There are a great variety of web hosting plans being offered today. The top rated website hosting companies may feature one plan that has many services available, or they may sell several different levels of hosting packages ranging from a starter plan to business hosting. Whether you’re starting your first web site or are an experienced web master, here are 10 features that are vital to your web site success. You definitely want your web hosting plan to include these items.
1. Unlimited Storage and Bandwidth
Although the term “Unlimited” is somewhat ambiguous when it comes to web hosting, you still want to get as much disk space and data transfer as you need. Fortunately, most web hosting companies do offer this feature. However, there are still some plans that limit you. I would recommend avoiding these hosting plans. See our article for more information on just what exactly Unlimited Hosting means.
2. Unlimited (or at least multiple) Domains
While you may only need one domain when you’re starting out, chances are very good that you’ll want to expand your web presence in the future. Don’t limit yourself. Make sure your hosting plan allows you to host more than one domain. If your plan allows you to have an unlimited amount of domains, that’s even better!
3. cPanel Interface
In order to access your web hosting applications and administer your site, you’ll need to use the interface your web host provides. We prefer the cPanel interface which we feel is the easiest and most convenient to use. Some companies use their own similar type interface which may be as good (such as iPage) or not so good. But in general, I’d stick to hosting plans that feature cPanel. See this article for more information on cPanel web hosting.
4. Live Chat Support
Some may prefer to use phone or email support when there is a problem or issue with their web site. However, you can often get a faster response and resolution utilizing the live chat support feature if your hosting company provides it. Live chat is our preferred method for customer support. Click this link to read about live chat support tips.
5. Online Billing Access
Nothing is more frustrating than having your web site service interrupted because your renewal date passed and no one informed you about it. Believe it or not, this has happened to me. It’s always nice to be able to go online at your convenience and check out your billing status and renewal dates. Fortunately, more and more web hosts are including this feature. Avoid those that don’t have online billing access and you can eliminate those nasty outages.
6. Free SEO Tools
These days you’ve got to rank high in the search engine results if you want your web site to get traffic. Some web hosting companies (such as Hostgator) offer free SEO tools to help your site get indexed and rank higher. This is a great bonus you should definitely look for.
7. Low Initial Rate and Reasonable Renewal Rates
While everyone looks for good deals and a cheap rate when initially purchasing web hosting, keep in mind that your renewal rates will probably be higher. Make sure you consider both. For more information, see our article on the real cost of your web hosting.
8. Multiple Blog/Content Management Options
It’s always good to have several different choices when it comes to your web site applications and ecommerce tools. You may initially like and use one only to find out later that it doesn’t really meet all your needs. If so, you’ll certainly want to have the option to try something else. Whether its content management applications like WordPress or Joomla, or ecommerce shopping carts, the more variety the better.
9. Unlimited MySQL Databases
Similar to some of the previous items, you want your site to be able to grow as your online needs do. As you add more items to your web site, you’re likely to need more databases to handle the content. Since you can’t really tell how many you’re going to need, unlimited is always best.
10. Unlimited Email Accounts and Mailing Lists
And don’t forget about those email addresses. You’ll probably need several email accounts starting out and possibly many more as your online presence grows. Also, don’t forget to look for features such as auto responders and mailing lists.