Choosing a Web Host – Answer the Questionnaire for an Effective End to Your Web Hosting Search

Imagine you are venturing into the business world with a new set-up and a new face of business. What is that you need at the initial stage? …Spreading out the words of your venture, marketing your product, and ensuring the reliability of your product or service to your target audience. Now, the question arises, how to market and how to put across your business amidst the competitive business landscape. The simple answer is digital marketing and for that, the first thing you need is a website.

With the decision of introducing a website, the toughest decision is to choose a web host while ensuring that you make the right choice. Here is a questionnaire categorized into three steps that you need to answer yourself before picking up the right web hosting service provider.

Step 1: Gain a clear understanding of the website requirements. This should include both the current and the future requirements. To have an understanding answer the following:

·         What do you require in your business?

·         What are your plans for your website and business?

Step 2: Proceed with the groundwork to start with the actual process of choosing a web host. This should include finding answers for the questions, such as:

·         Are you looking for a static website or dynamic?

·         What is the budget?

·         How much time it needs to be invested in researching a web host?

·         Who will design the website? A webmaster or will the website be prepared using the control panel provided by the web host?

·         What will be the basic purpose of making a website?

·         Will it be an informative web site or is it going to be an e-commerce platform?

·         Will it provide any product/feature/service to be downloaded? If yes, what will be its size?

·         Which technologies you wish to incorporate in your website?

·         What kind of database you are looking for?

·         Will a database be used? If yes, which one?

·         What would be the estimated size of your website?

·         Do you or your team have the technical expertise to handle a website?

Step 3: Next, laced with the answers of the above-mentioned questions, prepare a list of prospective web hosts. Then refine the list by verifying the details of the shortlisted web hosting service providers.

·         How old is the web hosting provider company?

·         Does it meet the technical specifications, as required?

·         What would be options available for upgrades?

·         What is the price hike if you go for add-on domains?

·         How responsive is the web host?

·         How many clients and brands the web host is dealing with?

·         What do the customer’s reviews and testimonials say about the web host?

·         Does the web hosting package meet your required specifications?

Once you find the answers to all these questions, it would become easy for you to choose the web host best-suited to your requirements. As an alternative method to making the web host selection, you can even create a checklist including the following:

·         Your hosting needs

·         Server reliability

·         Server Responsiveness

·         Check uptime guarantees

·         Options for hosting upgrade

·         Prices for sign-up and for renewal

·         Trial period

·         Required hosting features

·         Control panel

·         Account limitation

·         Email hosting

·         Subscription period

·         Site backup

·         Customer support

There you are to end up your search and finalize the most approachable and reliable web host for hosting your website needs and giving a kick start to your new business venture in the digital world.