff and the future growth of your web business, you will need to know that your hosting web service can accommodate enough email and FTP accounts for your needs. If you need one or two email accounts, then this isn’t too important for you.
Image Source: young handsome businessman engineer in the datacenter server room
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