I recently wrote about how to choose a web host, and received a lot of good feedback. As discussed, choosing a web host is a very important decision and should not be rushed into. After choosing what hosting provider you wish to go with, there are a series of tasks that are often over looked before pulling the trigger. Below is a list of 10 things to do before placing a web hosting order.

Check the Forums

Most hosting providers have a forum or community of discussions. These forums can be a very good source of information, and allow you to get a good look inside the host. Look for recent news from the hosting company, and make sure they post regular updates. A forum that has periodic news events from the company, shows that they are constantly improving their services. You can also use the forums to look for unhappy customers, and how the hosting company handles these customers. If you decide the go with a hosting company, become an active part of the community as making friends with someone else who is more familiar with the company is always good.

Call the Phone Number

Call the phone number listed for the hosting company. All hosting companies should have easy to find phone numbers, if not look else where. See how difficult it is to get a hold of a human, and how long the wait time is. Once you have a human on the other end, ask questions about the hosting plans and services. Answers to these question show how knowledgeable the staff is, and if they are willing to help out in a friendly manner.

Check NetCraft

NetCraft is a great utility and has a ton of information about web hosts, best of all it’s free. You can find uptime, list of servers, what type of hosting software is running, and more. This information allows you to get a better look at your hosting provider. Some hosting providers are just reselling other hosting companies servers. NetCraft tells you what IP blocks are owned by whom, and information about data centers. You can also search NetCrafts news site for your hosting companies name, and see what has been going on with the company.

Speed Test

Test your hosting providers website load speed. Chances are they are hosting their site on a server that will be more powerful than what you will get, so if you know of other sites they host test them out as well. There are a lot of variables to a websites load speed: size, graphics, whitespace, compression, etc. However, this will give you a general idea of what you are in for.

Data Center Location

A lot of hosting providers have multiple data centers, and some might even give you a choice of where your server will be at. Ideally, the closer the server is to you the better, as file transfers and interaction with the server will be at faster speeds. This might be a good question to ask the company on the phone call above.

Check Your Features

As covered briefly before, check and double check you features. Make sure you are not being under sold, or over sold. It also is good to check into how easy it is to add or subtract features.

Check What Others are Saying

Web hosting review sites are a dime a dozen, and some are better than others. The more you read, the better idea you will get on what other experiences with that host might be. Be on the lookout for the “cry babies”, the ones that are just posting negative comments because they were less prepared than what you will be.

Look for Coupons

Free setup, three months free, free domain name: hosting companies often have coupon codes floating around the Internet. A quick Google search for “Your Hosting company name” and the word “coupon” might bring back big savings.

Plan Ahead

Your new host will probably take a couple hours to setup your new hosting plan. Planning ahead is important, especially if you are moving sites to the new web host. DNS entries take 24-48 hours to propagate, and managing data on both hosts can be difficult. Chances are some web site down time will be needed, so preparing your visitors and moving everything over will take some planning. Create a checklist of things to do, database, files, DNS, and email accounts; are just some of the topics you might need to look into.

Read the Fine Print

I can not stress enough how important it is to read the fine print. Service level agreements, money back, overage charges, support agreements, and other VERY IMPORTANT topics will be covered in the fine print. The last thing you want is a hosting nightmare and be left with a bad experience like all of those “cry babies” you saw above. Reading the fine print can save time, money, and patience.

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