Even though it’s 2022, many people still don’t know where to start when hosting a website. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of options you have at your disposal.
There are dozens — no, hundreds — of hosting companies out there, all with different features and prices. For that reason alone, it’s common for you to make mistakes when choosing a web host. And while the wrong host won’t ruin your site forever, you probably won’t want to stick with them for multiple years. In other words, when setting up your website or blog, make sure to avoid making these common mistakes.
Opting for a Free Host
Even if you’re new to running your website, you might already know that it’s a lot of work. Many different factors can lead to a successful site, but the main one is hosting. This is the basic principle behind storing and serving your site’s files. The quality of your hosting will affect the speed of your site, how many people can visit it, and even how well it ranks in search engines.
Don’t fall for free web hosting if you’re looking for a good host. It may seem like a fantastic deal, but there are some severe drawbacks to this option:
- Bandwidth limits – Free hosts limit how much data you can use per month. If you exceed this limit, your site will be painfully slow or even shut down.
- Content Abuse – You might think that you’ll be safe from third-party ads on a free host, but they still have ways to make money off your site. They might insert their ads, or they might sell your advertising space without telling you. Either way, this will make your users very unhappy and hurt your business reputation.
- Scaling up – You cannot get more storage as your business grows unless you upgrade to a paid package.
Not Looking for No Refund Guarantee Policy
As I said earlier, when you’re wading through the thousands of hosting companies out there (and there are thousands), it’s easy to feel confused and overwhelmed.
How do you know which web hosting company is right for you? Unfortunately, it’s hard to sift through the marketing fluff and decide which web host offers the best deal.
Choosing a web hosting package can be tricky because they offer similar services and different benefits. For example, some hosts provide more reliable connections, while others offer more space or better customer service.
TIP: When choosing a web hosting package, always opt for one with a money-back guarantee. You don’t want to pay for something and then regret your purchase. If it doesn’t work out as you expected, you can quickly get your money back from the most reputable hosts within 30 days of purchase.
Consider your needs before making a purchase decision:
- Are you looking for something that provides an easy-to-use website builder?
- Or are you looking for something with more control over your site?
- Or is customer service necessary to you?
Don’t Believe Unlimited Features Blindly.
Most people will look for the unlimited option when selecting a hosting web service. The reason is that they think that they have a license to create as many websites as they want. Unfortunately, this is not always the case, and many people do not know this.
You need to understand that even if the provider offers unlimited web hosting, it doesn’t mean that you have unlimited bandwidth or storage space. There are still limitations in place, and if you exceed them, you could face some consequences.
Many of them use shared servers anyway, and as long as you’re sharing, the concept of unlimited is technically an illusion. You must get the details about the specifications and limitations of the web hosting plans offered by different hosting providers.
Not Reading Customer Reviews
When it comes to a potential web hosting providers, you need to do your homework. After all, you don’t want to pay a lot of money for unsatisfactory services. So before choosing a web host, make sure you read plenty of customer reviews and check the company’s reputation.
You need to know what other customers say. If they are not satisfied with their purchase or if the site has scammed them, then you should walk away right away and not even consider any of its services.
Choosing a Hosting That Never Lets You Upgrade
When choosing a hosting plan, the more important consideration is how easy a web hosting company makes it to upgrade your plan in the future. For example, can you upgrade from a shared reseller hosting plan to VPS? Or you’re forced to buy a separate VPS plan.
Operating All Your Sites on One Host
As a blogger, your site must always be up and running. But when operating all your websites on a single host, you might right run into specific issues at any point in time.
- If the server goes down, all of your sites go down. This can have significant consequences if your sites make money or hold valuable data. Therefore, you’re better off spreading your sites across multiple servers (or numerous web hosts).
- You might have trouble dealing with just one company. For example, if you need help with malware removal or something similar, do they have the resources to deal with all of your sites? Unfortunately, not all web hosts do!
- It’s not great for search engine rankings either. Even Google’s algorithm considers all the sites on a single IP address as a single entity.
Choosing the Wrong Server Location
If you want to attract a local audience, it makes sense to host your site locally. If you target an overseas market, it makes sense to target their region. The closer the location of your website hosting server, the quicker your site will load for your visitors.
TIP: Consider using a content delivery network (CDN). Companies like Cloudflare have many servers spread worldwide, and they can cache your content on their network. This means that when someone accesses your website, they will get content from the closest server. This can make a big difference to the speed at which your site loads.
Final Thoughts
In the end, it all comes down to finding a provider that you can trust. You’re making a significant investment in your website by choosing a hosting service, so be sure to do your research before you choose one.
Most hosting companies will have some money-back guarantee as well, which will let you get your feet wet without risking too much of an investment.
That’s all for now. If you’ve got any questions, do let us know in the comments section given below.
