Competition is fierce in the web hosting market these days, and that's good news for those searching for a good solution. But because there are a bunch of questionable and low quality hosting companies on the net, it is important to think about a number of factors that will help determine what is right for your website. When approaching or looking at possible services, you must first decide whether you want to develop the website yourself (or by another third party) and just have it hosted, or have it both built and hosted by one company. If you are considering this question before actually diving in to develop your site, there are real advantages to using the latter option. If the people who build your site also host it on their own servers, then any problems that arise can be troubleshot much more quickly and efficiently, and with less potential for prolonged downtime.

That brings me to the next issue to keep in mind: how much uptime is provided. There is a wide range of quality to found in regard to downtime. All other selling points and features won't mean much if your website cannot be found by potential viewers because the hosting company's servers are not well-maintained and operating smoothly and consistently.

After you consider these two questions, what remains to be done is to simply decide what features will be necessary for your particular site or business. The primary elements you will be looking for are: a) amount of storage (MB), b) monthly bandwidth, c) database availability (MySQL), d) scripting languages offered (PHP and Perl at least), e) subdomains or subfolders offered, f) number of POP3 accounts for email, and g) an FTP account. Note regarding bandwidth: pay close attention to how and what the company will charge you for additional bandwidth used in a billing month (some of the less scrupulous out there will stick it to you here).

Before you actually pull the trigger on a service, consider two final issues. Make sure it is easy to reach the company. Consider where in the country or world the company is located (particularly for international hosting companies), and what means they make themselves available. Ask if the host can be reached quickly and easily by email, IM, and/or toll free phone number. Lastly, some web hosting companies will charge additional set-up fees, or use yearly contracts and some will not. So decide what is relevant and important for your business with these things in mind, and you will have no trouble finding the website hosting services you need.

Paul Nelson is an internet safety advocate, and an authority on the subject of web hosting. For immediate answers to your web hosting questions, visit http://www.hostingforeveryneed.com/.