There is a lot of confusion regarding all of the complex terminology and lingo that flows across the Internet on a constant basis; web hosting is one of those terms that has been lost to the confusion. Web hosting isn’t about the design of your site, but the quality and reliance of the servers you choose to support it.

These tips can help guide your decision a little better.

Avoid web hosts that experience frequent outages. Companies with many outages generally make excuses, and show that they aren’t reliable, since they don’t do anything about them and don’t intend to. You don’t want to support a company that has frequent downtimes because most likely, they are unprofessional and your own website will be what suffers in the end.

Start to worry if your host site or website goes down for a period beyond 24 hours. Generally outages do not last this long, so it could be a clue that there are bigger problems going on with your web host. You can check other websites to find information about your host site’s outages, as well as the reason for the outage.

When choosing a web hosting company, you want to go with security over cheaper prices. It is important that not only is all of your information secure, but all of your customers’ information, as well. Select a web hosting company that you know you can trust and that provides secure web hosting.

To get the most out of a free web host, you’ll need to back up any data and files related to your site. Because free web hosts don’t generally offer any guarantees about backing up your data, if anything disappears, it will be on you, and not on them.

Aside from selecting web hosting companies based on fewest outages, you should also make sure the web hosting company you choose automates your payments as well. If a company does not offer this, then that company is not worth using. Make sure you know what you are getting into, and choose wisely.

One way to save money on website operating costs is to find a free web hosting service. Using a free web host means that there will be advertising on your site. Also, you won’t have as much space for your site’s storage. When it is important that your website is highly professional looking, this kind of hosting may not be an option.

If you wish to have more than one site, look for a web host that lets you have add-on domains. This means you will be able to store more than one site on their servers without having to open multiple accounts or paying any extra money for your different websites.

Now you understand what it really means to host a website, so you can pay attention to these small details that you may have overlooked normally. It’s always great to know what goes on behind the curtain.

One day, you may even decide to handle your hosting needs yourself and that’s when things will become really interesting!