When you sign up for paid web hosting there are a handful of things you should look for in a good web host. Let’s take a look at the most important attributes of a good web host.
Price
How much does the web hosting cost? If you’re hosting a blog you should be paying somewhere around $10 per month. If someone is offering web hosting for under $5/month, it’s probably a bad deal unless it’s a good web hosting company offering promotional pricing.
A good web host costs around $10/month.
Databases
A database is a program that stores information and lets you find it very quickly. WordPress needs a database to work because that’s where all your blog posts get saved. When paying for shared hosting you shouldn’t be responsible to install or maintain the database; a good web host should take care of all the hard parts for you.
Good web hosts allow you to create an unlimited number databases.
Storage
Storage is a measure of how much stuff you can put on the server. This includes WordPress, blog images, blog posts, and any other files you might need for your blog. You’re probably going to be writing a lot and storing a ton of files, so you’ll need a lot of storage.
Good web hosts offer unlimited storage.
Bandwidth
Bandwidth measures how much data gets transferred from the web server to a web browser. When you go to a website the web server needs to send your web browser:
- the code to display the website (HTML)
- the code to make the website look nice (CSS)
- the code to make the website interactive (Javascript)
- the images to make the content more interesting
The more space these files take up the more bandwidth it takes to transfer them to your web browser.
Good web hosts offer unlimited bandwidth.
Domain Hosting
When a web host talks about how many domains you can host with them, they are talking about how many different websites you can store on their servers.
Good web hosts let you host as many websites on their servers as you want.
SSL/TLS Encryption
Have you ever been to a website that starts with https://? (Yes you have – this website is one of them!) If so, that website made use of SSL/TLS encryption. SSL/TLS encryption makes it so only the web server and the web browser know what content is being transferred.
There are a bunch of different types of SSL certificates you can install, but a free SSL certificate from LetsEncrypt is good enough for a blog. (You wouldn’t want your bank using this free version, though!)
And before you get scared because SSL sounds really complicated, you should know that good web hosts make this as easy as clicking a button.
Good web hosts offer SSL/TLS encryption for free with easy installation.
It’s more professional to have a custom email address instead of one from GMail or Hotmail. For example, you can email me at steve@myblogtutor.com.
Good web hosts let you set up unlimited email accounts for free.
Customer Service
This is a really important one. You want to buy web hosting from a company that offers top notch customer service. When something goes wrong (and believe me, it will eventually) you need a team that can help you fix everything.
Good web hosts offer free customer support 24/7/365.
Dreamhost
Dreamhost is one of many companies that provides web hosting. I’ve been using them since 2006 and they’ve been great. Since then I haven’t had many issues, and when I did they were my own doing because I was trying to be too clever. Every time I’ve asked them a silly question they’ve been very thoughtful and helped fix everything quickly. I can’t say enough good things about Dreamhost.
Even better, they’re inexpensive and offer all the great things I wrote about above. Don’t believe me, though, read why PC Mag rated Dreamhost the #1 shared web hosting company:
http://www.pcmag.com/article/345631/business-choice-awards-2016-web-hosting
Dreamhost Shared Hosting Plan
The Dreamhost Shared hosting plan is your best bet. They also offer “WordPress Hosting”, but it’s around the same price with a lot fewer goodies.
If you want to save some money, you can click the link below to sign up through my affiliate link. You’ll save $50 your first year and I’ll earn around $20-$30 to keep this site running. I’ve also included a non-affiliate link below too if you don’t want me to earn money, but you won’t get a discount.
Even though I’m using an affiliate link here I recommend Dreamhost to people all the time. Another added bonus if you decide to use Dreamhost is that it’ll be a lot easier for me to help you if anything on your blog breaks.
Affiliate link
https://www.dreamhost.com/r.cgi?252388/promo/dreamsavings50
Non-Affiliate Link
https://www.dreamhost.com
Closing Thoughts
If you’re on this website then chances are good that you want to start a blog or make your blog more successful. It’s so easy to set up a blog these days that there’s really no downside to it; running a blog costs a little over $100/year and with a little work your blog can easily earn that money back (or you can skip your daily coffee for a couple of weeks).
If you need help setting up your blog on Dreamhost or you want to move your blog over to Dreamhost I’d be happy to help you free of charge as long as you use my affiliate code so I get compensated and you don’t pay me anything out of pocket. If you’re interested let me know!
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