How to choose a Web hosting company

If you’ve been on the Internet for any length of time, daily spam has bombarded you with hosting offers. A Web-hosting company houses your Web site code and electronically doles out your pages and images to Web page visitors. If you take advantage of PayPal’s free Pay Now buttons or Shopping Cart, you can turn a basic-level hosted site into a full-on e-commerce store without paying additional fees to your hosting company. The PayPal tools are easily inserted into your pages with a snippet of code provided by PayPal.

Before deciding to spend good money on a Web-hosting company, thoroughly check it out. Go to that company’s site to find a list of features they offer. If you still have questions after perusing the Web site, look for a toll-free number to call. You won’t find any feedback ratings like you find on eBay, but the following are a few questions to ask (don’t hang up until you’re satisfied with the answers):

- How long have they been in business? You don’t want a Web host that has been in business only a few months and operates out of their basement. Deal with someone who’s been around the Internet for a while and, hence, knows what they’re doing. Is the company’s Web site professional looking? Or does it look like your neighbor’s kid designed it? Does the company look like it has enough money to stay in business? You wouldn’t want it disappearing mysteriously with your money.

- Who are some of their other clients? Poke around to see whether you can find links to sites of other clients. Take a look at who else is doing business with them and analyze the sites. Visit several of their client sites. Do the pages and links come up quickly? Do all the images appear in a timely manner? Web sites that load quickly are a good sign.

- What is their downtime-to-uptime ratio? Does the Web host guarantee uptime (the span of time its servers stay operational without going down and denying access to your site)? Expecting a 99 percent uptime guarantee is not unreasonable; you’re open for business and your Web host needs to keep it that way.

- How much Web space do you get for your money? MSN (Microsoft Network Internet access service) gives you 30MB for free; you’d better be getting a whole lot more if you’re paying for it!

- What’s their data transfer limit? Data transfer is a measurement of the amount of bytes transferred from your site on the server to the Internet. In July 2001, my site had 93,000 hits; in July 2004, it had more than 500,000. Each hit transfers a certain amount of bytes (kilobytes, megabytes) from your host’s servers to the viewer’s computer.

- Do they offer toll-free technical support? When something goes wrong with your Web site, you need it fixed immediately. You must be able to reach tech support quickly without hanging around on the phone for hours. Does the Web host have a technical support area on its Web site where you can troubleshoot your own problems (in the middle of the night)?

Whenever you’re deciding on any kind of provider for your business, take a moment to call their tech support team with a question about the services. Take note of how long you were on hold and how courteous the tech was. Before plunking down your hard-earned money, you should be sure that the provider’s customer service claims aren’t merely that just claims.

- What’s the policy on shopping carts? In time, you’re probably going to need a shopping cart interface on your site. Does your provider charge extra for that? If so, how much? In the beginning, a convenient and professional-looking way to sell items on your site is to set up PayPal Shopping Cart or PayPal Pay Now button. When you’re running your business full-time, however, a shopping cart or a way to accept credit cards is a must.

- What kind of statistics will you get? Visitors who go to your eBay Web site leave a bread-crumb trail. Your host collects these statistics, so you’ll be able to know which are your most and least popular pages. You can know how long people linger on each page, where they come from, and what browsers they’re using. How your host supplies these stats to you is important. One popular reporting format is provided from a company called WebTrends.

- Are there any hidden fees? Are they charging exorbitant fees for setup? Charging extra for statistics? Imposing higher charges if your bandwidth suddenly increases?

- How often will the Web host back up your site? No matter how redundant a host’s servers are, a disaster may strike; you need to know that your Web site won’t vaporize. Redundancy is the safety net for your site. You may be interested in how many power backups a company has for the main system. Perhaps it has generators (more than one is good) and more.