Uptime is an underrated feature for many webmasters. Often times they are looking for additional features that will allow them to run their scripts and find as much space as possible. What many website owners, especially those that do not have a lot of experience, don’t realize, is that uptime is just as if not more important than other features.

If your website is down, you will not receive any business.

 for every minute that your website is down, your visitors will be unable to access your site and therefore will not be able to place any orders. While a little bit of downtime might be alright for content driven sites, it can cripple E-commerce websites that rely on the ability of their customers to place orders. You need to make sure that the cheap web host that you choose is as reliable as possible.

Speak with Customer Support Regarding Uptime

 You will find that most cheap hosting companies will make promises that they are able to provide “99.9%” uptime, but this is not a promise that you should take at face value. Are there times during the day that your site will not necessarily be down, but will slow down and make it hard for your customers to make their way through the order process? Temporary error screens can also cripple a business and it is important that your site runs at the optimal level at all times throughout the day. You should speak with a representative at the company and express your concerns about the uptime of their cheap hosting service. Explain to them how much uptime affects your business and make sure that they give you some statistics from the last few months. Keep in mind that if you purchase shared hosting, you may experience more downtime than you would on a dedicated server, especially if the company overloads the servers with accounts. Make sure that you inquire about this as well.

After you make your purchase, you should use a third party service to track your sites uptime for the first month to ensure that you are meeting the marks that were promised by the company. Often times if your site is up for less time than was promised, the company will give you a full refund.

Finding cheap web hosting that is not only cheap but reliable can be hard at times. There are literally thousands of web hosts out there and all of them make similar promises to one another. Sifting through these promises to find the hosts that will benefit your business the most can be a daunting task. If you are looking for a way to easily sift through all of the information that is available to you on cheap web hosting, here is a easy step by step guide;

First, Narrow Down Your List

Narrow down your list of web hosts to only the top ten or twelve that provide all of the features that you are looking for in a host. This shouldn’t be hard. Make sure that you have a good mix of well known, popular hosts as well as “mom and pop” hosts. Sometimes you will find that the smaller hosts are able to provide much more personal customer service because they have less clients that they are working with and they truly appreciate your business.

Second, Read Reviews

Once you have your list of hosts, the next thing that you need to do is to read reviews. Look for reviews that are on websites that allow former customers of the cheap web hosting company to give their input and share their experiences.As you read the various reviews on each of the hosts, give each site on your list a grade. Look specifically for reviews on the features that are the most important to you throughout the process.

Contact the Company

Talking with someone at the company will give you a good idea about how well they will be able to serve you. Customer support is huge in the web hosting business and your ability to speak with them quickly could end up saving you a great deal of money in the long run. Remember to ask any questions that you might have about their services and specifically inquire about the features that you are looking for from their company.

 The most important part of the process is proper research. The more information that you have available to you, the easier your decision will be int he end. Ask the pertinent questions and read reviews about all of the different sites that you are considering.

One of the most important aspects of researching a web hosting company is reading through the  web hosting reviews and determining which cheap web hosts will suit you best. There are thousands of hosts that are available to you, but you should never just give your money away without conducting the proper research. Make sure that you read everything that you can about the company in question before just giving them your money and read as many customer web hosting reviews as you can.

One of the best places to find authentic web hosting reviews  is on web hosting forums online. There are a handful of large forums that are dedicated to taking a look at different web hosting companies and deals and often times you will be able to find several customer reviews from members of that forum.

Before reading through the web hosting reviews that you have gathered online, first determine which features are most important to you in a web hosting package. You should look for reviews that specifically mention the company's services in these areas in a positive light. This will give you a good idea of whether or not the web hosting company that you are considering purchasing from is able to deliver on the promises that they have made. Keep in mind that uptime is always a big issue with web hosts, because if your site is not online than your visitors will not be able to access your content.

If you visit the web hosting forums, you might want to take some time to create a thread or private message members of the forum who have experience with the company to get a better idea of how their service was. Ask them very specific questions about the features that interest you to better determine how well they perform in the areas that you require.

Web hosting, more so than nearly any other industry relies heavily on their customer reviews to drive new business. Use this to your advantage and look through all of the web hosting reviews that are available to you. nearly each of them will have some valuable information that will give you a better idea about whether the company that you are considering hosting with is truly the one that can provide you with what you are looking for.

The most important part of choosing a cheap hosting company that meets your specifications is research. There are thousands of cheap web hosts that are available to you, and each of them makes nearly identical promises to the other hosts. The best thing that you can do to better examine the situation is to read actual customer reviews.

Read Reviews from Multiple Sources

to make sure that you are reading reviews from actual customers you should seek out websites or communities where users of the site are allowed to submit their own miniature reviews of the service in question. Forums on web hosting deals are a great source of information and likely there are at least a few threads chalk full with customer testimonials and stories regarding their time with a company. Make sure to be meticulous when reading web hosting reviews becomes at times it can be hard to tell if the review you are reading is a genuine account of their time with the company.

Talk with Customer Support or Sales Staff

Most large hosting companies employ individuals specifically to deal with potential customers, which in this case will be you. Talking with these employees will give you a better idea about how responsive their customer service is and how long you can expect it to take them to respond to your inquiries. If you can, speak with the customer support and not the sales staff so you can get a better idea of how the service will be once you have already paid and are a customer. Most hosts live or die through their ability to keep customers once they have purchased a package, so you can usually expect some good customer support. Companies that offer cheap hosting will often have a live chat available for you to use so that you can instantly contact the staff with your problems, and this can be useful when you are vetting different potential hosts.

Don’t Be Afraid to Ask questions

One of the most underrated ways to get information in this day and age is to ask questions. Asking questions will give you specific answers to the questions that you have regarding different packages and will allow you to further analyze the companies that you are considering hosting with. Ask the company questions. Ask former customers of the company questions. Ask anyone who has ever had experience with the company how their experience was.

With so many web hosting company’s sprouting up across the globe, it can be hard to not only find a host that meets your needs, but also provides you with the best possible deal. Keep in mind that many web hosts make promises that they are not able to deliver on, and you need to find the right balance between. price and features that are offered.

Make a List

There are plenty of resources that are available to you that will help you to narrow down the web hosts to find the best available cheap hosting. A good place to start would be the various web hosting forums where information regarding the hosting is posted on a daily basis. Try to find at least a dozen different hosts that seem to meet the specifications that you are looking for and fall into the correct price range.

Read Web Hosting Reviews on the Hosts From Your Lists

There are many different reviews out there on nearly every cheap hosting company.  Determine what aspects of each hosting deal are the most important to you and assign each company a letter grade. If uptime is your biggest issue when choosing a web hosting deal, you should give hosts that have uptime problems a lower grade.

Ask Questions

If you join one of the web hosting forums make sure to ask some questions to customers that have dealt with the top companies on your list. I wouldn’t recommend posting a thread on the subject because the topic has likely been covered and you run the risk of breaking some rules, but seeking out previous customers through private message is a great way to get an idea of the customer service and other aspects of the host of your choice.

Remember that customer service is one of the biggest gripes of most web hosting companies. If you are moving your business online, you need to make sure that you are going to be dealing with a company that will help you through every step of the process along the road. It can be difficult at times to see through all of the fake reviews and promises that are made by most web hosting companies, but with solid research you should be able to narrow it down and find the cheap hosting that suits you best.