If you are an absolute beginner this is where you should start. if you already have your own domain name and web hosting you can fast forward to part 3.
Once you found what you're looking for, you can easily forget about the whole " Shared Web Hosting " thing because you already found it and it works for you automatically, so you can let go and do something else.
Selecting a good domain name for your website can be tricky. While sometimes the domain name you want may be taken already, you will see that just a small change in the domain name can give you a much better and SEO friendly name for your website. So, before you apply for a domain name, you will have to decide the best domain name for your Shared Web Hosting UK.
Unfortunately there is no real way around this problem if you are already caught up in it other than move your hosting to an ISP that is actually based in the Country that they claim to be on all advertising etc. Always check beforehand if you are looking at a non .co.uk domain name for your site, as you do risk never getting the 100's or 1000's of search engine referrals that http://www.google.co.uk can provide you.
This is why I prefer Affordable Web Hosting plans. They give you more control of your website. If your site doesn't generate traffic right away you will not have to worry about having your web hosting service cancelled with no warning. You will also be given more tools to help grow your website and make your site more user friendly. Reliability is also something you get with paid hosting. They want to keep you as a customer so they will do more to keep you satisfied. Free web hosting can be crappy on purpose in hopes that you will upgrade to the paid service so you might as well get an affordable web hosting plan that fits your needs.
Forget Testimonials at the host's page. Although we also have them and what is written are true opinions, no doubt, you have to see for yourself if the company is as reliable as it claims. Just contact them and ask for information you will need to know. "Where is their data center located?", "What happens if I exceed a bandwidth limit?", "Do you provide basic help with scripting?", "Am I going to have full control over my domain and if not do you register the domain at customer's name?" etc. Ask any question that might affect on your online business.
Affordable web hosting service could mean different things. i.e good quality service, flexibility and great plan, assurance of having your site running at any time of the day, and so on. So for these reasons, it is very important that you compare the available affordable hosting plan to know which one is actually good for you. What you want determine whether a web hosting service is affordable or not.