Before selecting a web hosting company, do your research.

Don't be fooled by the many web hosting providers that claim they have been in business for years.
Do a whois database search to see when they registered their domain name and what the expiration date is.
If the domain was registered recently (within the year) you should be very concerned.
Most domain registrations can be done between 1 year to 10 years. Domain registration is a very small expense for any business.
And "anyone" can register a domain name.
Just because they may have registered it for more than one year, this means NOTHING, if they just recently registered it.
We see many hosts claim they have been in business for "years" only to find out by a whois database search their domain is brand new.
If they lie to you about this, what else are they lying about?
Don't get suckered in by these fly-by-nighters. Do your homework!

We have been in the hosting business since 1999 and registered our proaxxs.net domain in 2000.
This is the actual readout from the whois database:
Whois Database
Domain Name: PROAXXS.NET
Creation Date: 24-Jun-2000
Expiration Date: 24-Jun-2010

Go ahead and check it for yourself.
You can use just about any whois database search to see results for any domain name.

Other things to consider when choosing a hosting provider:

How important is selecting a web hosting company?

With all of the other tasks you have on your mind as a webmaster, it’s easy to understand how you could end up neglecting the importance of choosing the best web hosting company for your needs and just go with any company. The fact that people think that all hosts can do a great job and don’t understand how much harm going with the wrong company can do down the road.

Do you like the idea of losing traffic because your website is constantly down? Well, guess what, this is happening to a lot of webmasters as we speak, people who definitely wish that they had paid more attention to the process of choosing a host. Most hosting companies are just plain horrible and need to be avoided, never underestimate the importance of working with a solid company for your needs. We have many clients that jumped from host to host, only to be disappointed every time. And many of these clients are still with us! We're not saying we are "perfect" but we doing anything in our power to keep our clients happy.

Should you only pick a company without bad customer reviews?

The minute most webmasters see a bad review, they tend to dismiss that company, even if the other ones are positive, it’s a mistake a lot of beginners make. Many people think a hosting company can be perfect and they tend to treat one bad review as a huge warning signal. Not every customer will be satisfied no matter what you do.

If I launch a hosting company tomorrow and have a few contacts provide some positive reviews, there you have it, a clean track record, but one which is not relevant at all. Important hosting companies on the other hand, with tens or even hundreds of thousands of customers are bound to have a few negative reviews here and there, since it’s impossible to only have pleased customers given their number of clients. A lot of people encounter a problem which was actually their own fault and end up giving negative feedback, but that doesn’t mean that one negative review for every 100 positive ones should be treated as a warning signal. The fact is, that no matter how good a hosting company is, they are bound to have a few negative reviews, but if most of them are positive, you have nothing to worry about.

Are customer reviews relevant?

Sure, some people provide negative feedback when they were actually at fault for a certain problem, but that doesn’t mean that customer reviews are not relevant. Some people tend to think that reviews are not important since they see a lot of poorly written ones and a lot of them which don’t make any sense. In other words, they generalize.

It was previously mentioned that there is nothing to worry about when you see one negative review every now and then but on the other hand, if a hosting company has received mostly negative feedback from customers, that’s when it becomes tricky. You should always listen to what people using a certain product have to say before using it yourself, and hosting is no exception. Staying away form a company who receives a lot of negative reviews is, for that reason, always a common sense approach.

Should you go with a new company?

You’d think that a new company would give it 110% in order to build up their reputation but unfortunately, things don’t exactly work this way. Most online entrepreneurs think that a new company will offer better support as a result of not having that many customers and their prices are also attractive a lot of times.

If a big company did not offer great support, people would simply stop using them so it’s in their best interest to make sure that customers are always satisfied. On the other hand, we have seen many big hosting companies go from good to absolutely horrible. Sadly, most new hosting companies out there don’t know what they’re doing - the people behind them are inexperienced, their support staff is inexperienced and most of the times, their customers end up being disappointed. Of course, there are a few great new companies out there, but most are just plain horrible, so going with such a host is a gamble.

Don't think you need support?

Quite a few new webmasters don’t understand why they should choose a host which offers good support: They think that, once they pay for hosting, set up their account and upload files, there is nothing that can go wrong. The fact is that a lot of online entrepreneurs don’t understand how things work as far as hosting is concerned and think that everything is a piece of cake.

But what happens if you do something wrong and need to have it fixed? What happens if you have a problem and need it solved now? In such situations, I doubt that having to wait days for a response will be that much of a pleasant experience. You always need a host who is able to get back to you asap, because wasting time is something you cannot afford as a webmaster.

Think all plans are equal?

So you think you found a better deal on a hosting plan with the same, or better server specs. Are you sure? Make sure you understand exactly what you're getting into. What may look good on the surface isn't always what you are really getting. First and foremost, read the terms of service and acceptable use policy. There are many hosts out there that will offer you unbelievable deals, only to find out later that your site is terminated because of a clause in their terms that doesn't allow certain processes, scripts, etc.

Many of these so-called "unlimited" plans will have strict policies, which basically only allow html files with "small' image files that MUST be attached to the html pages. Many of the restrictions they will put on your account is for size of files, no downloads, no streaming media, no adult, minimal cpu processes, minimal memory usage, etc. This is all fine if you want to host a "basic" html website. But what do you think will happen when you upload a family album to share with others? Or an audio greeting? Think about it. If someone offers you "unlimited" but restricts your site in this fashion, how is it ever possible to use any decent amount of space or bandwidth?

Are there shared hosting plans capable of actually providing unlimited bandwidth?

Wouldn’t it be great if a shared hosting plan would be able to handle any kind of traffic, wouldn’t it be great if all of those companies offering “unlimited bandwidth” were to actually practice what they preach? People are always on the lookout for that great cheap shared hosting offer which is suitable for any kind of website, no matter how much traffic it is receiving and, as such, a lot of them actually fall for such offers.

Sure, a lot of companies actually offer unlimited bandwidth but they are not able to deliver. A server simply can’t handle a lot of websites with huge amounts of traffic, things simply don’t work out that way. In most cases, they will cancel your account as soon as your website starts receiving some decent traffic and, as a result, that traffic will go to waste and it will be back to the drawing board.

Is Unlimited the same as Unmetered?

Because an unmetered server cost MONEY! In many cases, adding unmetered bandwidth on a server will cost as much, and many times, more than the server itself.

The fact is, there is no such thing as unlimited disk space or bandwidth. Any company that promises you unlimited is counting on the fact that you will not use it, and if you do, they will quickly find ways of either forcing you to pay for it, or restricting your site. And to be perfectly honest, most providers that offer unlimited are simply resellers. Most of our clients are businesses, and demand superior support and service. They fully use the space and bandwidth allotted, unlike most other small and personal sites. For more information on unlimited, take a look here