Before you can start building a company website, you first have to choose a web hosting provider.  Though it may be tempting to just sign up with the first one you run across, that plan can backfire.  Here are a few tips to help you find good unix hosting.

• Do they have a package that will fit your needs?  This requires that you know a little bit about what you need.  If you just want a small website and don’t anticipate having much traffic come to it, a small website with shared hosting will probably be just fine.  If you have big plans for an ecommerce giant, and you have reason to believe you truly can do it, looking into dedicated hosting options.
• Will there be room for growth?  Again, this does require that you know a little bit about what you expect from your website — initially as well as what growth you anticipate.  Be sure there is a plan to upgrade to should your bandwidth and storage requirements exceed the plan you will be starting out with.
• Do they have good customer service?  Good customer service response time, not to mention ability and willingness to help customers, are a necessity with any web hosting provider.
• How do their prices measure up?  While this is too important of a decision to make solely based on price, the cost of your web hosting does matter.  Do a quick comparison check to see how the company’s prices measure up to their competitors before signing up with them.

These are just a few of the things to look for when choosing a hosting provider.  I’m sure there are things I’m forgetting, so if you notice something I didn’t mention, please feel free to make suggestions in the comments!