The same concept applies to everything else…including your website hosting! Choose the cheapest company, and you can expect plenty of frustration to come your way.

Your website goes down. It’s slow. You can’t get ahold of customer service when you need help. The company might even lose all your website data, forcing you to redesign it from scratch!

You have so much on your plate already as a small business owner, so it just makes sense to hand the service off to someone else. If you pay more—only a little more—all those annoyances go away, and you can focus on running your business. You close more customers…and make more money!

The good news is that excellent website hosting isn’t expensive. In fact, it’s quite affordable. So, while you may pay more, you won’t have to pay a lot more.

To help you identify cheap hosting services to avoid as you evaluate your options, be on the lookout for these red flags:

1. Hosting Companies Owned by Conglomerates

To turbocharge growth, large website hosting conglomerates buy up a variety of hosting companies as quickly as possible. Then, they increase profitability by cutting staff to reduce operating costs. And guess what? Their quality-of-service tanks! Many popular big-name hosts who advertise like crazy are owned by such conglomerates.

So, when you evaluate hosting services, be sure to search “who owns [host name].” Then, search that company’s “subsidiaries.” Dozens of subsidiaries generally = poor service all the way around.

Thankfully, in this industry, you can find small, niche-based hosting services that charge a little more but offer great service and impeccable uptime. If you work with a local online marketing agency, just ask them who they use for hosting. It’s as simple as that!

2. Free Website Builders Like Wix, WordPress, and Squarespace

Many “free” website builders are severely limited with respect to their features. They may serve their purpose when you first get going. However, as quality website development and hosting is so affordable, why start out with something that only adds to your frustration?

Moreover, today’s consumers are exposed to so many websites that they can instantly spot a subpar site that makes you look like “the new guy” in your industry. Who wants to hire and pay top dollar for “the new guy”?

You’re much better off saving yourself the trouble and going with a reliable, quality web host, such as Red Coyote Services, from the beginning. Not only will this save you extra aggravation, but you’ll close additional customers with a more professional and credible look.

Wrapping Up

Choosing the cheapest web host you can find—or even a free one—amidst a sea of quality, affordable website hosting options will only bite you later on. As a smart business owner, you’re wise to pay just a little bit more now to save yourself a ton of aggravation in the long run!

Contact Us at Red Coyote Services for reasonably priced, high-quality website hosting.