If you’re on this website looking at Bluehost coupons or comparisons you’ve probably already decided it’s time to change hosts to a top level provider. In case you haven’t made up your mind we have come up with the top 3 signs it’s time to change your web hosting company. Also, see our article on Top 5 Reasons to Switch to BlueHost. Since we’ve already covered why to choose that host – on this article we’re going to tell you the warning signs of things going south with your current provider.
Hosting Warning Sign #1 – Downtime/Slow Load Times
Does your website go down often? Do you get a database connection error? Do you get the “server unavailable” error? Or maybe the increased 500 errors???
Hosting downtime is the single largest reason why you should ditch your current hosting provider for someone like BlueHost. Not only does a clunky website make you look bad online it costs you money! If your server is down 3 days a year that’s possible 1% loss of revenue online. Some hosts go down for 1/2 day per month which would be 2% and they have fine print to release them of liability despite their 99% uptime guarantees.
Good hosts have protections in place that will restart website server resources if they go down automatically or suspend users automatically if they have bad scripts or use too many resources. These services include email, dns, apache, database, and others that control nearly all functions of websites.
Hosting Warning Sign #2 – Long Support Wait Times
How long do you wait for an email back from the support team at your host? How long do you wait on live chat before a rep is there with a live greeting (not the automated kind!) How long are the wait times on the phone support line when you have an issue?
Generally a good web hosting service should be able to get to your email within half a day. For live chat I’d expect a general wait time of about 2-3 minutes for non-peak hours. Then we have the big one – phone support. Some companies have a 20-30 minute wait time and others you can barely find their phone number on the website to even call them.
This is an area where a small hosting service might be a good fit if you need a lot of hand holding for your website needs. These companies can provide a different level of support for the beginning user where the larger companies have so many customers they try to rush you off the phone.
Hosting Warning Sign #3 – Price Gouging on Renewal
Did you signup for a web hosting account special online that sounded too good to be true? Something like a $1-2 per month? Then you get the renewal pricing of $10.95 per month for 36 months and it’s for just under $400?!? That’s what happens with some hosts out there. You have to be very careful with these ones…just make sure you read the find print for the special offer you’re signing up for and look for the regular rate which they will charge you on renewal. This can be found in the terms and conditions or on the billing support area of most web hosting companies.
We all like a good deal like the iPage $1.99. Then 3 years later you get the renewal from them. If you have just a couple websites on the account you could easily switch providers to one of their sister companies such as fatcow, hostgator, bluehost, etc. Then in 3 more years when you get the renewal notice you can switch to a different one. The funny thing with these companies is they are all owned by the same company so you’re basically getting the same service. I like to call this the 3 year bounce 🙂
Another method to deal with this pricing bump is to contact billing and ask them to give you a better rate or you will move to one of these services. It won’t work at most companies, but the smart ones know that it’s harder to find a new customer than it is to keep an old one happy. You never know until you ask.
In conclusion, if you’re experiencing any of these 3 issues with your current web hosting company you should probably move on. There are hundreds of hosts so don’t settle for something that’s garbage and not what you deserve. So get out there and get the best web hosting company… like bluehost!