Building and hosting a website is a long-term commitment, so it is critical that you choose the right hosting provider that will give you the service and support you need to keep your site running smoothly.
In light of this, one of the most important factors you should consider when choosing a web hosting provider, is their depth of service and response time.
Depth of service and capabilities
We have often had clients come to us with horror stories about their old web hosting provider who refused to acknowledge that there were any problems on their end, and focused on blame-shifting instead of trying to fix the issue.
For example, one client came to whose website had been hacked. Her previous web host had quoted her a price to fix the website, but they were unable to resolve the issue in a timely manner.
Even a single day of your website going offline could mean a large loss of revenue and potential customers. So imagine this client’s dismay when her website was still not fixed after 3 days! The reality was that this web hosting provider lacked the capability and interest to provide a quick solution to the problem.
She eventually left this particular web provider and came to us, and we were able to resolve the hack in a matter of hours.
In our experience, we have found that it is very important to find a web hosting provider whose primary offering is web hosting and development
Service response times
In your day-to-day running of your website, you’ll need service and support regarding the technical issues that will undoubtedly arise. Because of this, service response time and overall helpfulness (whether they genuinely care to help you resolve your issue) is an important area to consider before choosing a web host.
Make sure to check their service offerings, whether they guarantee response times and if they offer phone, chat or email support. Many web host providers that do 24/7 support will only do so via email (because this is cost-effective for them) so be sure to do your due diligence.
An easy way to test their responsiveness is to give them a call or send an email during their business hours. If you find yourself waiting for a long time just for someone to respond to you, then this is a clear indication of their quality of service.
We also recommend to check their Facebook Page / Google Page for reviews, as well as what other people are saying about them on forums.
If you’d like to learn more about choosing the right web hosting provider, we’ve written up a free eBook detailing the “Top 8 things to consider when choosing a web hosting provider.”