When choosing a web host there are a few questions you want to ask yourself

1) Am I making my own site or is someone else going to do it for me?

If you’re making your own site, and you’ve never done it before then you’re going to want to choose a hosting company that gives you the tools to create your own site with little to no coding on your end. The first thing to look for is a server based WYSIWYG editor. That means What You See Is What You Get. Most hosting companies provide this in some way or another. (I even coded one of these myself back in High-School). All in all I wouldn’t recommend Go-Daddy, as many of my clients were unsatisfied and I definitely would NOT recommend YellowPages.com the reason is that yellow pages provides you with little customization on your end, forces you to advertise other companies, and drops your listing before you renew. For someone with little to no experience weebly is good tool to have installed on your server.

If you know what you’re doing and are using tools such as Dreamweaver or Contribute. Then you already know about ftp protocols and all that and the above doesn’t apply to you.

2) Will I be conducting online transactions?

If yes, think about what you need for that. If you are storing credit card information directly on your server you need to make sure you have a valid SSL Certificate and it doesn’t hurt to get a verisign box for your customers peace of mind either. There are many tools for creating an online store, from wordpress to Tomato-cart. I’ll write later about how to choose a good shopping cart.

3) Will my site be static or dynamic?

If your entire site is a few pages on your business and is comprised mainly of images and information then you don’t need to worry about this, though you might want to read on anyway. Basically there are a few features that should be included in your hosting at no additional cost. That is:

• PHP, PERL, and ASP Support (make sure you check that other server side languages are included if you use them
• The ability to edit your .htaccess file
• The option to set folder permisions
• Databases (mysql is open source and should be included), some companies charge per database above a certain limit.
• PhpMyAdmin or an equivalent visual database manager

4) How many people are viewing what?

This is the question of space and bandwidth. If you’re a small business with an informational site you don’t need that much. 5 gb of space and 100 gb of bandwidth should be plenty. This does not mean that if you use up 5 gb of space than your site can only be viewed 20 times. Bandwidth is only what is send from the server to the user (that means if a user views 4 pictures at 3 mb each than its only 12mg of bandwidth). If you have higher volume or are using a lot of bandwidth (perhaps you are hosting streaming videos or a live camera feed) than you want to take this into consideration, a lot of sites will give you virtually unlimited bandwidth . However, be careful when you hear unlimited because more often than not there is a limit, though its usually pretty high.

Other Things to look for:

Control Panel:

The control panel is how you change settings on your server. Two popular ones are Vdeck and Cpanel, either one of these is fine (just make sure they are using an up to date version).

Simple Scripts or equivalent

Though not completely necessary, tools like simple scripts install popular software to your server automatically and save a lot of time and headache. Even if you don’t have it already installed, it is free and you can find it here.

Uptime

99% guaranteed minimum, and make sure you have recourse if they fail to meet this number.

Tech Support

This is very important. This is also why I go with a smaller company. When things go wrong as they inevitably will it pays to have a company that will take your call fast and fix your problem. If the company wants to charge you for basic tech support drop them, I’m not saying they need to make your site for you, but there is a good amount they should include with with account, especially if there is a problem that needs to be fixed. Make sure they have a phone number and are open 24/7. Also it might be good to give them a call before hand and see how they handle giving you information, if you’re having problems with them right off the bat, it probably doesn’t pay. Backups are also important, make sure their servers back up regularly (that being said you still want your own backups as well). With any company there is always the possibility of them going out of business so make sure that if it does happen that they would be able to send you your data.

Cost

I saved this for last. The costs for web hosting vary from company to company. Just remember that you get what you pay for. If you’re only paying $3 per month you got to wonder what they cut to make the price so low. On the other end, just cause you pay more does not necessarily mean you are getting a better product. For instance, with GoDaddy you are paying not only for the service, but for the cost of their superbowl commercials. Something that may seem inexpensive may turn out to cost more in the long run (after you add the features you need). Some companies may charge you a low fee for the first year, but hike the prices the second (this was the case with doteasy who would charge you $3 for a domain name but then hike the price to $25 the second year). At least 1 domain name should be included. For additional domain names around $10 is fair, I personally pay $13 for additional ones but that’s cause I like to go though the same company I get my hosting from and they let me host as many as I want.