How To Find Your First Web Host

Find Your First Web Host

Find Your First Web Host

Find Your First Web Host and Get Your Site Online

So you’ve build your website or in some cases you may be looking for your first web host to actually build a website using the tools they provide.  Web hosting is a competitive market and you’ll have thousands of web hosts to choose from.  It can seem daunting at first but I’ll go over a few important things to consider when choosing your first web host.

Read Hosting Reviews

The best thing you can do when looking for a web hosting company is read user reviews.  We designed this site for that single purpose, to provide customer reviews of some of the most reliable web hosts so you can make an informed decision.  Read as many reviews as you can.  Look at what others are saying about your potential web host.  Are they affordable?  Do they offer great support?  Do they include feature you need such as email accounts and tools to build your website?  Reading hosting reviews will give you a good idea of what others have to say and how they feel about their web host.  That being said don’t base your decision only on reviews.  You need to keep in mind that most people only leave reviews when they are mad or upset about something so take them with a grain of salt.

You can also ask your friends and family, people you trust the most will be able to advise you best.

Contact The Company Directly

One you’ve narrowed down your search you should contact the hosting company.  You want to make sure you can reach them and speak with a live person.  So many hosting companies outsource their support so once you’ve spoken to someone you’ll know right away if they are friendly and helpful.  Be sure to ask them questions, here are a few basic questions you can start with:

How long have you been in business?

Where are your servers located?

Does the price go up after the introductory offer, if so how much?

Can you upgrade your plan as your site grows?

Does the plan include the basics such as unlimited space and email accounts?

Do they offer any free site building software or scripts such as WordPress?

What type of support is included with their hosting plan?

Is there a money back guarantee?

Find Our What’s Included

Your next step will be to find out what is included in the hosting plan.  Here are a few important things you’ll want:

Unlimited disk space:  This is the amount of space for you to upload your website, images and videos.  Most web hosts offer unlimited disk space but have some restrictions.  Ask your web host what you’re allowed to use the disk space for.

Unlimited bandwidth:  Bandwidth is the amount of traffic to your website.  I always recommend choosing a web host that includes unlimited bandwidth.

Email accounts:  Find out how many email accounts you can create and what the storage limits are.  You’ll want to make sure you can create as many email accounts as you’ll need.

Addon domains:  Addon domains are additional domains you can host on your plan that are separate from your main website.  This gives you the ability to add a totally separate website without having to purchase a second hosting plan.

Free auto installers:  Ask your web host if they include any free software such as WordPress or Joomla.  It’s nice to be able to install these free scripts with an auto-installer.  It can save you a lot of time!

Control panel:  Find out what hosting control panel your web host uses.  GoDaddy for example uses their own custom panel which I’m not a big fan of.  I like cPanel and most web hosts offer it so look for that.

Now that you have a good idea of what to look for get started with your search!  Browse our site and read customer reviews.  We’ve got detailed hosting reviews for some of the best web hosting companies and we update our site weekly with the latest information.  Find your first web host and be sure to come back and leave a review!

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