Internet for Business
Best Web Hosting Sites for Small Business
Once you have a website built and ready to go “live” on the Internet, the next logical step is to assess the best web hosting sites or companies so you can select one to host your web pages.
Because web hosting is such a competitive industry, there are now a multitude of players offering this service, from well-established, major companies to small, one-man operations.
You may find that for your website, a local hosting company in your town is the most suitable. Although this type of business may not offer all the bells and whistles of the bigger players, you’ll find it easier to build a personal relationship with the owner.
It’s much easier picking up the phone and discussing problems with someone you know than speaking to a faceless operator in a call-center.
So in many cases a small, local business will provide the best web hosting option, provided they know what they’re doing and have a reputation for reliability and honesty, something it should be easy enough to find out.
If, on the other hand, you don’t have this option and would prefer to use one of the larger, specialized hosting companies, the quickest way of establishing which can be classified as the “best” web hosting sites is to read customer reviews and ratings.
There are now a number of websites that rate hosting services, based on customer feedback and opinions. These web hosting reviews offer an insight into the web hosting company’s services or features. Sometimes opinions can differ quite widely, but reviews do nevertheless provide valuable pointers that’ll help in selecting a hosting service.
It’s probably best not to rely only on one of these review sites, as the owner could have a vested interest in promoting certain hosting companies to the exclusion of others. But if you read the ratings and reviews from a number of sites, you’ll find the same companies scoring consistently high marks, so this should give a fair indication of the best web hosting sites.
Here’s a list of websites that rate and review hosting companies:
The last time I checked these, both the hosting companies I use and recommend -
Lunarpages
and
Hostgator
- were highly ranked by all four review sites. But businesses change, technology advances and new
competitors enter the market, so a company that may have been ranked one of the best hosting sites a
few months back could today find itself down the list, displaced by one or more of the competition.
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