With rapid growth in number of internet users, everyone wants to create a website. There is a rapid growth of people creating a website either for personal reasons or for business or professional needs. No matter what your needs, if you are planning for your own place on this web, then you will soon find yourself searching for good web hosting companies. The goal of this article is not to list the top hosting providers, but to make you aware of what to avoid while selecting a website host.

Firstly we remind the reader that as a first step to building your own website, you will have to

1. Think of a website name (custom domain name) which is available. This can be checked on GoDaddy.
2. Think of the type and goal for a website - do you want it to be a short information type website, or do you want to provide some service, or do you want to blog?

When your desired goal is reached you also know roughly what are the features you want to have in your new hosting plan. This is important. For example, if you want to start a blog, and you want to do it in WordPress, then it is of course important that the hosting plan offers WordPress installation. This is just an example though. Nowadays almost all top hosts offer 1-click WordPress installs.

OK so now here are some things to avoid:

1. Avoid new hosting companies. Look for a hosting service which has been around for several years. There are so many companies being floated every minute. You really don't want your new website to be a guinea pig for someone's new project. Some of the hosting companies which have been around and are reputed are GoDaddy, HostGator, DreamHost, etc.
2. Avoid expensive plans. especially those which provide features you don't need. As an example, if you are just starting a new website/business and expecting a low to modest traffic, then simply give a pass to buzz words like cloud hosting, virtual private servers, etc. Good shared hosting plans cost less than $10 per month, typically even less than $5. So need to go for the $50 per month plan.
3. Avoid plans which are not scalable. Especially if you have a business or a professional website and there is at least a remote possibility of your website receiving more traffic. In this case you will have to switch to more powerful hosting plans and it is always better if your current host provides for such options.

The author of this article owns and operates a hosting review site which compares best hosting companies. The website is useful for people who are looking for a good hosting service provider and also gives several discount coupon codes via its affiliate links, which are usually not available to people who directly go to the hosts. Some of the hosting providers discussed on the website are Godaddy, Dreamhost, Inmotion hosting, Yahoo Hosting, Mediatemple and Hostgator.