Selecting a Webhost can be a daunting task, particularly if you’ve had no prior experience in the process. With so much competition, fake reviews and scams it’s hard to figure out just who to go with.

Before choosing your host, ask yourself these questions:

1.    What would happen if my site went down?
2.    Would I lose customers as a result?
3.    What would the net cost of losing those customers be in real terms?
4.    Would I be harmed in any other way? i.e. Not being indexed by search engines or losing potential incoming links

It’s worth paying for a quality host

If you’re creating a website with business in mind, then by answering the above questions it’s likely you can see the value in paying for a decent host. However, even if you’re just wanting to host a blog, or a hobby-related site it still may be worth paying for quality to save you time and energy.

Always research your host

Before making a purchase based on gut feeling or whether their site looks nice, it’s always a good idea to do research around the host you’re considering going with. Simply do some searches of “host + complaints”, if it’s a dodgy host this should quickly reveal warning signs to you.

Fake review sites

It’s a better idea to search for “host + complaints” as opposed to “host + review” because many scammy hosts will go so far as to setup a bunch of fake review sites and aggressively SEO them so they rank for the top review search results.

What should I look for in a host?

If you have specific software you wish to use then you should definitely check the requirements and ensure the host can provide those. However if you’re interested in a faily simple page or a blog then generally look for:
•    the ability to create sub domains
•    PHP
•    MYSQL
•    The ability to modify your .HTACCESS
•    Cron Jobs
•    Ruby On Rails

Another factor to consider is hosting with a provider in your own country. This will give you a relevancy boost for local searches.

Hosting multiple sites on different domains

If you’re just want to host a blog you may be better of going for standard web hosting, however if you plan to setup multiple sites it is worth considering going with a host that will let you host sites of different IP addresses. Although considerably more expensive you will have the benefit of being able to link between your sites and have the link equity count towards ranking, an example of such a hosting provider is Pair Hosting.