The single most important factor when choosing a web host is reliability. This is confirmed over and over again in surveys of webmasters and online entrepreneurs.

What does "reliability" really mean? Most web hosting companies upgrade their systems. Most are technically competent. Most have products for sale at reasonable prices. The only difference may be in their quality of customer service. Where you need "reliability" most is in customer service.

In other words, what you really want to know is, "When there is a problem with my website, can I get speedy no-nonsense solutions?" But with web hosts the "no-nonsense" thing can be a problem.

When you are discussing a problem with the technical support person for your web host, it might seem like they are on the line with a few other people at the same time. This is because of the number of clients they have, and the fact that when something goes wrong, almost all of those clients will be on the phone. This can make for difficult conversations to resolve the issue.

A good technical support person will use a helpful tone of voice and offer solutions. They will assume that you are basically competent and not automatically assume that you have somehow caused the problem at your end. After all, they are most qualified to check out problems at their end.

It is not difficult to sympathize with this approach. In many cases the problem really is at the user end. But often enough it is not, and there is nothing more maddening than spending several hours trying to trouble shoot your website and then finding out that a simple reboot of the server at the host end fixed the problem.

Historically, it has been very inconvenient to change web hosts. Therefore, web hosting tech support people have had little incentive to provide high quality customer service. Too often, they seem to consider themselves employing their clients and not the other way around. No surprise, their customer service has been inferior.

Many hosts will assist you if you want to transfer your domain to their system. Alternatively, there is now enough step-by-step information available for you to change hosts on your own. This is definitely a welcome change.

When searching for quality, dependable, user-friendly service you will find that there is not a totally guaranteed method to know in advance if you have found it.

While you could look at review sites for web hosts, keep in mind that not all are as they appear. Some are trying to make money by reselling services, and their reviews are colored by the money they might make. Representatives of web hosts can make posts on public boards anonymously. These people can post a review that says their own host is great, and make up bad things about the competitors.

You can also scan web hosting forums for comments and recommendations. These seem to be generally reliable, but are still open to the kind of manipulation mentioned above. And since things change so quickly in the web hosting business, comments made a year ago about a specific web hosting company will probably be out of date.

A great idea is to begin by examining the website of the host and if it is sort of perplexing or full of jargon, it may mean that the host does not care about communicating with clients. Usually, this tips you off to a problem that you might find navigation of their support structure difficult or that just getting a plainly worded answer to your questions could be extremely difficult.

A simple layout with a minimum number of customer-oriented products and an easily-accessed support system suggests the company is customer-focused. It is also good to contact the customer help desk in advance just to see what kind of reception you get.

You should also look for testimonials from real web hosting customers. Make sure they are clearly identified with names and website addresses. If you really want to be aggressive, you might contact some of these people directly.

Naturally, there is no absolute guarantee in this. The web hosting business is extremely competitive, however, and, all things considered, you will probably be most successful if you find a web host with a simple, up front, customer-focused approach.

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