No matter how prepared for it, changing your web hosting is basically a hassle no matter how you look at it.

That’s why it’s important to get your choice as “correct” as it can be at the start. It’s not enough to just pick one of the “top 10″ hosting services either. It doesn’t take long before you realise that the “top 10″ from one website is completely different from the “top 10″ from another website and often without any good reason.

In some ways, that difference is to your advantage. It might not seem that way if you’re in a hurry but it forces you to look at the detail of why each host is in the top 10. For example, some sites may prioritise things that are entirely different to what you may prioritise. Again for example, it may seem important that there’s a good support service but if you’ve never used the support service before it’s hardly going to matter and besides, would you want to be with a hosting service where the support service needed to be important?

One often overlooked aspect is the location of the hosting too. It’s quite important to have your hosting service in your target country. Since the majority of hosting services are based in America, this may mean that you’ll need to move well outside the top 10 if you need a European based hosting service.

And so it goes for each of the ranking criteria which is why your personal top 10 can be completely different to the standard one.