Since most companies bundle the two services together, many people don’t realize there is a difference between domain name registration and web hosting. Both are important components in maintaining a successful online presence, but only the hosting component will continue to need attention throughout your entire career. This article aims to give a better understanding relating to choosing an appropriate host.

Be sure to back up your website and information to your computer as often as you can. Your host may not back up your site so if they experience extensive technical difficulties or are even shut down for good, your site will practically be gone forever and you will have to start anew.

Make sure you, and not your web host, controls your domain name. If you let your host control your domain name, you may be stuck with that host if you don’t want to change domains. Some unscrupulous hosts won’t release the domain info if you leave on bad terms. If you control the domain, you can point it at another host’s nameservers and start fresh.

When choosing your web hosting service, do not rely on someone’s recommendation, or only on the info you’ve read online. Most services have affiliate programs and the people recommending the service may not have any direct experience with it. You should take more than recommendations into consideration when choosing your web host.

Read the terms of your contract before subscribing to a web hosting service. You should look for a guarantee that your content will be updated right away when you upload it to your server. Remember that your visitors want up to date content and you will not be able to meet their expectations with a slow web hosting service.

If you want to use a shopping cart software, make sure it is compatible with your web host. A good web host should support certain features such as Web scripting, dynamic content or executable files. These features will allow you to add different ways for your visitors to interact with your website, for instance by leaving feedback.

When you choose a web hosting service, pay the company on a monthly basis rather than in large lump sums. You don’t know how long the web host (or even your business) will stay open. Depending on the terms of the service agreement, you could lose any money you paid for future services if the web host provider goes out of business or the service is no longer able to provide for the needs of your expanding company.

It is important to determine your needs prior to shopping for a web hosting service. There are numerous packages you can choose from that vary significantly in price. Some of the factors you should consider include the amount of bandwidth you need, how much disk space you require, and the types of databases offered. Knowing your requirements in a web host will make it much easier for you to select a hosting package.

As you may notice by now, registering a great domain is important, and when it’s done, it’s done. A host, however, is a dynamic partner and their status is always directly linked to your own. Services like cloud computing have made things easier for us, but you still need to make sure that you choose wisely.