Back in 1994 I designed my first website using the free web hosting at GeoCities.com (pre-Yahoo days). In those days I used the Adobe Golive program, a WYSIWYG editor and then copy/pasted the code into the GeoCities crude site-builder. It was free and not a bad way to get started.

When I received my first paid client in 1995, Spajzazzy.com (current design not mine), it was time to setup an account with my first real web hosting company. Since then I have worked with over ten web hosting companies and have had some good experiences and some very bad ones, too. Clearly not all web hosting companies perform the same and I will share with you what I have learned about what is important when choosing a web host.

Often times people looking for web hosting focus too much on price. This is a big mistake. Because it can be relatively inexpensive to get a website online, people tend to select cheap web hosting plans that have all the bells and whistles and, in the end, they are left with a poor performing site that loads slowly and is not properly supported. If something goes wrong with their website - and that does happen - they are forced to wait in a cue and hope they hear back from a technician within the next few days.

So what is important?

True 99.9% up-time, modern, fast hardware and up-to-date hosting software platforms, lightening fast pipelines to the internet and true 24/7 - 365 technical support that is knowledgeable, professional and is reachable by phone. It is relatively easy for someone to setup a website hosting company but it requires real dedication and commitment to support your clients in all necessary ways. 

For about 4 years I worked with a web host company that, at first, was great. The price was right and the services they offered seemed fantastic. After 2 years things began to get progressively worse. My websites performance began to slow down and it became harder and  harder to get technical support. By the end of of my time working with them my websites performance was awful and the only time I could speak with someone was during sporadic hours, usually between 12 noon and 5pm or 7pm to 9pm Central time.

What happened was this company offered their clients every possible option at cheap prices but they overloaded their servers with too many website accounts. Because their prices were so cheap, they built a very large client base and ultimately lost the ability (and commitment) to support them. My websites were on servers with many, many thousands of other websites all competing for server resources. This is a recipe for disaster.

When it became intolerable I decided to go searching for a company that met my criteria with very high quality standards. What I found was HostGator, a Florida based company that has performed brilliantly for the past 2 years. To this date I give them my highest rating and confidently recommend their web hosting services to all my clients.

Recently I was contacted by another Florida based web hosting company, InteractiveOnline, and I am currently checking out their performance and service.

To sum up, be very selective about which web hosting company you choose. Make sure they are well staffed with a relatively large amount of employees who are professional and knowledgeable and who can be reached at any time. Be sure they don't over fill their servers with too many websites and that they use modern equipment with redundant high speed connections to the internet. I also strongly suggest you select a web host that uses the cPanel technology.

Selecting the right web hosting company will make all the difference between a great website experience and a terrible one. Choose the wrong company and you stand to lose revenue, time and clients. Choose wisely and rest with confidence.