Domain and Website Hosting

For an internet marketer, to start with the process of shortlisting and selecting a reliable domain and website service provider, the first thing you usually do is to "Google" the term on your web browser. This throws up a bewildering array of choices in terms of time plans, bandwidth usage, storage space, operating systems and a number of minor and not so minor enhancements calculated to put all but the most knowledgeable of prospective clients in utter confusion. At this point a concise checklist would go a long way to remove the chaff from the grain and make an informed and balanced decision a whole lot easier.

A concise checklist before you decide on your domain and website hosting account would be basically be reduced to these six factors.

1. Pricing.

Promoters of high end and expensive domain and website hosting service accounts project that "you have to pay for quality". Expensive does not always mean reliable, nor does cheap mean shoddy service. You will have to look into the pros and cons here, as there is a wide range of service providers in terms of pricing. Keep in mind what your actual present needs are and what you will likely to need in the immediate future and do not be swayed by worthless "extras".

2. Downtime.

In brief, it means the time that your website is not accessible on the web. Obviously, we all would all like 0 %. Remember, that does not always happen in reality. Though website hosting service providers claim 1.00 % or even 0.01 %, anything that is below 2 % is pretty good service.

3. Live Support.

Your website hosting does not have to be located near you, given the "global village" state of the internet today. They could be located at the other end of the world. But, there is one major factor that you will have to take into consideration and that is, whether your domain and website hosting service provider has a 24 hour live support in your language. I mean, you would in an emergency want to talk to your website hosting account service support staff to solve some critical issues immediately and not wait for a "suitable time" for them which may be past midnight in your time zone, yes?

4. Reputation.

How old and what business standards does your website hosting service provider have? How good is their business reputation? Those are questions that you will have to ask yourself and the answer should always be in the positive. No space here for the fly-by-night kind of dealers or those who are new to the business or those of dubious and uncertain origin. You do not want to be left in the lurch by these kind of operators. Here the thumb rule would be "the older the better".

5. Technology.

Another important factor that is usually covered up under a lot of high tech sounding names and details created to confuse and confound prospective clients. A lot of room here is lose your way. Again, be aware of your actual present needs and plan for your future immediate needs, that is it. Also, you need to be aware that internet website technology evolves rapidly and advances are made practically every month or so. Hence, the need for a website hosting service provider who has the latest technology installed for their customers and who is pro-active in terms of upgrading to cater to them.

6. Search Engine Optimization.

Search engine optimization is the act of creating a websites webpage content search engine friendly in order to make it get ranked higher in Top Search Engines search results. Look out for those website domain and website hosting service providers who specialize in the optimization of their clients websites as part and parcel of their hosting plans. Look into those domain and website hosting providers who regularly research keywords that meet your website content description and optimize your website based on the most searched keywords in your niche area and market in order to drive relevant organic traffic to your website via major search engines and directories.

These are the major factors that you will have to consider in order to settle on your choice of a reliable and worthy domain and website hosting service provider. Remember, this is a broad analysis and for those with specialised interests and needs, more factors will have to be taken into account before arriving at a decision. But for all purposes this is all you need to keep in mind before you settle for a domain and website hosting service provider.