{"id":1118,"date":"2022-03-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-14T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-08-21T10:55:48","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T08:55:48","slug":"choosing-your-web-hosting-provider","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.domains.co.za\/blog\/choosing-your-web-hosting-provider\/","title":{"rendered":"What to Consider when Choosing your Web Hosting Provider"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"bsf_rt_marker\"><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.domains.co.za\/web-hosting-south-africa\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Website hosting <\/a>is the most important foundation of every website, it may seem less important as a \u201cback-end\u201d feature, than what is happening on the \u201cfront-end\u201d, but it certainly is not. The web <a href=\"https:\/\/www.domains.co.za\/blog\/signs-you-are-ready-for-new-and-improved-hosting\/\">hosting<\/a> provider you choose will directly influence your website\u2019s performance online. If you\u2019ve chosen incorrectly, it won\u2019t matter that you have an incredibly optimised, user-friendly website because it simply won\u2019t function properly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-rank-math-toc-block\" id=\"rank-math-toc\"><h4>TABLE OF CONTENTS<\/h4><nav><ul><li><a href=\"#here-are-the-top-things-to-consider-for-your-web-hosting\">The Top Things to Consider For Your Web Hosting Provider<\/a><ul><li><a href=\"#1-server-reliability\">1. Server Reliability<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#2-speed\">2. Speed<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#3-features-and-freebies\">3. Features and Freebies<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#4-scalability\">4. Scalability<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#5-security\">5. Security<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#6-customer-service-support\">6. Customer Service &amp; Support<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#7-user-interface\">7. User Interface<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li><a href=\"#register-the-right-domain-name\">Choose the Right Website Hosting Plan<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"here-are-the-top-things-to-consider-for-your-web-hosting\">The Top Things to Consider For Your Web Hosting Provider<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"1-server-reliability\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">1. Server Reliability<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>You want your website to be live and fully functional all the time because any downtime will mean damage to your reputation, less leads and less sales. Also, did you know search engines are not fond of weak servers? This means your ranking may be affected as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Investigate:<br>&#8211; What guarantees are offered with regards to up-time?<br>&#8211; Where are servers located?<br>&#8211; What hardware and software is the provider making use of?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At Domains.co.za our web hosting comes with a 99.9% Uptime Guarantee SLA. All our servers are hosted in a highly secure, N+1 Redundant Data Centre in Johannesburg boasting carrier-grade network infrastructure. Domains.co.za is also one of the only <a href=\"http:\/\/www.domains.co.za\/blog\/how-important-is-geographic-redundancy-to-your-domain%E2%80%99s-name-server\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">geo-redundant domain name server (DNS) providers in the country<\/a>, which means downtime due to power outages, or issues affecting a specific city or country, won\u2019t affect your hosting with us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"2-speed\">2. Speed<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Another thing Google doesn\u2019t like is any site that takes too long to load, because its algorithms have been set to mimic what consumers don\u2019t appreciate. If a site takes more than 2 seconds to load, <a href=\"https:\/\/websitesetup.org\/news\/website-load-time-statistics\/#:~:text=Latency%20is%20the%20number%20one,to%20bounce%20from%20mobile%20pages.&amp;text=If%20an%20eCommerce%20site%20loads,likely%20to%20make%20a%20purchase.&amp;text=A%20two%2Dsecond%20delay%20in,increase%20bounce%20rates%20by%20103%25.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">bounce rates go up by 103%<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Investigate:<br>&#8211; What kind of servers are used and how do they compare when it comes to loading speeds?<br>&#8211; Where is the web hosting provider based?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At Domains.co.za, we make use of LiteSpeed on our state of the art web servers and SuperFast Enterprise SSD drives and servers to ensure that our customers experience the fastest loading speeds possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We are based in South Africa and our servers are in Johannesburg, which means sites hosted with us will load far quicker in local searches compared to websites hosted on overseas servers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"3-features-and-freebies\">3. Features and Freebies<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>While freebies may be alluring, focus on the features that matter the most firs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Investigate:<br>&#8211; Does the web hosting provider include 1-Click Easy Installs?<br>&#8211; How much storage and email addresses are included?<br>&#8211; What kind of security measures are in place?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At Domains.co.za all our web hosting packages offer 1-Click Easy Installs, scalable storage, email addresses, unlimited traffic, and all our packages are IPv6 Ready.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Furthermore, we include a free domain name, free SSL certificate, free daily backups, 24\/7 monitoring, malware scanning and SPAM and virus protection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"4-scalability\">4. Scalability<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>You\u2019ve got big plans for your business, so ensure you are hosting with a company that can accommodate your growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Investigate:<br>&#8211; What kind of packages are offered?<br>&#8211; Is there room for scalability?<br>&#8211; How do the various package upgrades compare in price?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At Domains.co.za, each of our five different types of hosting offer at least four different packages to allow for the streamlined growth of your business. And we don\u2019t believe in unreasonable price jumps between packages either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"5-security\">5. Security<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Cybercrime is a massive problem around the globe. In South Africa it is estimated that we have the <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/cloud-hosting\/546856\/how-south-africas-cybercrimes-act-will-change-how-you-use-the-internet\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">third highest number of attacks globally<\/a>, resulting in a R2.2-billion loss per year. As the foundation of your website, your hosting should help to protect your website and data from vulnerabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Investigate:<br>&#8211; What kind of security measures are in place?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At Domains.co.za, we ensure that your website\u2019s data is encrypted, by providing a free SSL certificate. In addition, we run daily backups, malware scanning, and offer our customers with SPAM and virus protection.<br>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"6-customer-service-support\">6. Customer Service &amp; Support<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Website hosting isn\u2019t a once-off purchase, it is a monthly subscription and therefore customer service and support is crucial when trying to find the best website hosting companies for your website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Investigate:<br>&#8211; What kind of support is provided?<br>&#8211; What are other customers saying about the company online?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At Domains.co.za, our service and support go far beyond the initial sale. We have a dedicated team and make use of a ticketing system to ensure all queries are dealt with in a timely fashion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our entire web hosting environment is monitored 24 hours a day, 7 days a week using sophisticated monitoring software which supervises all aspects of our hosting infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"7-user-interface\">7. User Interface<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>The User Interface used by the hosting company is incredibly important, especially if you want to add and make edits to your email accounts, hosting and website yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Investigate:<br>&#8211; What is the User Interface being used?<br>&#8211; What are the benefits and limitations of the Interface?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Domains.co.za offers our shared web hosting customers a choice to using either DirectAdmin, or cPanel web control panels. Both of these control panels are industry-leading, easy to use and incredibly stable. They both provide customers with a series of advanced features including AI software installation, usage statistics, etc. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.domains.co.za\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Domains.co.za<\/a> is one of South Africa\u2019s leading, local, web hosting providers. As experts in hosting, we are able to offer our customers MORE: more options, more security, more features, more reliability and more speed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"register-the-right-domain-name\">Choose the Right Website Hosting Plan<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>VIDEO:<\/strong>  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=3IzK1yuOFRc\" alt=\"Link to Domains.co.za - How to Choose the Right Web Hosting Plan for Your Website\" title=\"Domains.co.za - How to Choose the Right Web Hosting Plan for Your Website\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">How to Choose the Right Web Hosting Plan for Your Website<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3IzK1yuOFRc\" alt=\"Domains.co.za YouTube - How to Choose the Right Web Hosting Plan for Your Website\" title=\"Domains.co.za YouTube - How to Choose the Right Web Hosting Plan for Your Website\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Website hosting is the most important foundation of every website, it may seem less important as a \u201cback-end\u201d feature, than what is happening on the \u201cfront-end\u201d, but it certainly is not. The web hosting provider you choose will directly influence your website\u2019s performance online. If you\u2019ve chosen incorrectly, it won\u2019t matter that you have an incredibly optimised, user-friendly website because it simply won\u2019t function properly. The Top Things to Consider For Your Web Hosting Provider1. Server Reliability2. Speed3. Features and Freebies4. Scalability5. Security6. Customer Service &#038; Support7. User InterfaceChoose the Right Website Hosting Plan The Top Things to Consider For Your Web Hosting Provider 1. Server R <a alt='What to Consider when Choosing your Web Hosting Provider' title='What to Consider when Choosing your Web Hosting Provider' href='https:\/\/www.domains.co.za\/blog\/choosing-your-web-hosting-provider\/' class='moreElipsis'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1276,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1009],"tags":[1511,1508,1510,1509,1115],"class_list":["post-1118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-domain-tips","tag-good-hosting-provider-has-a-sound-hosting-environment-and-platform-","tag-reliable-hosting-provider-supports-a-secure-infrastructure","tag-security-and-scalability","tag-server-reliability","tag-speed"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.domains.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.domains.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.domains.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.domains.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.domains.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1118"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.domains.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3544,"href":"https:\/\/www.domains.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1118\/revisions\/3544"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.domains.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.domains.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.domains.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.domains.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}