How to Choose a Web Host | Toohill Consulting

Website Hosting

In order for your website to become visible online you will have to purchase a hosting plan from a hosting company. These plans can range anywhere from $50-$250 per/year and easily scale upwards to hundreds per/month depending on your hosting needs. With so many companies these days it can feel a little overwhelming to decide. A good web host will offer excellent support, security measures, and a solid system for backups. Of course there’s more to a good host but these 3 are very important. In addition it is important to understand if your hosting company can host your branded email accounts (@companyname.com), and if so, if it costs extra or if it is rolled into the overall hosting fee.

Utilize a web host that has a track record of excellent support, security, and a solid system for backups. Having these three in place provides you much more peace of mind.

Lost in a Moment

A local businessman shared how for years they had done great with their search engine optimization but something happened at their web host, who was a smaller local company, and their site was lost. No backups, no history, nada. I was amazed and felt terrible for this individual all at the same time. Years of work and a solid website all gone in a moment all because their web host was not reliable. They had to completely rebuild everything.

Pro Tips

don’t have a webmaster or an agency to be your web host, several times these individuals are merely resellers, go directly to the source yourself for the greatest level of control and access to your web host, and maybe even better pricing
you should have a username and password with the highest level of permissions to access your web host account and control panel, and then only grant access to those you trust
buy a hosting plan that allows you to easily scale upwards as the needs and requirements of your site increase, you expect to grow right?
ask your potential web host about email from the start, don’t allow it to be an afterthought
if the web host has a poor or outdated website, you may want to steer clear since this can be a sign that they are slow in keeping up with technology advances
we like working with these companies: SiteGround*, WP Engine*

* full disclaimer – this is an affiliate link