How many times have you thought about having an email address with your business or website name in it for more marketing exposure? This is one of the basic extras that you can get with a good web hosting company.

Read on for some of the other features you should look for, and how you can get the best hosting for a rock bottom price.

Make sure that you understand all the costs that will be associated with using your host. Many places offer a lower rate to hook you in, however after time you realize that there are a lot of hidden costs associated with them. So be sure to find out all the different fees that you may have to pay, like setup costs or maintenance fees.

The best web hosts offer you many different tools to help you improve your website. Some services allow you to build your site from scratch on an easy to use click and drag software or to use one of their templates, for instance. Look for a service that comes with the kind of tools you need.

Once your site is online, you will have to associate it with your domain name. Look for DNS settings, which should be available on your web hosting account. Copy and paste these settings when you register your domain name so it redirects to your content. If you switch to another host, you will have to update your DNS settings.

One thing that anyone looking for a web hosting provider should be wary of is overselling. Some hosting providers out there offer more space than they can actually offer in order to attract more business. Make sure that your hosting provider can actually back up any claims that they make.

Can you get a free domain name? Believe it or not there are wonderful web hosting companies that will offer you a free domain name, plus you will not have to pay for the registration and renewal. Anytime you are saving a little money and still getting exactly what you need, you are doing a good thing for your business.

Decide which host to use based on how well it meets your hosting needs rather than on other services it provides. You might not get the best deal on domain names or other extra services from your web host provider. Don’t purchase these extra services when you sign up for web hosting unless you’re confident that you’re getting the best deal.

Find out what kind of other websites your service is hosting. If you notice that a lot of spammy or unreliable websites are hosted alongside with yours, most search engines will be more likely to rank your site lower because of this. Remember that your business will be associated with the host you choose.

Go for Linux hosting unless you need to use certain applications or server-side languages. Linux hosting has a better reputation for uptime, stability, and resource use. Shared hosting that runs on Linux tends to be somewhat cheaper, as well. There are, however, certain applications that need Windows hosting, including Plesk, Microsoft Access, Silverlight, MSSQL, and ASP.net.

If you are thinking about using a free web hosting provider, it is generally a good idea if you can find a hosting provider that will allow you to use your own custom domain name. Most free providers don’t allow this so finding one that does will make it much more valuable.

As you can see, there are tons of web hosting companies out there. However, they are not all the same, and with the tips above, you are better-equipped to evaluate them and choose the one that offers what you need to make your online business more successful. How’s that for getting your money’s worth?