Choosing a web hosting company starts with the vision you have for your website. It is important to have a solid plan in place for the website you want to create before choosing a web hosting company; this ensures that the hosting company is able to provide you with the tools and programs necessary to create the exact website you wish to launch.

There are more than a few choices when it comes to choosing a web hosting company. Here are some tips to help make your decision easier.

Free Web Hosting:

Free web hosting sounds wonderful, but only for a moment. If designing a business website especially, it looks unprofessional to use free web hosting: first of all, your domain name is hosted through the free hosting company as a sub-domain, making it a longer web address than necessary, and difficult for most to remember. Another reason not to go with a free hosting company is the fact that free web hosts are heavily supported by advertisers: ads pop up every time a website visitor views your site, and some free hosting companies require a frame on your website, or advertising banners on each page, distracting from your content and what you are trying to accomplish.

Free hosting accounts are also limited in space and features, and the free hosting company will often ask you to change over to their paid hosting options anyway. Let's also not forget the fact that if going with a paid hosting account that is your own, you can add your own advertising banners to the site, so the profits go into your pocket and not the hosting company's.

Free web hosting may be ideal if you are just experimenting, but is not recommended if you are looking to expand your business in a professional manner.

Paid Web Hosting:

There are three options in terms of paid web hosting: Shared Web Hosting, Virtual Private Server, and Dedicated Server.

A shared web hosting service means that the hosting provider puts hundreds, even thousands of accounts on one large server. You will need to understand terms such as disk space, bandwidth, and FTP, as these are very important things to consider when choosing a web hosting company. (These definitions can be found in Just Joan's Glossary of Website Design Terms.) The choice of shared site hosting may be cheaper, and a great way for a new webmaster to get their feet wet, but the resources are limited. It would not take long for a business website to need more than this service could offer.

A virtual private server is certainly a more reliable choice. This server also hosts multiple sites, but the number of sites is limited. This would allow you to handle more than one website safely, with no down time.

On top of the small business host mountain is the dedicated server. This means one site per server. This allows you to be the master of your "domain." Your options are as limitless as your imagination. It may be wise to start with a low-end dedicated server, and upgrade as necessary, to help keep your initial costs down.

Things To Keep In Mind:

Do not be afraid to ask a hosting company for trial time.

Beware of words such as "unlimited bandwidth." Sounds neat, but other resource restrictions make it impossible to enjoy unlimited anything. This is just an enticement ploy.

Get a guarantee of up-time. 99.5% - 99.9% are the norm.

Do not automatically pay for overages you may not use.

Make sure you have e-mail access so you are not overloading your personal e-mail inbox. It looks more professional to use an e-mail address that has your company's domain name in it, and it's easier for your potential clients/consumers to remember.

Offers of 200-500GB is also a ploy. A simple site would at most use 25MB.

Test the tech support of your hosting company, especially those who guarantee 24/7 support. E-mail them on Sunday, or call them at midnight. Wait to see how long the response takes.

Make sure you are able to keep track of your website statistics through your hosting account, so you can use them to help improve your future website traffic.

Look for and read client reviews before choosing a website hosting company.

Before you fully decide on a web hosting company, you need to understand their terms and conditions. Do your research. Take your time and make the decision that is right for you.

Of course, if deciding to hire a web designer, they will take care of all of the above for you. A truly professional business calls for immediate action when problems arise. A website designer who provides domain name registration, website hosting services, as well as design and maintenance services, would free you from contacting many sources when potential problems arise. After all, time is money.