Top Web Hosting Questions to ask

1. What is your Web Hosting Company's priority? Are YOU their number one priority? Are they focused on delivering service that will delight above all else?

Ensure that your Web Hosting company is dedicated to putting their client first in all they do. Obviously all companies out there will say that they are committed to quality service - but these words can be hollow. Ask them to see their track record of pleasing clients. Ask them to see their Client's comments about their service. If they have pleased people just like you before you can be sure that they will please you as well!

To see what our clients say about us and our service Click Here or go to www.afrihost.com/testimonials.php

2. Does your Web Hosting Company have a landline number you can contact them on?

Make sure that they have a land line number as cellphone numbers or no contact numbers at all usually mean that the company does not have an office. In this way you are assured that you can speak to someone in person should you ever have to! Can you phone your Web Hosting Company and ask them questions now?

Phone us on 011 234 5045 to speak to a real live person

3. Can you visit your Web Hosting Company's physical premises?

Do they welcome your visit with open arms? Make sure that your Web Hosting Company has an office where you can visit them whenever you wish. This will allay your fears that they may disappear with your website and domain.

Come and visit us at any time you wish!
Building 3, Bentley Office Park, Corner Wessel and Rivonia Road, Rivonia, Johannesburg.

4. In which country does your Web Hosting Company host their client's websites?

Make sure that your Web Hosting Company has both International and South African based Web Servers - thus if your target market is either South African or International you can be assured of your website being super fast for your visitors.

We have Web Servers both in South Africa and Internationally

5. Is your Web Hosting Company friendly and helpful?

When you are experiencing problems you don't want attitude on the other side of the line! Phone up the Web Hosting Company first and make sure that the voice you hear on the other side is smiling! Make sure that they are passionate about hosting!

Everyone at Afrihost.com is friendly and passionate about web hosting!

6. Are the Web Hosting Company's servers monitored 24 hours for downtime?

Make sure that if the server on which your website resides is continually monitored in case your website crashes - you want as little downtime as possible.

We proactively monitor all our servers 24 hours a day and our technicians are immediately notified of any server problems

7. How long has your Web Hosting Company been running for?

There is nothing as frustrating as setting up your website only to have the Web Hosting Company disappearing and forcing you to start from scratch again. Make sure the Web Hosting Company is financially stable and in the hosting game for the long term.

We were formed in August of 2000 and are made up of 20 staff members

8. How fast is your website going to be?

Make sure that your Web Hosting Company 'backbone' connection to the internet is superfast - Ask them exactly where your website is going to be hosted. Ask them to set-up a test website on their servers so you can see the speed your site is going to be.

We use the Internet Solutions (IS) backbone - the quickest in South Africa - Click Here for more details

9. What is the main focus of your Web Hosting Company?

Is their main business focus hosting? Are they passionate about web hosting or are they juggling lots of other services as well? Make sure that they specialise in Web Hosting and are an industry leader!

We generate 95% of our revenue through Web Hosting

10. How many clients does your Web Hosting Company have?

Make sure that they provide excellent service to many clients - This will protect you against a company's service levels decreasing as the number of clients they have increase. This will also set your mind at ease that they can do the job - If they have many clients then you can be assured that they are good at what they are doing!

At last count we had in excess of 5000 clients

11. Does your Web Hosting Company register your domain in your name or theirs?

PLEASE make sure that your Web Hosting Company has registered your domain in YOUR name and not theirs. As long as it is in yours it will be possible to move to another Web Hosting Company without your website being held hostage.

We register domain names in YOUR name.

12. If your company's needs grow can your Web Hosting Company grow with your website?

Ensure that your Web Hosting Company has the capability to host a much bigger website than you currently have. Thus when your website grows your Web Hosting Company will continue to please you and provide the best service!

We host some of the biggets internet traffic movers in South Africa

13. Are your Web Hosting Company's web servers secure?

Make sure that they are continually protecting their servers against all those viruses and hackers out there. Ensure that they have a security expert looking at their server security daily. Make sure your website is not easy meat for the hackers out there!

We have a full time Security Expert continually monitoring new viruses and hacking movements to ensure your peace of mind.

14. If you sign up with your Web Hosting Company how quickly can you have your website up and running?

Let's face it - you want your domain registered ASAP. Make sure that your Web Hosting Company systems immediately begin the registration and setup process - You don't want your new domain registered by someone else in the time it takes your Web Hosting Company to register it!

Our system automatically registers any domains registered to have you up and running as soon as possible

15. Does your Web Hosting Company have somebody who pro-actively deals with the transferring of your domain if you are moving?

The most difficult part of moving from one Web Hosting Company to another is the domain transfer process. If this is not handled properly then their is bound to be serious delays in the transfer of your domain. Ask if there is someone whose job it is to make sure domains are transferred with as little hassle as possible.

We have a dedicated, full-time employee who will proactively phone, beg, borrow and plead to make sure your domain transfer is successful

16. Does your Web Hosting Company continually backup all the websites on their web servers?

Make sure that if there is a disaster there is a backup of your important website files! Make sure that your Web Hosting company not only backups but backups off site away from their main servers in case of fire or any other calamity.

We backup daily onsite and weekly offsite away from our server environment

17. Ask to get exact specifications of the Server Environment your website will be in.

Make sure that all the failsafe backups are in place. Ask about their Uninterrupted Power Supplies, Airconditioning and redundant lines - Make sure that you are hosting in a safe and secure environment! Ask if you can visit the Web server on which your website resides.

Our servers are in the most technologically advanced environment out there - Click Here for more details

18. Do you have complete control over your email addresses or do you need to constantly contact your Web Hosting Company if you need changes made?

Make sure that you can log into your account and add / edit email addresses to your own domain (i.e. john@yourdomain.co.za ). Make sure that you have a Control Panel on which you can admin your website yourself directly.

We give you the AfriPanel which gives you complete control of your site - Click Here for more details

19. Do you have your own account for your website so that you can upload changes to your website 24 hours a day?

Ensure that you have your own, unique FTP account so that you can make changes to your website whenever you wish by connecting directly to your Web Hosting Company's servers

You have your own, unique FTP account with every hosting account at Afrihost.com

20. What extra value does your Web Hosting Company add beside just offering a website on the Internet?

With certain Hosting Companies you can add many additional features to your website to make it even more exciting and interactive: chatrooms, bulletin boards, shopping baskets and counters can easily be added to your site.

With us you can add many extra features to your site AT NO EXTRA COST!

21. Does your Web Hosting Company offer you tools to aid you in submitting your Website to Search Engines.

Make sure that they are willing to offer you advice in the marketing of your site to Search Engines. Also look to see if they have any tool which will help you to easily add your website to the more important search engines.

With our AfriPanel you can add your site to the 6 biggest search indexes

22. Can you add unlimited number of forms to your website so that when they are submitted they will get directly emailed to you?

Make sure that your Web Hosting Company provide forms which you can customise to your website so that visitors can easily contact you directly from your site if they need to.

We provide you with a secure form to use so that you can add an unlimited number of forms to your site that will get emailed directly to you

23. How many people work for your Web Hosting Company? Make sure that there is always someone qualified available to help you should you experience a problem.

There is nothing worse than having the one person who can help you being away on holiday for the next 2 weeks! Make sure that there are many skilled employees available to help you out with any problem you may have.

20 employees work at Afrihost.com always making sure there is always somebody to help you out in your time of need

24. Does your Web Hosting Company offer a tool which provides you with web traffic statistics and makes your life easier in the managing of your website?

Make sure that your Web Hosting Company has a easy to use Client Control Interface where you can control what needs to be 24 hours a day. Make sure that web traffic stats are included in your hosting package. Ask them to view a demo of this Client Control Interface.

We provide traffic statistics and a client control interface 24 hours a day with each and every hosting package -
Click Here for a full explanation and Demo

25. How powerful is the Web Server on which your website resides?

Ask your Web Hosting Company for the exact specifications of the server to make sure that it can deliver websites fast and securely.

The Web Servers used for all our new clients are IBM dual 2.8 Gigahertz (GHz) Xeon, RAID 5 SCSI drives with 2 Gigabytes (Gb) of RAM