’)
If you enter “best web hosting reviews” into Google as a search string you will find over 51,000 results. The problem is that a great number of these so-called ‘best web hosting reviews’ are merely websites that make money by selling advertising for the web hosting services that are listed, or are just a place to post affiliate links. But how can you tell if a review site actually makes rankings via unbiased evaluations or simply arranges their best web hosting lists according to the highest bidder?
First take a look for a disclaimer that may be on the home page for the best web hosting review site or behind a link to a disclaimer. The disclaimer should say something to the effect that reviews are not based on any incentives or commissions. The presence of such a disclaimer is not an absolute guarantee that the reviews listed are unbiased but it is a place to start.
Look to see if there is a way to submit your own review, or vote for your favorite web hosts. If reviews are submitted by a community of web hosting customers it is less likely that ratings for the best web hosting services are based on payments from the hosting companies themselves. This type of process is not immune to abuse through an unscrupulous web host that may wish to stuff the ballot box, so the review site should have some mechanism such as user registration to prevent that tactic.
Check to see if there is something like an ‘advertise with us’ offer somewhere on the page of the best web hosting review site. It does not automatically disqualify a review site if they offer advertising, even if they have ads for web hosts listed on their page. However, if you see in the terms offered to advertisers that relate to the ranking they are given in the reviews, this is a dead giveaway. With a little due diligence you will be able to tell if a best web hosting review is meaningful or influenced by some kind of incentives from the web hosting services listed there.Â
