Kissing downtime goodbye with high-uptime web hosts

Downtime is never helpful to a website. When someone finds your home page for the first time, or tries to come back and visit it again, it's crucial that your site be available at that moment. Imagine how it is when you are trying to find a resource online yourself--if it's down, you usually try to go and find something else, right? Well, it's the same story with your visitors.

So, if you find yourself frequently staring at an error message instead of your index page, and wondering how much downtime is "okay" for web hosting, it may be time to find a new host. Here are three web hosting recommendations to help you banish downtime and give your visitors a better experience.

HostGator: As a customer, I can personally vouch for their extremely high uptime. Hostgator is one of the major budget hosts, but they have built a good reputation on reliability and service.

Pair Networks: First-rate and professional service. I've been with Pair for many years and trust them completely. They do not oversell, so if you pay for something, it's yours to use and you can depend on it. (Waiting for any significant downtime at Pair is like waiting for a century plant to bloom.)

Cartika Hosting: This company offers a wide range of clustered hosting setups to take uptime beyond traditional limits, and they place their business priorities on uptime and quality. No overselling. A great bet for critical hosting needs.