Website thoughts: Any webhosting recommendations?

Howdy, Folks...

I've wanted a website for years but have shied away from it due to being highly illiterate on the topic of building one. It seems nowadays there are easy to use sites available, "build one in five minutes", use their templates while others you can use their templates or create your own, etc. A few places offer free sites (or pages) unless you choose to upgrade ($).

Now I read that certain hosts might get rave reviews in articles about them but when I read customer reviews there are always problems, e.g., no/slow customer service, down time, slow loading pages, no protection (DDOS?).

I've had my domain names for years (registered with GoDaddy) and they offer a site builder (not free) but now I see they are at the bottom of the Top 10 list with many customer review/complaints.

Sheesh, how does one pick a good host? I see lots of free blog sites but think I might like the ability to post on various pages within a site, upload pics as well as show videos (at some point), etc. Blogs seem to be mainly for word documents/articles, or are they, too, now considered a website? Or is there really a difference?

Lastly, if I build a site and decide to change hosts, can the built site be moved or do I have to start all over and rebuild it?

Any input or recommendations would be greatly appreciated. If ya'll have a site I can look at I'd love to see how you've built yours and hear how easy (or hard) it was.

Thanks!
Shoe