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If you plan to own a new website, you will need to host your website on a web server. When your website goes live on the web server, online users can then browse your website on the Internet. Company that provides the web servers to host your website is called web hosting providers.
There are thousands of web hosting providers on the internet and how do you decide which one you should use? Sites like http://www.webhostingspotter.com can help you by comparing all best hosting providers.
The features that web hosting companies are offering are getting quite standard nowadays. There are basic features that you'll need in a web host. You can find out more here.
To give a web host a competitive edge over others, more attractive features are very necessary. You'll find that many hosts are willing to give away free stuff that used to cost over $10 per month.
These are some of the advanced features that our top hosts are offering.
* Web Buider
Many of our top 10 hosts offer powerful web builder program called SiteStudio. SiteStudio allows you to make sites without any html, FTP and HTTP knowledge. You can also build site on the fly while at home, school or even at work. Hostgator's SiteStudio has over 500 ready-made templates for you to choose from.
* Ecommerce Enabled
If you are selling products on your site, you need a merchant account. A shopping cart is a useful tool if you have more than 1 product in different categories. SSL(Secured Sockets Layer) is a must-have if you need to receive valuable information such as your customers' credit card information. PowWeb, Hostgator and Lunarpages provide osCommerce shopping cart and shared SSL for your ecommerce needs.
* Marketing Package
Most marketing package including search engine submission software, keyword generator and link checker. Some hosting companies like iPower have established partnership with Yahoo! Search (previously known as Overture) and Google AdWords to offer you pay-per-click credit to jump start your business.
Popularity
The best marketing method is by far from word of mouth. If you sign up for a web host and are satisfied with the performance, most likely you'll recommend to anyone who is looking for a good host. Big web hosting companies know about this concept so well that they would go all out to retain their existing customer. The more satisfied customers they have, the more popularity they'll get. We take this as an important indicator of how good a host is.
Netfirms top the popularity among our top 10 hosts.
Network Reliability, Speed and Uptime Guarantee
In terms of reliability, we are looking at how redundant is the server, how often the companies backup the server and how well they handle emergency. “Redundant” means that if any of the Internet connections get interrupted, the alternate Internet connection will take over. PowWeb Load Balancing Technology is one of the best that we found to ensure your site is up 99.9% all the time.
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Source by Mark Waters