Since most companies bundle the two services together, many people don’t realize there is a difference between domain name registration and web hosting. Both are important components in maintaining a successful online presence, but only the hosting component will continue to need attention throughout your entire career. This article aims to give a better understanding relating to choosing an appropriate host.

Make sure the host you choose has minimal to no downtime. It is frustrating if you try to log on to your site, and the server is down. If you have a business that relies on the internet for sales, this means you will lose a lot of money because your site is not operable.

Switch web hosts if an outage lasts for more than a day. Even if the host explains why the server is down, the most likely reason is that the host did not invest enough into back up plans as far as outages are concerned. Any truly professional web hosts will have ensured that outages will be short and infrequent.

Choose a web hosting company that is located in the same country as your target audience. For example, if your website is for Americans then you should host it in the US. In fact, if it’s geared towards Californians then hosting it in San Francisco would be great!

You should always back up your data on your own, instead of relying on your web host to protect your information. The more backups you keep of your data, the more protected you will be. Before paying a hosting provider, ask them about their backup services and how much redundancy protection they have available.

When selecting a web host, consider how much the host costs. Some hosts charge on a per-year basis while some may be month-to-month. Look for a host that costs an average of about $5 per month as this will most likely give you a great value for your money as opposed to a free hosting site that may not offer as many options.

Improve your bottom line by taking a close look at the large number of web hosts out there. You can be asked to pay as little as $1 per month to hundreds or thousands for your own dedicated server, but the least expensive ones can often prove the most reliable. Whereas you may get more bandwidth from a more expensive hosting site, that doesn’t necessarily mean you will have less downtime with that site.

Never register your domain with your web hosting service. Many people mistakenly do this, and then realize later they can’t transfer their site over to another web hosting service. This can happen when a company goes offline and bust or for other various reasons. Make sure you register your domain with a different company than your web hosting provider.

If you are just experimenting with web design, look for free web hosting services to get your feet wet. Although free services come with a number of limitations, if your website is purely experimental and recreational, this might not matter much to you. Go for a paid service when you decide that web design is something to which you want to commit.

When choosing a web hosting service, check to see if they have a money-back guarantee. This is especially important if you choose to take advantage of cost’s savings by paying in advance for a year or more of service. It will also give you a clue as to the professionalism of the service you are choosing.

As you may notice by now, registering a great domain is important, and when it’s done, it’s done. A host, however, is a dynamic partner and their status is always directly linked to your own. Services like cloud computing have made things easier for us, but you still need to make sure that you choose wisely.