I've had to change web hosts a number of times. In
fact, I spent most of this week changing from one
host to another. Believe me, it is a major pain, although
I have made sure that my site is always ready to move
if necessary.
One thing I've become is very aware of the difference
between a good host and a bad host. To put it simply
(and obviously) a good host makes it easy for you
to create and maintain your web site. A bad host gets
in the way and makes you angry, unhappy and gives
you an ulcer.
The key point to remember when evaluating hosts is
the most important quality is responsiveness - of
your site and support people. Your site should be
up virtually all of the time (unfortunately computer
crashes do happen but they should be rare and far
between) and it must be fast. In addition, all good
hosts react in a timely manner to support issues and
questions. You can tell when a host is going bad from
the failure of these key areas - unresponsive technical
support, slow servers or constant downtime.
This article is intended as a kind of checklist -
what is essential, essential if you need it, optional
and not important at all? Look it over, then when
you go to find a good host pull out the article and
make sure it measures up.
