Making the decision to start your own blog is often a relatively easy one in the grand scheme of things. It’s the technical aspects that often throw up problems. Choosing a domain name, finding a web host and actually building a blog are often the steps that pose challenges. And don’t even get me started on getting traffic to it!

So today, given we’re a web host, we’re going to run through some of the key things you’ll need to think about with regards to finding hosting for your blog.

The below should cover most aspects and if you think we tick all the boxes for your own project then you need look no further than the excellent range of packages we offer right here at HostPresto!

Price

Whether we agree with it or not, price is a huge factor in determining which hosting company to go with. Web hosting is one of those industries in general where the phrase “you get what you pay for” really does not apply. You’ll get companies charging the earth for a below par service and equally you’ll get hidden gems (like us) who specialise in cheap hosting plans without sacrificing on feature, support and overall service quality.

The price, in reality should be a secondary consideration. Finding a host for your blog that ticks all the boxes below should be paramount. Once you have your short list of candidates you can then consider the pricing element. However, we pride ourselves on being one of the cheapest in the UK when it comes to hosting for your WordPress blog 😉

Location

Not a great deal of first time bloggers consider the physical location of their server or the company maintaining it. But it is extremely important for a variety of reasons.

First and foremost, speed. By speed, I am talking about how fast your website loads. A slow loading website can be extremely off putting for your visitors to the point where they may well simply go elsewhere.

Your physical server location should ideally match where the bulk of your audience resides. For example, if your readership is primarily UK based, you should really host your blog in the UK. Serving content from the likes of the US can add seconds onto your page load times which is more than enough to put your visitor off.

Secondly, for SEO purposes. Now this might not be a huge consideration for first time bloggers typically but if you want your site to appear in the UK search results, prominently, you’re much better off hosting it in the UK as the likes of Google used the physical location of your site as one of the many ranking factors or metrics.

Finally, there is support, but we’ll cover that below.

Reliability

This one goes without saying. If you’re going to put your trust in a company to host your blog you want to know that they’re reliable and that your blog is going to have the maximum uptime achievable. You should be looking for a service with at least a 99.9% uptime.

Far too many companies are extremely reliable when it comes to invoicing you for their services but are borderline incompetent when it comes to actually providing the service itself. This is something you’re going to need to watch out for.

On the plus side, if there are any hosts out there who are not reliable on this front then people will talk about it. Which brings me onto reviews…

Reviews, Reviews, Reviews!

Reading reviews of blog hosting companies such as ours can be a great way to gauge an unbiased opinion as to how a given web hosting service performs. You can read our views here. This can be a great way of understanding what you’re getting into. Sure, every firm is going to have the odd disgruntled customer, for whatever reason. But by reading reviews and taking them all into account, you should get a pretty clear picture as to who can be trusted and who cannot.

Support

Support is something that pretty much all new bloggers are going to need at some point. Whether it’s a configuration issue of the blog itself, a theme or even a plugin. Having good support can come in handy.

There are two primary issues new bloggers face when it comes to web hosting support. The first being the larger companies outsource. You just end up as another client number dealing with a paid employee who doesn’t particularly care about you or your website. The second is the location of the person supporting your site. This poses two issues in its own right. Timezones and the dreaded language barrier.

Larger companies tend to outsource to poorer countries in order to save money. This is fine in most industries but can be highly frustrating when your site is down and you just want someone to talk to. Being a UK blogger and have to deal with a US hosting firm who outsources to India during US “business hours” will send you crazy.

Fortunately, you have HostPresto in your corner who offer UK based support, 24/7 operated by the company owners personally.

Features

Finally, a web hosting plan is only as good as the features it comes with. If you’re running a blog you’re going to need several fundamental core features such as FTP, database support and e-mail management.

It’s a given that pretty much every web hosting firm on the planet offer these core service, but some, such as HostPresto go the extra mile.

All of our plans for example come with a one click installer application than can install popular blogging applications like WordPress at the click of a button. This can be a god-send for new, first time users who don’t have the technological know-how to upload and configure a blogging application like WordPress manually.

Considerations

Whilst there are lots of things to consider if you wish to start a blog for yourself, we hope we’ve covered the basics from the web hosting side of things. It’s really not all that complicated and nothing should be considered too daunting. You just need to make sure you have all the information at hand, consider all aspects and then make an educated and informed decision.

Should you wish to speak to one of our sales team, just click on the chat button in the bottom right hand corner of your screen and one of our experts will be able to advice you on the best way forward.