Choosing website hosting is an important decision. Although it is very easy to transfer a website such as WordPress from one host to another, website owners should strive to choose high-quality, professional website hosting and not have to deal with transferring their website due to malfunctions. The infrastructure of your website is very important for its performance, its Google ranking, and ultimately, the leads and sales it generates for you.
Here are some of the pitfalls people encounter when choosing website hosting.
Common mistakes when choosing website hosting
Choosing free hosting
Free website hosting still exists here and there, and although it is no longer commonly used because there is enough cheap website hosting available, there are still those who think it is not worth paying for website hosting. There is no doubt about it – cheap website hosting is based on the worst kind of servers and hardware, is full of advertisements or other traps, is insecure, and is usually very slow. Even if your website is really small, or you only have a modest personal blog, don't choose free website hosting.
Purchasing hosting without checking the package offered
How much disk space will you get? Which server will you be on (and where is it located)? How much bandwidth? Don't buy hosting without carefully checking what's included in the package.
Choosing website hosting without checking customer service
If the hosting is perfect, you may never need customer service, not even once. Since we don't live in an ideal world, it's important to check the quality of the hosting provider's customer service and technical support before purchasing. Send an email or call them – how quickly did they respond? Were they polite? Did you get answers to all your questions? More than that – what communication channels does the hosting service offer? Is it just email and chat, or is there also a phone number? These are all very important things to check before purchasing website hosting.
Purchasing storage without reading the terms of use
As with any business relationship, when you purchase website hosting, you are essentially signing a contract and agreeing to the terms of use. It's true that no one has the energy to read a long legal document, but at least go over the user agreement and see if there are any surprises, strange conditions, inappropriate commitments on your part, and so on.
Don't buy hosting that doesn't offer a money-back guarantee
Don't buy website hosting if you are not offered the option of a refund and cancellation. The minimum is a refund after up to 30 days, and companies that are confident in their hosting service will also allow you to cancel at any stage and receive a refund for the remaining time. Even if the hosting is cheap, don't choose it if there is no refund option.
Choosing hosting that doesn't insist on backups
It's true that you can back up your website yourself, which is especially easy if you have a WordPress website, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't have an extra layer of protection for your data. It is highly recommended to choose only a web hosting service that performs daily backups and stores them on an external server separate from the hosting server itself. There have been quite a few cases in Israel where servers were hacked, websites were deleted, and then it turned out that the backup was only stored on the hacked server, there was no additional backup, and all the information was lost. You don't want to find yourself in a situation where you have to rebuild your website from scratch, so be sure to choose a hosting service that knows how to back up properly.
Unsecure website hosting
It may sound surprising, but there are still website hosting services in Israel and around the world that do not adhere to information security, and the websites hosted there are hacked day in and day out. There has been a clear increase in attacks on Israeli websites and digital assets in recent years (even before the war) – and the attackers are not particularly selective in choosing their targets. Find out what the hosting provider's information security policy is and how they protect their servers and the information on them. If you receive vague and unclear answers, it is a sign that the website hosting is not secure, and you should steer clear of it.