While hosting costs typically only consume a small proportion of a business’s overall budget, having access to reliable web hosting is essential for any successful online business. After all, if a business’s website is constantly down, or takes a long time to load, customers will be more tempted to check out competitors. With that is mind, this article contains some tips that will help you to get the best hosting possible for your website.

It is usually best to choose a web host that is located in your home country. While international hosts may be offering cheaper deals, your customer experience may be compromised since customer service staff might not speak your native language and they may not be contactable during your country’s business hours.

If you have a limited budget, you should opt for a Linux server. These severs usually have php and MySQL pre-installed, and because Apache (Linux) servers are very popular, there are lots of free support resources on the web. However, if you need to use specific windows tools for your website, for example ASP, or you are not familiar with the php server-side scripting language, then you should choose a Windows server.

If you expect your website to receive very few visitors, you can save some money on web hosting by opting for a shared server. However, if you plan on driving a lot of traffic to your website, or you’re thinking about creating several websites, you will need to opt for a more expensive dedicated server.

Look for web hosts that offer money-back guarantees and free trials. No matter how much information you read about a web host, nothing beats actually trying their services out for yourself. Many web hosts now offer short free trials so that potential customers can try their services and then hopefully decide to subscribe to a long term web hosting package. Therefore, you should always take advantages of these trials. Furthermore, if you sign up for a long term web hosting contract, knowing that there is a no-questions-asked-money-back-guarantee available can give you peace of mind.

Choose a web host that has great customer service. No matter how good a web host’s technology is, problems can still arise and you need to know that they can be sorted out quickly. The customer service staff should be technically proficient, available 24 hours per day and be able to respond to any queries quickly.

Always read some online reviews about a web hosting company from past and existing clients. It is important that you read a wide selection of reviews in order to get an unbiased opinion, as web hosting companies often pay random people to write positive reviews, while competitive web hosting companies often write negative reviews about other rival web hosting companies.

Finally, if it is an option, it is always a good idea to purchase your domain name from your hosting provider. While you may save some money by getting your domain name from a third party, redirecting the domain name to your website’s server can be tricky.