The following is a simple list of the steps you should take and mistakes to avoid when searching for a web host. Follow these guidelines and your chance of finding a web host that meets your needs will increase.

Web Hosting Do's
Follow these guidelines and you will have a better chance of finding a reliable hosting solution.

Research
Spend time reading what others have to say about the hosting companies you are looking at. Read reviews and investigate into the history of the company. How long have they been in business? What data centers are they located in? How many customers do they have and do they have enough employees to support them? These are all questions you should know before choosing a web host.

Contact Support
Contact your potential hosts and ask them a few simple questions about their service. The main goal is to gauge their response time and the quality of their reply.

Know Your Requirements
You may WANT gigs of space and bandwidth, but do you really NEED them. If not, do not waste money paying for bandwidth and storage space that will not be used. On the other hand, if you use a lot of resources you should purchase hosting with a little head room just in case you have spikes in traffic. This way you can avoid any overage charges.
Have a Good Backup Plan
Do not rely on your host to keep backups of your sites. Most don't and if they do they could be weeks or even months old. If you keep good backups you will suffer little downtime and data loss if you ever do have problems with your host and need to move elsewhere.

Web Hosting Dont's
Avoid these hosting mistakes at all cost or face the consequences!

Choosing a Host On Price Alone
Do not chose a web host based only on their pricing. Their are many cheap hosting providers and with most you get what you pay for. Very little. If the price you are quoted seems to good to be true, it probably is. Expect to pay at least .50 cents for every gigabyte of bandwith for average reliability and three or four times that if you want high quality hosting.

Purchasing Hosting from an Auction Site
Not that you will not find good hosting from an auction site, but the chances aren't good. Especially if the company does not even operate a web site to market their services.

Trusting Customer Testimonials
Most testimonials simply can't be trusted. If the web host lists contact information and the web site of the testimonials listed they may be trustworthy, but the majority should not be taken at face value.

Free Domain Included with Hosting
It is always better to keep your domain seperate from your hosting company. Many hosts offer free domains with their hosting plans. This practice is fine as long as the domain is registered in your name and belongs to you. If they register it to themselves and only let you "borrow" it you face the risk of them holding your domain hostage if you ever decide to move to another hosting provider.
About the Author
Michael Shelton
Owner of Host-Resource.com