As a prospective webmaster the two biggest decisions you are going to make are, your websites name, & the hosting company you will use. Enthusiasm usually gets the better of most people, so they rush into both decisions without the necessary research.

It is quite common for hosting providers to offer free domains with their hosting packages so these two decisions are literally tied together. Don’t be rushed into committing to a multi year hosting contract before knowing exactly what you are committing too & what you are getting for your money.

First research your idea

Once you have established that there is an underdeveloped market for a website targeted at several well searched keywords, you need to find an SEO optimized domain name. Search engines give allot of weight to the words in websites URL’s so experiment with different keyword combinations until you find a name that is available. GoDaddy is a very good resource for researching domain names as it offers alternatives if the domain you want is unavailable.

Once you have found a suitable domain name you are ready to research prospective web hosts.

Researching Web Hosts

The perfect host for your website will depend upon the type of site you are going to develop.

Shops/Stores – As a newbie to Internet marketing & website design if you are considering a store then it is highly recommended you choose a hosted shopping cart.

A hosted shopping cart solution will provide, all the tools, templates,scripts, & security features you require to build & market a web store. There are also un-hosted alternatives but you should only consider these if you are already familiar with HTML design.

After comparing the pricing & features of the various hosted shopping carts choose the one that best fits your needs & sign up – Most come with a free domain so register the domain with them & you don’t need to worry about changing name servers.

Blogs, Forums, Content Management Sites (Joomla).

If you are considering a website using any of these formats then it is essential that you choose a hosting provider that includes cpanel with fantastico.

You may not know what either of these are, but you need them, so when researching prospective hosting companies make sure they offer both.  (Fantastico provides auto installation of these sites & many many more)

Dreamweaver or Similar remotely generated website

Again a host offering cpanel is highly recommended, using cpanel you can, add email accounts, check stats, view files, create ftp accounts, create databases & crons + much much more – Don’t consider any host that doesn’t offer cpanel.

Don’t Know?

Maybe a host offering an integrated site builder would help?

Future Plans?

As with any endeavor it is very hard to predict the future so if you are considering a hosting provider that limits the number of domains you can have on your account make sure they have an upgrade policy.

Whatever your requirements web hosting  is a multi year commitment, don’t just base your decision on price alone.