Are you also wondering which web hosting package to go with and are considering either shared or dedicated web hosting?

The answer is - It depends on your current requirement. There  is no hard and fast rule to what you should get because it totally depends on your requirements. Just so you know, even though a dedicated server is a few times more money than a regular shared server, but it will be many times faster depending on the load of your application. And if your application is making your dedicated server slow, your application can not survive on a shared hosting account.

If you are planning to host several web sites, my only recommendation would be to definitely get a unique dedicated IP address for each site. Even with the most expensive hosting companies it should not cost more than $2-5 a month. This plays a very significant role in SEO.

So some of the factors that you must consider before selecting any hosting companies includes:

• Location of Servers
• Efficiency of Customer Support
• Speed and Performance of Servers
• Configuration / Platform of web servers
• Price of Shared or Dedicated Hosting Servers

Location of Hosting Server

The location of the server makes a big difference. Your server should be geographically located at a high internet quality location. Some of the good US locations include Florida, New York, Chicago, California, Las Vegas, etc. Internationally US and UK are among the top locations for high internet quality.

Efficiency of Customer Support

Customer Support is VITAL. Make this your first priority. Never host your site on a server where you can not reach the customer support via phone. Preferably you should also try and host your sites with web hosting companies who will pick up your phone within the first 5 minutes. This doesn’t mean they pick up your phone and put you on hold for 2o minutes, I mean you should be talking to PEOPLE within the first 5 minutes. What if your site goes down and you have to call the support, imagine being on the phone for 2o minutes hoping someone will soon come to your rescue. So go with recommendations of experts and ask them one question: What is the turn around time of the support on the phone?

I received an email from someone a few days back offering a dedicated server for $125 per month. I could not resist but go to the site to ask them what are they upto and get details. Guess what ? There was no phone number to reach the sales department. Now how serious would a web hosting company be, if they dont want the customers to call them to make a purchase. This gave me an idea of how their customer support will be. So these are the things you need to sure about. Once you find the right company, you will never have to change your host.

Speed and Performance of Servers

Sure thing, you want your website to be fast and be able to manage the load of traffic that you are expecting. A very good pre-screening method is to visit the website of the hosting company and see how fast their site is. 4 out of 10 hosting companies have slow sites themselves. Now you are smarter than that, you can put 2 and 2 together and know how their hosting will be. But the idea here is to try and make sure their speed is fast.

Configuration / Platform of web servers

Make sure that the hosting company provides you with the configuration of the server as you need, enough disk space, enough bandwidth, enough memory and has room for expansion in case you need to upgrade your server at a later date. Also be sure that they offer the platform that you want. For example if you have a dot net web site or an asp web site you will want to host it on a windows based operating system like Windows Server 2003 with IIS. Similarly for PHP site and to run most forums, blogs build on PHP, you want a Linux operating system with Apache and MySQL. Some companies charge more money for windows than linux and this is normal, because Windows Operating Systems are more expensive in the first place.

Price of Shared or Dedicated Hosting Servers

Remember one thing: You get what you paid for. So dont hesitate spending a slightly higher amount of money for a better service. Here’s a quick equation:

High Price plus Faster Server plus better customer support is FAR BETTER THAN

Low Price plus slower server plus poor customer service.

So make your call accordingly.

I have worked with several web hosting companies and based on my experience I do have a recommendation to make but I dont want you to go any buy it because I said so. I want you to apply the above pointers, TALK TO THE COMPANY on the phone and then decide whether you want to go with them or not.

Visit www.raakesh.com/liquidweb.php

Here’s my testimonial for them: Ever since I have worked with them, I have migrated ALL my sites to their servers on dedicated and shared hosting accounts and I am AMAZED at their customer service team. They are just so good overall and worth every penny I spend on my hosting.

Go to www.raakesh.com/liquidweb.php and call them on the number on the screen.

They can also guide you if you NEED a dedicated web server or a shared web server. They have been helping me with all my applications, softwares, programs like I help my customers.