As a business owner, one of the main things that you want in terms of your website is reliability and security. Your hosting provider should be able to offer the following six features.

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Guaranteed uptime

A number of web hosting providers claim to provide 100% uptime. They can do this because they offer cloud-based hosting. Even non-cloud hosts tend to offer 99.9% uptime guarantees. Make sure you check a potential provider’s uptime guarantee before you sign up.

Secure data centres

Find out where your web host’s data centres are located and how they are secured. The best hosting providers will be able to offer assurance that they have several data centres in different locations that are secure and in places that are not at risk of natural disasters.

RAID

RAID is a specially designed way of protecting data. Even if the main systems go offline, RAID is able to keep important data and files protected against hackers or spammers.

Some web hosts will have RAID installed on their servers as standard. This is a good sign that they take security extremely seriously. It is worth asking about this when you approach a potential hosting provider.

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Backups

When it comes to backups, you want to be sure that if the server that contains your website files goes down for any reason, there is both a backup and a mirrored ‘live’ copy available. Additionally, make sure you are aware of any backup limits before signing up.

There are numerous websites available that offer a variety of web-related services (including website hosting), such as the examples seen at https://www.names.co.uk/web-hosting.

Manual reboot

Manual reboot is a service that should be included in any VPS or dedicated hosting packages. It allows you to restart your dedicated/virtual server. This is very useful for carrying out updates or as a first step when dealing with issues that may occur on your server.

Top-Level Domain Names (TLDs)

Some of the newer TLDs are riskier than the traditional ones and need more security features to protect them. The TLD ‘.country’ topped Symantec’s top 20 ‘shady TLD’ list. Make sure that your website hosting provider is able to deal safely with whatever TLD you opt for.

If you ensure that your hosting provider offers all of the above, your site should be safe and secure.