Finding the right domain host, or web host, is something that is much harder to do than it sounds. There are so many domain hosts out there and so many of them that fail to live up to expectations in terms of what you require of your hosting company. Competition is generally a good thing, as it ought to drive up standards, but the downside is the sheer volume of domain hosts to sift through in order to find the relatively few reliable ones.
Those of us with websites have all been in the situation of needing to change domain hosts at some point, often as a direct result of dissatisfaction with the service provided. The problem is that any domain host can look like great value when you only look at what they say they will provide and the cost of it. The difficulty comes in finding out how reliable they are in actually delivering what they promise. Guarantees of uptime and a certain amount of disc space and bandwidth are all very well, but no use at all if your site is regularly down and you get no help when you try to address the problem.
When you are looking to change your domain host there are certain basic factors that you need to know first. These will help you narrow down the list, and narrow down which packages you look at with each host. You need to have some sort of understanding of the size of your website, in terms of the storage space it will require on your domain host’s servers. This can be more tricky if you are setting up your first site, but if you just want a new domain host for your existing website, then this information should be easily available from your current host. The other factor which you can also get from your current domain host is how much bandwidth your site will require.
Bandwidth is a measure of the transfer of electronic data in a certain time period and relates directly to how often visitors are viewing your web pages. The amount of bandwidth that you will need from your domain host will depend very much on how much traffic your site gets, but also on the type of site you have. Things like gaming and video streaming will use and awful lot more bandwidth than just a text based site.
Many domain hosts will state that you can have ‘unlimited’ disc space and bandwidth, but every hosting company will have their own definition of what unlimited really means. Some will explain this clearly in their terms and conditions and some will not. The usual interpretations are along the lines that it is unlimited for a reasonable average website. If your site does not fit their average model, or gets an unforeseen spike in traffic, that could send you over the unlimited limit, if that makes sense. What you need to avoid, is a domain host that does not explain what their limit really is, and will take your site offline as soon as you reach the invisible limit. Many will not even tell you your site is down.
This is why the single most important thing you can do when you want to change domain host is check out what their existing customers think about their service. Far more important than what they say they will do, is the reality of their uptime, and the way their staff respond to you when you have a problem. The only way to get this crucial information is to find reviews and feedback from existing and past customers, and build that into your criteria for finding your new domain host.
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