Do you need to find a reliable web hosting service for your website? You should read this article before you start doing some research.

There are thousands of web hosting services to choose from, and the best way to find a reliable service is to look out for red flags. Thousands of web hosting services are created each year, but only a very small percentage survives for more than a year. And a smaller percentage make it past their second year. If you choose a recent web hosting service, you are taking the risk of finding yourself without a server overnight. The best strategy is to select a web hosting service that has been around for three years or more, even if the prices are higher.

Some web hosting services cut corners and are able to offer cheap hosting plans by renting server spaces from other services instead of purchasing their own material. These services are a good way to get an affordable hosting plan but it also means you will have no way of reaching out a technician who can fix an issue you are encountering on your server. You should call customer service and ask where the servers are located and who owns them. If you do not get a clear answer, you should move on to another service.

You should never register your domain name with the same service you use for web hosting. If you are not satisfied with your web host and want to switch to a different service, you will either lose your domain name or have to keep paying for your plan so you can keep your domain name. Choose a reliable service that specializes in registering domain name, and purchase your domain name for one year at a time.

If possible, find a web hosting service that will allow you to upgrade to a better account once you can afford to and once you need more storage space for your site. You should get an account that corresponds to your needs at the moment, if possible with enough room for your site to grow over the next six months or so. Upgrading to a better plan means more storage space will become available, and perhaps your web host will transfer your site to a different server but you will not have to transfer your content yourself.

Do not purchase a plan with restriction on your use of bandwidth or on the format of the content you can upload. For instance, some web hosts will not let you upload videos or Flash content so your site does not take up too much bandwidth to stream this content. You should also look for a service with an uptime of 99.9 percent. If these requirements are not met, red flags should go up, and if you do some more research about this service, you will more than likely find they do not have a good reputation.

These tips should help you select the best web hosting service available. Take the time to do some research and remember that you can always switch to a different service if you are not satisfied with the web host you chose.