Though we offer hosting for our clients, we do get a number of people asking for hosting tips / suggestions. In our experience a new webhost (or your first) can either be a very enjoyable process, or an absolute disaster. After many-a-disaster, we’ve compiled a list of five tips to help you with the selection process.

1. Price.

You get what you pay for. So, you have a new business and are looking at establishing your online identity. You have a basic web design already done, and you’re just looking for a company to host your site. After a quick Googling (the process of searching for something on google.com) you find XYZ Webhosting for $3.99/month. Not to knock budget webhosts, but do you really think you’re going to receive business-class service for less than $5.00/month? We don’t want to make assumptions, but it’s not likely. You’ve spent money of supplies, marketing, and legal fees…don’t skimp on your website.

2. Service.

It’s no secret that we host our sites with Myriad Network (full disclosure: that is an affiliate link). The number one reason we do so is the fantastic support. Your website will most likely work fine 95% of the time, but the remaining 5% can cost you clients, money, and your reputation. Before you move your mission critical sites to your new host, try out their customer support. How long does it take them to reply, do they actually resolve the issue, and how is the overall experience? When things go wrong (yes, that’s when not if), you want to be sure they can be resolved quickly.

3. Take it for a spin.

Most web-hosting companies will offer a risk free trial when you sign up for their service. Take advantage of it. What we’ve done is registered a few test domains with godaddy (yes there are other domain registrars, but with all the coupons and discounts out there, godaddy has been the cheapest for us.). If you already have a website, use your test domain and setup an identical copy of your site with the webhost you’re evaluating. You could potentially save yourself hours of headaches by doing this. Make sure you take note of the speed, possible issues with email setup, downtime, ftp time-outs, and anything else that may affect your websites performance.

4. Database Performance.

The majority of websites we develop are powered by a Content Management System (otherwise known as a CMS). A CMS is a dynamic solution, which means it relies heavily on a database to show the different pages of a website. Because there is such a heavy dependence on the database, fast database performance is extremely important. If you’re running a website with a CMS and you’re experiencing questionable database performance, you have reason enough to seek elsewhere.

5. Jumping on the new technology bandwagon.

Your Wordpress blog with 500 hits a month doesn’t need the latest grid server with Ruby on Rails, Django, and every other new/new’ish technology. This last point is solely from personal experience. In early 2007 we moved our site and all our client sites to a reputable host that was supposed to offer “traffic proof hosting”. We never we able to test this claim because of downtime slow performance, and lost email. Yes, there are advantages to switching hosts that will offer more options. However, switching for the sake of switching is not wise. If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.

While there are other technical points that should be considered; looking at these five points should get you pointed in the right direction. Is there anything we’re leaving out? We’d love to here from you.