There are quite a lot of Newbie bloggers and small business owners who often make mistakes when buying a web hosting plan for the first time. When they buy a web hosting plan, they look only at pricing without realizing that they are making a big mistake that will hurt their website in future.
If you are going to buy a web hosting plan for the first time and choosing a web hosting plan by just looking its price, then wait, this article is for you. In this article we have discussed 7 common mistakes the most first time buyers make and how you can avoid them.
However, this article will not be telling you how to buy a web hosting plan, or which company is the best to host a website, or what are the features that you need to look for while buying a web hosting.
This article will give you a better idea of what to do or what not do while buying a web hosting plan for the first time. So let’s just head into the topic without wasting much of the time.
Mistake 1: They Signup With Cheap or Free Web Hosting Providers
One of the very common mistakes that a newbie make is that they sign up with a free web hosting service provider or buy a cheap web hosting plan.
The reason is simple; they simply do not want to spend money on web hosting. They believe that all web hosting services are equal but actually they are not.
There are many websites exist on the internet that offers free web hosting. Also, there are quite a lot of cheap web hosting providers available out there; even big web hosting giants like GoDaddy does offer a web hosting plan for as low as $1 per month. But the question is that how reliable these plans are?
If we talk about free hosting then let me tell you that they are the worst web hosting providers. They do not offer any customer support with their free plan and can suspend your account at any time without letting you know. Neither they do not take backups of your website, nor provide you any tool to take backups. Most importantly, downtimes are very common with free web hosting providers.
Now coming to the cheap hosting providers, well most of the cheap web hosting providers are not as reliable as companies like BlueHost, GoDaddy or SiteGround are. You may get a web hosting plan at a cheap price but you have to compromise on quite a lot of things such as server response time, advance website management tools and customer support.
So it is always better to go for a reliable hosting provider rather than free or cheap web hosting providers.
Mistake 2: They Don’t Read Terms and Condition Before They Signup
No matter which web hosting provider you are choosing, you are always going to avoid reading the terms and conditions page and that is something you should not do while buying a web hosting plan.
The terms and conditions page is one of the most important pages you should look at while purchasing a web hosting.
The page talks about everything you are bound to accept if you are using their services. The terms and condition page include information about the refund policy, fair usage policy, backup policy, privacy policy, anti-spam policy and much more.
So it is advisable to read the terms and conditions page before buying any web hosting service.
Mistake 3: They Don’t Analyze Their Web Hosting Need in Advance
When you are starting a website, always buy a web hosting plan keeping the future of your website in mind. You should buy a web hosting plan considering how large your website is going to be in next 2-3 year time.
When your website grows, you need more server space, more bandwidth and more database space, so keep all of these things in mind while picking a web hosting plan.
It has been seen that most newbie bloggers and small business owners do not even think about it in advance and they end up choosing a plan with low storage, and bandwidth, and they face issues at a later stage.
So always analyze your web hosting need in advance and choose a plan that can handle your website load in future.
Mistake 4: They Don’t Ask for Reviews From The Real Customers
No matter which web hosting company you are choosing, you should always ask for reviews from the real customers.
Real customers are the only people who can give you their unbiased opinion about the web hosting company.
Often bloggers promote web hosting companies that are not really best in the business. Bloggers get compensation for recommending a web hosting company and write biased reviews. Hence searching reviews on Google will not be a good option.
Just in case if you are wondering how you can get reviews from the real customers, you can find them on different web hosting forums or Facebook groups.
This way you will get some authentic reviews of a web hosting provider.
Mistake 5: They Don’t Understand the SEO Implications of Web Hosting
According to many SEO experts, a website’s loading speed helps in ranking. If your website is loading slowly then you are not only losing visitors but Google will also de-rank your website in SERP.
Hence it is advisable to choose for a reliable company who has fast and secure servers.
There are tools available on the internet that can tell you the server response time or time-to-first-byte. Using the tools you can judge how fast a web hosting provider is.
Most first time web hosting buyers do not care much about the server response time and later struggle raking their site in Google serach.
Always check server response time in advance before you buy a web hosting plan.
Mistake 6: They Don’t Ask For the Host’s Backup Policy
Well, what if you lose your website’s data accidentally?
How will you restore the data again and make your site go live?
Well, most of the web hosts do take a backup of their servers regularly but not all.
There are quite a lot of web hosting companies who do not take regular backups.
So always ask your web hosting provider about their backup policy before you sign up.
Some web hosting provider only provide paid backup plan and pricing of backup plan differs host to host. Always check for all pricing in advance so that you are not end up paying a hefty web hosting bill.
Mistake 7: They Buy a Web Hosting Package with No Refund Policy
Let’s suppose you have purchased a web hosting, you have used the plan for a couple of days but you are not satisfied with the services.
Well, in such cases you will ask for a refund right?
But here is a catch.
Different web hosting providers have a different refund policy.
Some hosting providers do offer 30 days money back guarantee, some providers has a 7 days refund policy, and there are some hosting providers who do not have a refund policy at all.
There are also a lot of conditions to get a refund that differ hosting provider to hosting provider. So it is advisable to check out the refund policy before buying a web hosting package.
Final Words
So these were all the common mistakes that newbie web hosting buyers make. We hope that you will avoid these mistakes next time when you will be buying a new web hosting plan. If you have any questions about the topic, feel free to ask them in the comment section below and we will surely help you out.
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