7 things you should know about choosing the right web hosting service

Looking to start your own website and not sure where to start? Picking the right web host is one of the most important things you can do for your website, whether the site’s a personal blog or a business portfolio.

A web host can mean the difference between a potential customer visiting your site successfully or finding it offline. To make it easy for you to pick the right host, we’ve assembled a quick checklist of things to look for.

1. Easy setup

If this is your first website, you’ll want to find a host that makes it easy to create a website. Some hosts offer basic website creators and easy installers for apps like WordPress. If this is your second website, look for hosts that offer free website migration services.

2. 99% uptime

You can lose valuable leads and traffic if your web host goes down. Uptime is a measure of how long a web host’s servers stay running and available. Look for web hosts that guarantee at least 99% network uptime; 99.5% to 100% is even better.

3. Rapid performance

Even a half-second delay in loading can cause someone to leave your website. Many factors positively affect a website’s speed, one of them is a web host that uses solid-state drives over hard disk drives. Another factor is a host that offers server caching, especially for WordPress installations.

4. Unlimited bandwidth

Some web hosts still limit the number of unique visits your site can receive in a month, with an option to scale the plan if you get a spike in traffic. But there are also plenty of hosts that now offer unlimited bandwidth for around the same price.

5. Website protection and backup

Look for a web host that secures your site against malware and provides regular backup. This gives you peace of mind against malicious attacks and data loss. Hosts that provide brute-force mitigation or protection against DDoS attacks are preferred.

6. SSL certification

SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificates create an encrypted connection between your website and its visitors. When browsing, you’ll see it as an HTTPS connection instead of HTTP. This creates a safe environment, both for your visitors and when you maintain your site. 

Google Chrome has even started flagging non-HTTPS sites as ‘not secure,’ which is not a good look for your website. Look for a web host that offers SSL certification.

7. Professional support

Often overlooked, a responsive support team is essential when choosing a web host. You’ll want professional support that can be reached either over the phone, live chat, or a ticketing system. And preferably with an in-house team.

What else to look for

Choosing a web host is always a blend between your needs, your budget, and what the host provides. The seven points above will help you navigate the landscape and pick a solid web host.

Here are other features you might want to look at. Most web hosts these days provide a generous amount of storage. You’ll also want to note the number of monthly transfers. This is different from visitor bandwidth. Monthly transfers, expressed in gigabytes, refer to the amount of data that you, as the site owner, can upload and download from your site every month.

Also key is an easy to use control panel, and it’s good to have FTP or SFTP access. If you want to use your domain as your email address, check how many email accounts you can create.

If you’re planning to create more than one site, or want to use subdomains, check how many domain names the web host includes in its plan. You’ll also want to note the number of databases you can create. Each WordPress installation, for example, will create one MySQL database.

Z.com checks all the boxes for web hosting

Z.com may be a new name in Singapore, but the company is the global brand of GMO Internet Group. The GMO Internet Group has a market share of close to 90% for domain registrations and over 50% for web hosting in Japan.

GMO Internet Group has more than 25 years of internet business experience, with more than 8.4 million global customers. Their infrastructure expertise comes from building internet services like internet banking, online securities and FX trading, cryptocurrency exchanges, and so on.

Z.com offers high-spec infrastructure for personal and business websites. They provide domain registration, web hosting, managed WordPress hosting, and cloud services.

Z.com checks all the right boxes when it comes to choosing a web host. They run ultra-fast servers on SSDs, with unlimited bandwidth and visitors. They provide backup, as well as options for multiple websites and add-on domains. They include the easy to use cPanel and easy installation for WordPress. SSL certification is available for secure connections.

Z.com offers reliable web hosting, with rich industry experience, at competitive prices. Visit Z.com today to find out more. 

What's more, for any web hosting plan that you sign up now, Z.com is giving out a free DV SSL certificate issued by GMO GlobalSign.

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