Looking for a new website hosting company takes a lot of time. There are thousands of companies in the US alone. Since they can also be abroad, the options become endless as they grow every day. When I was looking for a hosting company, I knew I wanted a popular service.
My needs are standard. I don’t need customization options. But I also don’t have time to deal with any technical or security issues. These are the main reasons why I decided to go with a popular website hosting company. These companies have already face all of the problems I could have encountered. As a result, their troubleshooting time is considerably lower.
Needless to say, I choose Godaddy hosting for fast troubleshooting and one of the best uptime results. In all tests, the uptime and the load time of the hosted websites rank either on top or very close to the leading results.
For me, the company offered all the solutions I needed with a specific website. If it grows, I’m not going to work with web developers to take it to the next level. The host now offers full customer support and I’m glad to know the website is covered if it succeeds.
Godaddy Features
Domain Name Search
The first step I took with my website was to look for a domain name. Godaddy has such a tool integrated into its platform. It comes to your help as well. If you’ve ever looked for a domain name, you know it’s not a walk in the park.
Practically, many good domain names are already taken. I think all 1-word domain names are taken. Many popular 2-word domain names are taken as well. The issue then lies in finding 1-word variations, as Google did. These are the names easiest to remember.
However, there are other options for you to find a domain name. The search box offers some of these suggestions. Adding a suffix might prove a good strategy in this scenario. As for me, it took 3 days to find a good website name.
The host company knows the importance of a good domain name. Unfortunately, they cannot help you further. If you need help or inspiration with your domain name, feel free to look up word ideas in a thesaurus.
Secure Hosting
Website security is an important topic for the hosting company. It should be clear by this time online threats are more present in our lives. Some webpages are particularly vulnerable. I don’t know what other customers do, but I don’t want to lose my website due to a security issue.
This is where you can choose custom extras for better security. From SSL certificates to automatic backup, there are a few options you can add to any hosting plan. I chose the backup pack which ensures my website’s integrity in time.
Let’s say my website goes down for some reason. I can always phone the host to ask for a copy of my backup or even to ask them to restore the website for me. Whenever I do all types of edits in the backend, I remind myself just how important these backups are.
The schedule for these backups is still debatable. If you publish materials or update your website daily, you will need to set up a frequent backup plan. If you publish new materials on your website less often, you would still need a good backup plan, maybe once every few weeks.
Custom Web Design
The days when one size fits all hosting needs are over. The hosting company offers 2 dedicated WordPress customization plans. You can have a unique website with the help of the host. Before such plans would be available from the hosting company, you would have to do it yourself.
This function saves me a lot of time for my future website customization needs. Instead of looking for companies that can do it for me or for freelancers who can deal with WordPress customization, I simply call the host company and explain my needs.
There’s a direct phone number for these 2 customization packs. The best part is that once the customization is made, they can add it to your website for you. Even if they create the most basic custom website, they still offer 10 custom pages for you to use on your website. I’m already preparing my unique layout which is going to make my website a bit more memorable.
Website Builder Tools
The website builder tools are among the best in the industry. You have access to over 100 builder tools which may even be used without too much web development skills.
Among them, I like contact forms and members-only pages. Contact forms can be used for various purposes. However, I use these to get reader’s suggestions on how to improve the content I publish on my website. They enter their e-mail address and a short message on topics they want me to cover on my hobbyist blog.
The members-only pages tool is also helpful. I’m planning to create a VIP section on my website. These pages will not be open to the new reader. But they will add value to my returning readers who have been with my website from the beginning.
Professional Business E-Mail
Having an e-mail address is not new. I have friends who have at least 10 email addresses. However, if you want to appear more professional, you need a business e-mail address. The hosting company offers free e-mail address creation.
I’ve created one for my website for all communication needs. There’s a software called Thunderbird which manages these e-mails with a user-friendly interface for me. I’ve connected it to my server and I’m able to get quick notifications on my smartphone whenever I get an e-mail.
But there are many other interesting tools the host offers. I just haven’t had the time to look at all of them. For example, a tool I want to try out is called the Single Image Library. This brings together all of your pictures and videos. If you have multiple websites, you may still keep these media in a single place for all of these webpages. I find it an interesting tool that saves you time as well.
Pros
Cons
Final Verdict
These tools the website hosting company offers are among the best. Webmasters certainly find them a bit better than what the competition has to offer. But many of them are easy to manage without development skills.
If you’re new to web hosting, you can sign up for a basic plan to access these tools. Feel free to try them all out. Otherwise, you would be missing out on many customization tools that are not offered anywhere else. But if you don’t want to try them out on your own, custom WordPress web design services are now offered by the host company for the ultimate customer care.
