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Website Hosting: How to Pick the Best Web Host

Choosing a website hosting company may seem confusing at first, but as long as you stick with a hosting company that is reliable and has a good reputation, you will be fine.

Website hosting is not very expensive anymore because there are so many hosting companies competing with each other for your business. There are many low cost hosting companies today but stay away from the free hosting sites. These may be great for personal websites but are not the best option for businesses. They often have annoying popups and banners,

unreliable of servers, limited web space and technical support.

This will not present a professional image for your business. Take finding a good website hosting company seriously and look for an affordable hosting company that includes the following features:

Website Statistics - You need to track your traffic and see which pages are being visited most.

Customer Technical Support available 24/7

Money Back Guarantee

CGI - (Common Gateway Interface) Your hosting company should allow you to install and run CGI scripts.

POP Email Accounts (Post Office Protocol) Your hosting company should allow you to have more than one POP account - this will allow you to set up other email addresses for different business needs.

Space - disk space and bandwidth

Cpanel (your control panel) for easy control of your website features.

Autoresponders - These send out email messages automatically for you.

Fantastico or Simple scripts for easy, one click installation of a WordPress blog.- These send out email messages automatically for you.

FTP (File transfer protocol) - Look for one that allows unlimited 24/7 access.

These are a few hosting companies I have used personally that have good reputations. I have used HOST GATOR and their customer service is excellent! They are inexpensive, include easy WordPress blog setup through fantastico, and include a free website builder that you can use to easily create your website even with no experience!

Host Gator just added 4,500 templates you can use to customize your own site. This is great for those of you with web design experience and web design software.

BLUEHOST.COM is another excellent website hosting company that has been around a while and has earned a pretty good reputation. They include a free domain name with a hosting contract, and have a variety of professional looking templates you can use to quickly create a website, or a site builder option for those without design experience. Blue Host also includes a script for very easy installation of WordPress blogs.

Homestead.com: If this is your first website and you know absolutely nothing about domain names, web hosting and web design, you can have a website up and running in minutes with Homestead. They have an excellent site builder that anyone can use to create a professional looking website. Homestead is popular among Virtual Assistants. I have used them and found their customer service to be excellent. Build a Professional Website with Homestead. Try for free!

Website Hosting: How to Pick the Best Web Host

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