10 Mistakes to Avoid with Web Hosting

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Listed below are the 10 most common mistakes people new to web hosting make. All of these can have a very negative impact on your websites overall success, however they are just as easy to avoid. Take note of them, and be sure not to repeat them like countless others have!

1 – Contact Details
Make sure the host you are dealing with has tangible contact details, phone those numbers to check that they answer in time and of course that it actually works! Another thing, make sure that they have a physical address. Many web hosts are merely resellers of other hosts, and operate completely virtually. They can very easily disappear of the planet without a trace, and your website will disappear just as fast.

2 – Plenty of bandwidth
Going for the cheapest host can often have negative consequences. You may be saving in the short term, but the performance of your website can be very negatively affected. Make sure that they have adequate bandwidth available to their servers, test websites that are currently being hosted with them so you can get a real feel for how your website is going to perform. Rather spend a little extra in the beginning, as transferring to a new host down the line can be a real pain and costly.

3 – Enough room to grow
Although not really a problem anymore, a lot of hosts are offering unlimited disk space. However you need to check their terms regarding this seemingly “unlimited” disk space. Many put tight restrictions on what you can do with this space. If you host doesn’t offer you unlimited disk space, make sure that there is enough space to last you for the foreseeable future. Outage fees can often cost you an arm and a leg if you go over bandwidth and disk space you originally agreed upon with your host.

4 – Phishing
Phishing attempts have been rife lately. Websites pretending to be other websites so that you can snatch your credit card information. Make sure the host you are signing up with domain name matches with the one used to submit your payment details, if you are not sure, rather be safe than sorry. They could be using a third party payment processor, however if this is the case it can show that they have few resources which could affect your web site down the line.

5 – Security
Security, another point when making payment to your host, and any other site for that matter is make sure that the connection in secure. The web address should display HTTPS, not HTTP, which means that the connection is encrypted and that the host has taken steps to make sure that your information is safe with them.

6 – Plan for the future!
Like many aspects of your life, your website too needs a plan. Without one, it is very likely going to come to an abrupt end. Make sure that you have clearly set out goals for your website, to ensure that it is on track with your current requirements, and there is an easy path for success. Without a plan, problems that will arise will seem much bigger than they are, and are more likely to knock you off course.

7 – Unoptimized images
Your websites homepage needs to load within 10 seconds for a dialup connection. New website owners often fail to optimize their images effectiviely, often resizing huge images with the html attributes alone. Invest in some software that will allow you to easily manage images on your website, so that your pages load as fast as possible. Keep images in one common location, so that each webpage can draw off a cached version of it. It’s really simple.

8 – Design of the website
Make sure that your website is easy to follow, and is well laid out. One of the easiest ways to do this is making sure the design elements are consistant! Many new web masters design each page as if they are designing it from scratch, what is left is a website that has looked like it has been designed by Picasso himself!

9 – Checkout
Shopping carts have an abandon rate as high as 90% on the internet . The main reason is that they are badly thought out, causing the visitor to become frustrated and confused with what they are supposed to do next. The best way to check that your shopping cart is working is to test it out on your grandmother, if she can get through without any hassle you are one big step ahead of your competitors.

10 – Your URL
The URL, this is usually the first thing people think about when creating a website, but judging from the websites out there, it seems not much thought is ever put into them. Make sure that your URL is memorable, the beginning of the decade there was a trend to include only keywords in your domain. This helped with search engine rankings, but doesn’t create a lasting impression on your visitors. You can include keywords, but build a brand around it! No one is every going to remember a string of generic keywords.