If you want to create a website for your small business, then the first thing to consider is selecting the right web hosting service providers. This ensures their existence is reliable and services are authentic.

There are numerous hosting services, so which one is the best? Well, it’s a challenging task to choose one from many options. So, here you need expert advice to hop on to the best service providers.

Well, to ease your work, we have a creative guide. Here we have mentioned the top 9 questions that everyone should ask their web host before choosing one. It also helps to ensure that you are getting what your business wants.

9 Important Questions To Ask A Web Host Provider

1. Do they provide a 99.9% uptime guarantee 

The first and important thing to consider is the service provider’s reliability. A web host must keep a website available for visitors 24X7. If the website is facing more downtime, hosting service providers are not good at their job.

You might have seen that hosting providers give a 99.9% of uptime guarantee. But is it real? If your service providers are not offering a guarantee, check their records. Also, check their customer review; you will get an idea of the uptime rate they provide.

So ask your host whether they offer an uptime guarantee or not?

2. How many types of hosting plans are available?

Whenever you visit a hosting provider, first ask them how many types of hosting plans they offer. There are different kinds of hosting plans available. So, you, too, need to make sure which plan is suitable for your website.

Also, remember that sometimes your website needs for upgradation of the plan, so the web host must provide an upgradation feature.

Shared hosting, Virtual private servers (VPS), Cloud Hosting, and Dedicated servers hosting are some commonly used plans by website owners. So, before you hop on to a web hosting service provider, check whether they offer scalability or not.

3. Are new hosting packages free?

A website demands an upgraded plan when they grow, experience a spike of visitors, at festival time, or when they offer discounts. So, a shared hosting plan can’t work for a website with thousands of visitors at one time. Well, in this situation, a business needs to upgrade its plan.

For instance, a website has a shared hosting plan, but suddenly it starts generating more traffic, then you need to upgrade to a dedicated server or a VPS server. Upgraded hosting plans also offer Google workspace and its exciting features for employees. Those plans charge a little more but are beneficial for websites. 

So, ask your website hosting provider whether they charge for an upgrading plan or not. Also, make sure they offer a new hosting plan without any hassle and no downtime.

4. How will they protect your website? 

As you know, cyber security is increasing day by day, that is why companies need to offer security to their customers’ websites. So when you narrow down the hosting provider list, ask them how they can keep your website protected from cybercrime?

To your knowledge, many things make your website protected from virus attacks and malware. So, some most common security features that a hosting provider must offer are;

• Scanning email
• Virus and malware scan
• Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) mitigation

5. Does a web hosting company offer a free SSL certificate? 

When you plan to open an e-commerce website, then you can’t run a business until you enable SSL. The Secure sockets layer (SSL) is a kind of security that ensures that a website is protected. Also, SSL makes sure your visitor’s personal data is kept safe. An SSL certificate is also essential for SEO, which helps to generate more traffic to your website.

Also, SSL helps keep data away from hackers and malware attacks and secure information by encrypting the user data. Most hosting providers offer SSL certificates for free, but do yours?

6. Your website hosting providers allow adding multiple domains?

If you have one website but plan for more, you need a service provider that offers more domains. Well, in the future, you might need multiple add-on domains, so make sure you are allowed. Ask your web hosting service provider whether they allow multiple domains to be added.

Mainly hosting providers allow at least 25 add-on domains in an account. Still, ask the company before to clear your doubts.

7. What is the backup policy of their company? 

Backup is very important to secure confidential data. Many hosting providers conduct backups at least once a day, and some do it once a week. So ask the company whether they offer regular backup or not. So before choosing one, make sure their company offers a good backup policy. 

8. How many clients do they have on a particular server?

The website speed also depends on total customers in a server. So, if you are considering a shared hosting solution, it means you are going to share server space with different websites. It means that the number of websites on a particular server will thoroughly affect the website’s speed. When choosing a hosting provider, ask them how many customers they share on each server.

9. Does the company offer a free trial? 

Well, it is one of the most important questions. It’s all about your website, so you can’t take a chance; that is why the free trial is must be needed to know their services. So ask the service provider if they offer a 15-day or 30 days free trial? It will help you to decide if they are a suitable service provider for your website or not.

Well, if a company is offering a free demo, it is best. If not, then forget them and hop on to the next on your list of website hosting providers.

Conclusion 

Have you asked all these nine questions your web hosting service provider? If their answer is in your favor, then stick to them. But if they are not, keep searching until you find the best one. 

We hope you have found this guide helpful. For further information, connect with us by the comment box below. 

Thank you for reading!