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Best Hosting Service:15 Things to Consider Before You Pay
Choosing the best web hosting service in Nigeria can be a challenging task, especially if you are not familiar with the different types of hosting services available.
There are many factors to consider when choosing a web hosting service, such as
- price,
- reliability,
- customer support,
- features,
- uptime
- site speed,
- bandwidth and storage
- security.
- Also, the type of content management system (CMS) you want to use
- And what do you want to use the site for
In this article, I am going to show you the best of the available web hosting providers in Nigeria, taking into account all the factors mentioned above.
15 Steps to Make Sure You Get the Best Hosting Service
To choose the best web hosting service in Nigeria depends on what you want to do with the website.
It is also a matter of the level of your technical skill set.
And, the amount of money and resources you have available to put into the project will play a vital role in what web hosting service you choose.
Having said that, follow these 15 steps to get the best of your hosting service:
1. Decide what type of web hosting service you need.
This is crucial because it is the first step. If done wrong, every other thing about your site could well be wrong.
To help you with the decision, you must start by figuring out what your requirements are.
- How long would you want to hold the site?
- Is it a business or just a personal blog?
- What would you want to see on your site?
- Should you incorporate a blog?
- Will you run e-commerce alongside your regular site?
- How large would you want your site to be?
- Are you going to be building an affiliate marketing site?
- What are your traffic expectations? If you are expecting a considerable amount of daily traffic, you may want to favor dedicated hosting services instead of shared hosting.
- if you are going to create a website for freelancing for example, a simple WordPress site might suffice.
- Are you doing the coding yourself? If not, you may want to consider using WordPress, as it is undisputable that more than half of the world’s websites are powered by WordPress.
After writing down your answers to the above question, you will be better equipped to make the next decision concerning your site.
2. Choose a web hosting provider that offers a money-back guarantee.
You cannot be so sure of what you will get with web hosting especially if you are just starting out.
So choose a web hosting service that offers a money-back guarantee.
This is one sure way of knowing that the hosting service will live up to its promise of a better service.
Should you find out that you need something different from what is being offered, pulling out should not be a problem since there is a money-back guarantee on ground
3. Make sure the web hosting provider has a good reputation.
How do you know if your hosting provider has a good reputation if you have not used them before?
The simple solution is to look at what others are saying about them.
Read reviews about their performance. In the web hosting world, how are they rated?
If you are in Nigeria or any of the African countries, forums like Nairaland are a good place to see people who have used different web hosts.
Find out what they are saying about the services of the host you are planning to engage.
4. Choose a web hosting provider that offers 24/7 customer support.
You will never know when you will need the help of your solution provider.
You do not want to be in a situation where you will run into problems on a Saturday, only to get customer support on a Monday afternoon.
So be sure to know if your hosting service provider has arrangements in place to help you out even at odd times, festive season, and holidays.
You may want to consider using a web host who shares the same time zone as you.
Below are some of the things I look out for before choosing a service online:
- Knowledge bases: Do they have a pool of articles explaining different types of problems that might be encountered by their customer?
- Forums: If a service provider maintains a forum where members can hang out and share ideas, I consider it a plus for them.
- Live chat: I expect to be able to drop a question on a live chat and it is attended to by humans, not robots.
- Chatbots: Sometimes I hate them, they keep replying to the same thing over and over. If you have a unique problem or challenge, chatbots are often not helpful.
- Email support: sometimes, it is easy to simply drop a question, recommendation, or complaint in an email. If my service provider offers email support, I will be happier than if they do not.
- Calls: when you cannot put your challenges into written words, the only way out may be to call and say it just how it is.
5. Make sure the web hosting provider offers a control panel.
Control Panel or cPanel as it is popularly called is important because it gives you access to many hosting features.
Of course, you can run your site without a cPanel, but life will be easier for you if you have access to your cPanel, especially if you plan to use WordPress.
6. Choose a web hosting provider that offers a secure socket layer (SSL) certificate.
In this generation of internet proliferation, any site without SSL is looked at with suspicion.
If you plan to collect payments with your site, then SSL or Secure Socket Layer is not negotiable.
The work of SSL is not just about sites collecting payments but it is the technology of the day that ensures everything happening on your site is secure and safe for users.
So, if your web hosting service Provider does not throw in the option of SSL, you may want to reconsider.
7. Does the web hosting provider offer a domain name?
Some people prefer having their web hosting service company provide a domain name.
But, I strongly discourage you from doing that, Never put all your eggs in one basket.
If something goes wrong with your service provider, you’ll be at a disadvantage because both your domain and your hosting service will be gone.
But if on the other hand, you have your domain, say with Namesilo, and your web hosting with Blue host, then if one goes down, you can easily survive with the other.
Your web host must meet the emerging needs of a modern website
8. Make sure the web hosting provider offers email accounts.
Because you want to be seen as a serious person, you would eventually need a customer email. This is where a good web host that provides email accounts comes in.
You will want something like your name@your domain name dot com as an email address, Instead of some obscure name that will throw your clients off balance.
9. Choose a web hosting provider that offers a website builder.
As a beginner, you may be limited in what you can do, hence, having a hosting service with a website builder is a plus for you.
You can be up and running in the shortest amount of time if you use the drag-and-drop type of website builder.
10. Other factors to consider
Security cannot be overemphasized, nor can it be overlooked when discussing web hosting.
You should look out for things like stuff masking if you plan to go deep into affiliate marketing.
And shadow systems are another factor to look out for. Does your service provider provide the system? If yes, would you want it deployed?
And the infrastructure for easy backup should all be part of what you need to look out for in any web hosting service.
11. Pay attention to the Price of The Hosting Service
Price to a large extent determines what type of web hosting you are going to settle for.
It is wise to never go for a hosting service only because of the cheap price they promised.
Do not compromise quality for the price. However, you must look for the hidden charges sometimes attached to what you buy.
Consider the cost of renewal of your hosting service.
Some hosts will give you a very cheap price your first year but will make you pay with your neck the following year for renewal.
Check and verify that your service provider has everything you need in one package so that you will not end up paying for what you would otherwise get free.
This includes some add-on services that should come with your hosting plan. For example, some companies do include free SSL, unlimited email creation, and backup service all in the same hosting package.
12. Pay attention to Disk Space
Since your website is going to consist of different files, it is important to pay close attention to the disk space allocated to you.
These files could range from, text files, HTML files, audio, videos, Images plugins, and many more.
Besides these files, there is a need to accommodate user-generated and submitted content too. This may include comments, images, videos, etc.
You need enough space to house those files and if your host is not providing enough of what you need, you may want to look elsewhere.
13. Uptime of your website
The best time to know for sure about how much your site stays I’ve is before you subscribe to any web hosting service.
Read reviews about their uptime to see what other users are saying.
You would not want to spend money building a website that will not show up when your visitors come.
You aim to look for a host with 99% of uptime. This means, your site will be live and available 99% of the time.
Here are some tools to help you check for uptime before you buy your next hosting plan:
- New Relic
- Better Uptime, this tool takes a check of your site every 30 seconds.
- Site24x7. With over 110 locations around the world, Site24x7 has you covered.
- UptimeRobot. If you want to monitor your website as well as your SSL, Ping, Port, Cron job, and keywords in one place, then UptimeRobot is the place to go.
Visit their site, look for names of sites hosted by them, and run checks on any one of them to see what the uptime is like before you make any financial commitment.
If your service provider doesn’t promise 99% uptime, run as long as your feet can carry you.
14. Multiple backup systems provided by your host
It is your sole responsibility to arrange for periodic backups of your site.
But your web hosting service can also play a role in this.
A good web host should have backup servers in multiple locations.
This will help to cushion the effect of things like natural disasters, wars, and governmental policies that can affect the service from specific locations.
With multiple backup centers, your website will have a greater opportunity to be alive and available for your cherished visitors regardless of what is happening in a particular region.
15. Consider site speed
This is as important as the other factors. Closely related to uptime is site speed.
Internet users of our time cannot afford to wait a few extra seconds for your site to finish loading up.
Anything more than 5 seconds is considered annoying and will make you lose a considerable amount of traffic.
In addition to annoying your audience, search engines will frown at your site due to it taking too long to load.
To help you with this. consider choosing a host
- that supports SSD. (solid-state drives). They load faster than traditional hard drives.
- Chose a host with DCN. Content Delivery Network. This is simply a group of servers located in different locations that cache static content on your site and deliver them on demand faster to the user. since they are located closer to the user’s location.
If speed is a concern to you as it is to me, you may have to choose dedicated servers. Or at least be sure that your hosting provider limits the number of sites on a shared server.
Should I go for a Free web hosting service?
Surprisingly, the answer to the above question is yes and no.
Yes, go for a free web hosting service like 000webhos if you are just trying out what and how websites work. And if you are in it just as a side hobby, you are very much welcome to try a free web host.
But if on the other hand, you are serious about starting a real business, you should stay away from free hosting services.
NO: If your goal is to make money online, or you want to build a sustainable business, I will advise you to stay away from free web hosting services.
Here are some reasons why free web hosting service is not good for you:
- it does not represent you well as a business
- because it is free there are limited features available to you
- the owner of the platform can decide to go out of business at any time and whatever business you build with it has gone.
- Sometimes it is difficult to rank problems on the major search engines.
- If you are ever faced with competing with the top brands and authority sites, your chances of rank in properly will be greatly reduced because you are using a free web hosting service.
My verdict on this is that you stay away from free platforms. If you look around there are so many cheap web hosting services that can get you started with all the basic features.
In summary
A good hosting service is essential for any website. To make sure you get the best hosting service, Always remember to:
1. Research your options. There are many different hosting providers, and they all have different features and prices.
2. Read reviews. Customer reviews can give you a good idea of what to expect from a hosting provider.
3. Consider your needs. Make sure you choose a hosting provider that offers what you need along with round-the-clock customer service.
Conclusion about how to choose the best web hosting service
When choosing a hosting service, it is important to do your research and compare different options.
This article provided 15 steps to help you choose the best hosting service for your needs. By following these steps, you can be sure to find a reliable and affordable hosting service that meets your requirements.
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My name is Echez, I am a content writer for Success Zenith. I spend my time in SEO Research, Writing on different Niches, and managing a few social media accounts for some specific clients.
I work with SUCCESS ZENITH to provide Internet marketing solutions to startups and help entrepreneurs to scale their digital marketing businesses.
If you think there is something else I can do to contribute to your business, do let me know.
We can help you choose a good domain name and hosting service for your business. If you want, we can build a responsive website for you too.
Even crafting a good proposal, landing page, product description, Niche site creation, WordPress site, e-commerce website, blog, blog posts/articles, just send me a direct message (DM).
