Your website hosting company is a key part of your online presence. It determines how stable your site is, how much it costs to keep it up and how easy it is to maintain.

Getting the right deal is important. Here are 6 essential questions to ask before committing to a hosting contract.

What is your up-time?

The most fundamental function of a website hosting company is keeping your site live. The ideal answer is 100%, but realistically speaking the (very) occasional drop out is inevitable and therefore acceptable. Anything below 99% is unacceptable, the closer to 100% the better.

Where is my data kept?

The other big question. Your site will sit on a physical server somewhere or other, with all the vulnerability that entails. If there’s a fire at one of their data centres, your site is lost.

Most hosting companies have at least one backup server – make sure yours is one of them.

What technical support do you offer?

Hopefully you’ll never have to speak to their technical support team, but if something does go wrong, you need to know when and how you can get hold of them, and how much it will cost you.

Some hosting companies include technical support in the basic price, others charge extra for it. Look out for this, and make sure support is available 24/7: the internet never sleeps.

How much space do I get?

Obviously you’ll need enough space for your site as it currently stands, but you also need scope for growth. Charges for extra space vary considerably, and changing hosts can be a drag. Make sure you don’t cost yourself extra in the future by signing up to a bum deal now.

What email provision do you offer?

How many email addresses can I create? Do I get full POP3 and/or IMAP functionality? Do you use Microsoft Exchange email hosting? Do I get webmail? If so, how big can the mailbox be?

There may be technical issues if your domain name is registered separately, be sure to talk through these.

Are there any hidden charges?

Be rigorous with costings, you don’t want any last minute surprises. There are so many details involved with web hosting that it’s easy to overlook something. Just be sure you know exactly what you’re paying for before you commit.

On the same note, clarify if you’re locked into a contract, and if so, how long for.

Are there any other questions you think should be asked? Have you had problems with your web hosting company? Please leave any questions or comments below.

Image Credit: cogdogblog

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 31st, 2011 at 9:00 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.