4 Signs You Have a Bad Web Host
I just came to a realization. This is the SEO Hosting blog, yet we almost never talk about web hosting. The truth is your web host plays a huge role in helping you build your online presence. If your website is always down, you could lose out on potential customers, and it could even cause the search engines to have problems crawling your content. Additionally, if your website loads slowly, it may possibly cause your search rankings to drop.
Simply put, you need to make sure you have a quality web host that can help you grow a successful online presence. Here are some signs of a bad web host. If your see these characteristics in your host, RUN!!!
1. Your website is down on a frequent basis. When your website is down, you can’t make sales online. It’s just that simple. Every minute your site is down is money that you could be losing. While a lot of hosting companies will promise a certain percentage of uptime, it’s hard to gauge which ones really live up to their claims. Your best bet is to find one that actually guarantees 99% or more uptime and that has a proven track record of satisfying their customers.
2. You can’t get in touch with customer service. You want to know how some companies are able to offer ridiculously cheap hosting? They do it by cutting their customer service. They either outsource their service or reduce the number of hours it’s available. Unfortunately, your website is a 24/7 store, and if it goes down, you need to get it back up no matter what time day or night it is. Make sure you choose a hosting company that offers 24/7 customer support.
3. Your website takes too long to load. Load time is important for a couple of key reasons. First, the average visitor gives a new website 8 seconds to grab his interest. If your website takes too long to load, visitors will back out before even seeing your content. Also, load time seems to play a role in determining your website’s search engine placement. A quality web host can help your site load faster.
4. Your website keeps getting hacked.Most people look at uptime and bandwidth when choosing their host. However, they overlook the importance of security. A web host with poor security could leave your website and personal information at risk. Make sure your hosting company uses the latest security technology to help keep your website safe.
Who is your web host? Are you happy with their services?
May 17th, 2010 at 9:33 am
All excellent points!
I might add one. They erroneously delete your hosting account and then want to argue with you about it when you call and tell them that you didn't cancel your account. *phew*
I've had my share of bad hosting but that was the incident that took the cake.
Here are some more ways to tell if your hosting sucks (fron the Hostgator blog) 10 Ways to Tell If Your Web Host Sucks
May 17th, 2010 at 10:52 am
Hah! My host is Godaddy, and I'm quite concerned with the recent hacks.
I've also noticed long load times for my sites.
I'd give them a fair rating on websites not going down often and having decent customer service.
I am considering switching to another company.
May 24th, 2010 at 2:03 am
I lucked out and found hosting with a company called Simplehost about 2 years ago. I'm only paying $6.99 per month for unlimited bandwidth, storage, email, and sub-domains. It's great.
You can't go wrong with Hostgator either. they're also really excellent. But watch out for Godaddy, they try to upsell you like 100 times!
May 26th, 2010 at 2:02 pm
I like what you’ve done with the blog. I like to keep my finger on the pulse of things Keep blogging.You do a great job.
May 26th, 2010 at 9:26 pm
Hiya.This post is really good. Can I get some more information mailed to me? Can I get some more info on it?
August 14th, 2010 at 8:58 pm
Thanks for the nice post.
November 2nd, 2010 at 4:13 am
Every hosting company wont be like this, we have also seen so many companies, they are all providing very good services and support.
March 31st, 2011 at 4:02 am
I mostly changed hosts due to the first point. I hate downtime and it's simply not acceptable. I do also recognize some of the other points, however I have yet to experience them – and I sincerely hope I never will
April 22nd, 2011 at 8:53 am
But one question i would like to put ahead how to choose better web hosting cause when google go to crawl the site and if the server is down then google might reject our site. So please do let me know…