There is no shortage of hosting companies from which you can build and publish a website. However, they are not all alike. Prices differ, acceptable formats differ and available website building software differs.

Hosting can be a very-complicated subject if you plan to build a very fancy, complex website with sophisticated graphics. We’re not going to get into that here except to say that if this is your plan, you should probably hire a talented professional website creator to build the site for you and a professional SEO provider to write the text. The technologies for these complex sites are way beyond the average person’s capabilities.

There are, however, a few things to keep in mind if you are going to build a good, basic website and you are wondering who should host it. It comes down to selecting a hosting company that:

1. Can be the registrar for your new domain name. Registering with one firm and then transferring your domain to another for hosting can be a real pain.
2. Offers a variety of pre-designed templates you can choose from
3. Provides some form of site builder that you can use to construct your site and make modifications to it at any time
4. Offers regular 24/7 technical support either/or online or by telephone
5. Maintains statistical databases for your website so that you can see who has visited and from where. It will also show you how much time they spent on each page visited—and much more!
6. Is relatively inexpensive. Prices for domain registrations, website templates and hosting vary all over the lot. Higher cost does not necessarily guarantee that you will get more for your money. Conversely, lower cost does not always mean you will get less. It pays to review several companies and compare what you will receive for your money.
7. Provides adequate opportunity for expansion, meaning 10-15 Mbytes of web space. You rarely need more so don’t let offers of ‘unlimited space’ or 200,500 Mbytes or more entice you.
8. Won’t place unwanted ads on your site in return for free hosting. This can end up being a very bad deal.
9. Is reliable and has good access speed for your visitors. You want a minimum uptime of at least 99%.
10. Offers multiple domain hosting (sub-domains), e-mail support and, if possible, a Windows server.

Those of us who started as “newbies” to the website hosting world generally find that the 24/7 technical support is a critical factor. This kind of support is very important while you are on a learning curve and need help. You are almost certainly going to run into little problems that you don’t know how to solve. Their help will be very necessary when this happens.

There are several really good companies that offer all of the above and more. We recommend the following:

1. Kiosk.ws (Great for marketer product launches)

1. 1and1.com

1. Ultrahosting.com

1. Hostgator.com

1. Homestead.com which is owned by Intuit, the company that sells the ‘Quicken’ software and

1. GoDaddy.com one of the biggest.

That’s the basic story about hosting. If you want lots more technical information on this subject, the Internet offers anything you want. It is also important that your website designer (if any) touch base with the person who will craft your SEO copy, because design elements often have an important effect on SEO. If you don’t have a designer and you are using a ready-made template for your website, be certain that you have professional seo services when preparing your text.