How Much Support Should You Expect from Your Web Host?

There’s no question that when you’re looking for a web host, you should look for one that offers the best customer support possible. The problem is that there’s a very fine line between what a web host should be able to help you with, and what problems only a web designer (or yourself) can help with. So, how much support should you expect from your web host?

Web hosts will often have an area for support tickets on their websites. When you’re taken to this page, you will see many different problems regarding web hosting accounts, all divided up into different categories. After searching for your problem, if you haven’t found it, there’s a good chance that it’s not a common problem; and eventually that it’s not really a web hosting problem at all.

For instance, if a business owner was trying to upload different templates to their website and wasn’t able to install them, they may assume it’s a scripting issue. They might visit their web host’s website, go to the support ticket page, and start browsing the categories looking for the solution to their problem. Not finding it under “Scripting Issues,” they may become frustrated, wondering why their web host cannot help them with such a common issue.

And while that is a common problem, the issue could actually lie within the design area of the webpage, and essentially have nothing to do with the hosting of your web page.

Of course this isn’t always the case. Each website is different and so too, are individual web hosting accounts. In rare cases, a unique issue may occur that does have everything to do with web hosting, but still doesn’t show up within the support tickets. So what do you do then?

Usually you can assume that if you need access to the control panel, it is a web hosting issue and you may have to phone them directly in order to get the help you need. If you don’t need to get into the control panel, but are having an issue in another area, a phone call to your web designer might give you the answer you’re looking for.

If you’re ever unsure of whether the problem you’re having is a web hosting issue or not, or even if you need access to the control panel, a quick call to your web host will take care of the problem. Any web host will be happy to help you if they can, and point you in the right direction if they can’t. Because every web host should be only a phone call away – that’s never too much support to ask from your web host.