Should I choose a host that guarantees a lot of server uptime?

Obviously you don’t want your website to be down, ever. But computers do go down. When you visit a host’s website, they’ll usually tell you the percentage of “uptime” they guarantee.

Because they can’t really guarantee that they will be up, the guarantee is usually for granting you some provision if the website is down more than promised. In most cases, you’ll get a partial refund when your website is down, but that won’t mean much to you if your site is down often.

So instead of paying attention to guarantees, do an internet search for reviews of any host you’re considering, and see if there are a lot of complaints about a particular host’s servers being down a lot (meaning that, in turn, your website will be down).

Again, to some extent take the reviews with a grain of salt. Some are written by competitors, some by affiliates who make a commission when you sign up with a particular host through their website. But if you read enough reviews carefully, you should get a feel for whether or not the host has an issue with websites going down to often.