It's easy to make the mistake of just grabbing the first website hosting deal that you come across; while surfing the internet looking for the best deals on web site hosting plans for your online business.

Although the will on your part may be admirable, by and large, is that you end up buying a hosting plan that does not meet all your needs.

Not knowing 'The Nature of The Beast' can often land you and your company in trouble, and that is why having personal contact with your web host is SO important when choosing which company to deal with when choosing a web hosting service.

The Top Ten Features That You Should Look For in a Website Host.

1. An easy to understand and easily navigable website hosting control panel – cPanel is without doubt one of the best website configuration and management software's available today.

2. Choose a web host that offers you web site building software along with the hosting package. Some offer only templates while others include pretty much full blown web site builders hosted on the server.

3. Automatic script installers, like Fantastico make the process of installing PHP scripts like WordPress on your sever a breeze, look out for this feature as it will save you a lot of time if you are not familiar with PHP and MySQL.

4. Websites nowdays can be made by many, many different WYSIWYG applications, like Dreamweaver, Frontpage and Joomla, to name a few. However it is essential that you know that your prospective web host supports the uploading of the files that you have just made. Be sure to ask first to avoid disappointment.

5. One common mistake made by first time buyers of web space is buying to much and paying through the nose for a facility you simply do not need 100MB of web space is more than enough to host the average web site. Do not make the mistake of buying to much space.

6. Make sure that the server speed is going to be quick enough. Check the web sites already hosted by your web hosting provider and note there load times. Having a slow website will lose you customers!

7. If you are thinking of hosting videos on your web site ensure that the server will allow you to upload large files. Some web hosts will limit the upload size to 8MB or even as low as 2MB, check with your web hosting firm beforehand.

8. How much 'Down time' does your web host have? There is nothing worse than someone clicking on your link in Google only to have a blank page appear.

9. Check that your web hosting provider is secure and that they treat the information you upload with respect. Read the information they give on privacy carefully.

10. A lot of first time buyers of web space go with the big names, which is somewhat understandable as people are looking for reliability and want to host with a company that has cudos. However this can be a mistake. Check with sites that review web hosts and make sure you know who you are dealing with beforehand.

Finally the largest factor people look for in a good website hosting is value for money, especially nowdays. Try and bring everything I have mentioned into focus and base your decision on what others say and do, there is safety in numbers.