There are many factors to consider when determining which is the best hosting provider for your online business, and its success. In this article we will review a few of the most important ones. Uptime Do not begin a business relationship with a hosting company that wants to guarantee you 100% uptime. This is impossible to offer a customer. If a company claims to offer 100% up-time then they do not reboot their servers. Rebooting is essential to the security of the servers within their data center and the many websites in which the host on those servers. Many companies will guarantee an up-time of 99% but do not reach that number on a monthly basis. There are a great many underlying factors that ensure up-time. It is important that you do research about a hosting service provider before doing business with them. Avoid guarantees and choose a company that has a good reputation through their testimonials, and even better, unsolicited press releases or articles pertaining to the reputation of the hosting company. Technical Support Technical support is often overlooked by those interested in taking their business online. Using a company’s technical support is one of the best ways to determine the quality of the support, before deciding to do business with the hosting company. If you see that a company offers an 800 number for tech support, you should first call and see if the number even works. Do you get a recording, or a live person? In the event you speak with a live support representative, did they speak adequate English? Were they knowledgeable about the questions you had? Did they sufficiently answer your questions? A company generates revenue by selling you a service or product, not by supporting you in the use of what they have sold you. A reliable web hosting company will place an important emphasis on its technical support as they know it helps to retain their customers as well as generate potential new customers through the referrals of established satisfied ones. Annual Payment Plans The majority of the complaints I see are those from customers who are unhappy with their web hosting company and want to switch to a different service provider. The problem is that they are engaged in an annual contract, and much like a cell phone, they can not receive any monies back, and often times are required to pay cancellation fees in the event the want to move to another hosting company. Some companies will take payments in advance, but the best option for you and your online business is to pay on a recurring monthly basis. This offers you, the business owner, the flexibility to change a hosting plan, or move on to another hosting company should you choose for whatever reason you might have.
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