When choosing a new web host there are several questions you need to ask yourself about your website so you get a package that suits your needs. With so many different web hosts about, choosing the right one can be pretty confusing. I'm hoping to clear up some of that confusion and help you to choose the best deal for you. This is a guide for someone wanting to set up a personal website or small to medium business.

If your happy with a small amount of disk space, advertisements, normally little or no 24/7 support and no extras ( eg. no databases, only likely to have 1 domain) then free hosting could be ideal for you. It is also very likely that your page will contain a footer containing your web hosting company's details -this could just be a banner ad or just your webhosts name. The servers will most likely be overcrowded, they will also be more unreliable with more downtime than paid hosts . This kind of hosting is more suited to sites which aren't trying to make you money. Shared/virtual Hosting seems to be the most popular, offering full customer support and many more features than with free hosting. Because you are sharing the server with other users this method of hosting works out cheaper than say a dedicated server would. It has becomes so popular as it offers many of the bonuses a dedicated one does at a much smaller price.

Some disadvantages are that with many people using the same server the security level is reduced and if other users are using more than their fair share of the bandwidth or storage space then your site will suffer because of their overuse. Also having overcrowded servers here can be a real problem. If you choose to have a dedicated server, then your site performance will be better than the previous types of host because you are not sharing the server with others. It also has 24/7 customer support and none of the security issues that you get with shared/free hosts. Because this is much more expensive than the previous types you need a large website to justify the cost. Running a site at its optimal performance is a much easier task with this type of hosting.Blogs or other small sites will probably suit shared/free hosting. But if you'll have high traffic or a complicated site then dedicated hosting could be more suitable for you. Once you are aware of which type suits your needs the most (or perhaps your budget makes your mind up for you) then it is a question of which host and what package.Do you know how to make a website yourself? or are you looking for a host that enables you to alter your website through an easy to follow interface? The web host i have at the moment enables me to change the templates at a click of a button, so changing the website from promoting health and fitness to business opportunities is easy.

A good control panel can help you save time and money by making any changes to your website simple. Look for excellent uptime, this is the percentage of time the host is accessible via the internet. Be wary of ones that say they have 100% uptime as all servers need maintenance at some point so this isn't a possibility. The average size for a website is about 3Mb in size. Therefore it is not necessary to purchase a large amount of space for a small site. Bandwidth or data transfer is used by your web site traffic for downloads/uploads and sending & receiving email. If someone views a web page on your site which is 2MB in size it will use 2MB of your bandwidth. If 5 people view the page then 10mb of bandwidth will be used. Sending emails to customers will use up the emails size in bandwidth as will any downloads/uploads. Make sure you are aware of how much they will charge if you exceed your bandwidth limit.

Spending sometime looking into what your data transfer is roughly going to be will save you money, as this feature,more than another, will influence the price. SSL certificates enables encryption of sensitive information during online transactions, this means that the site is secure during the payment process. If your website is going to be an online store then having this on your site is a necessity but if you are acting as maybe an affiliate site then the site that you link to will take care of the transaction.Whatever scripting language your using, whether Perl, Python, PHP4/5 & ASP then you need to make sure your host will support it. Have a clear idea how many domains, email addresses and databases you think you will require. Lastly, make sure that the company runs regular backups. Hopefully following the steps in this guide will stop you from buying a poor or unsuitable web host.