You are about to create a new website, and of course, have lots of things to consider. One of the most important, yet often least thought about, is which hosting provider to use. Sometimes, this decision may even be taken out of your hands if for example you are using an easy web builder such as Wix. However this really is something that needs careful consideration or you may end up with disastrous results for your business or blog. Similarly just choosing the top result on Google can end up proving a poor decision and isn't always a strategy for success. To help you avoid this we have come up with 3 simple steps to ensure you choose the right provider:
1. Is the service reliable?
Most people believe that reliability is a given when selecting a hosting provider. Well let's bust that myth right now - it’s not. Sure, it’s logical to assume that because millions of other businesses are using a provider to host their websites, then they must be reliable? But often, hugely popular services like GoDaddy and BlueHost are plagued with issues. You need to assess how often they experience setbacks and if the problems will normally affect all customers, or just a few. Also important is to ascertain when the service does experience an issue (no provider can ever be 100% accurate all of the time) do they respond quickly? If so then they can be viewed as reliable and are a much safer option. This leads on to our next step…..
2. Does the provider have quality Customer Service or Support
As we have just noted above, things can and do go wrong. However when selecting a good hosting service you need to feel confident that they offer exceptional customer service. The reason being is that when a problem occurs, you are largely helpless and at the mercy of the hosting company to fix it. You need to be able to keep in regular contact and get updates to make you feel confident that the issues are being dealt with in a speedy fashion. The worst thing in the world would be to constantly get the engaged tone or no answer, or worse still somebody on the end of the phone with no customer service skills leaving you feeling even more frustrated. A good way to check how the customer service skills stack up is to look at reviews from other customers. If you see lots of poor ratings from dissatisfied customers then you need to steer clear
3. Is the provider versatile?
Lastly, and in the long run perhaps most importantly, you need to assess the versatility of the provider. You may have a very clear strategy for your website right now, however things change and you need to make sure your chosen service will adapt to those changes with you. What if you decide to turn a blog into a business for example, but your hosting provider has you locked into a plan that doesn't allow for it? You may attract more visitors to your site than you first planned for, but they are so niche that they can only cater for your initial plan? Of course this will greatly hinder you and be a huge stumbling block for your business development - something you will want to avoid at all costs. Good hosting providers are versatile and will give you leeway to make changes as and when you need to.
So now you should have the blueprint to select the very best hosting provider for your website.
However, if you are still needing a little help we can certainly point you in the right direction to our chosen provider www.cloudnext.uk
Cloud Next was launched in 2008 with a mission of making hosting accessible to everyone, no matter what their budget. They offer fast, reliable and secure hosting with an in house UK support team that are available 24/7. They have an average response time of 15 minutes for all support ticket responses and can boast an impressive 115 reviews on Trustpilot with an overall score of excellent. One recent 5* reviewer wrote “Extremely helpful staff, one of the few companies in the UK that have a proper customer service team that cares about their customers. Thanks once again to Cloudnext for treating customer with the utmost respect.”
Cloud Next has been providing hosting for over 11 years and we feel confident that they are a trusted and versatile option for any new or existing website. Simply follow this link to find out more www.cloudnext.uk