Because many online business start-ups have to keep their costs low, they settle for the cheapest web hosting company they can find. That said, being overly price-sensitive when it comes to choosing website hosting can actually lose a business money in the long run. Keep reading below to learn some solid advice and website hosting tips for those with small businesses.
Web Host
See what kinds of sites you can get through your web host. Most free hosting services offer only pages that are static, you are not given the option to use your own programming language and scripts. If you need to be able to do dynamic scripting, you may have to pay a web host for that service.
You should ask about any security measures that are in place when choosing a web host. Your website will be under constant attack from hackers, code injection bots, and other nefarious crooks. Ask if the host you are using has protected themselves, and you from attacks that will cause harm, including DDoS threats. You should know what your web host will do if they are attacked through the Internet.
After choosing a web host, opt for monthly payments instead of yearly payments. Consider monthly payments – what if you need to cancel service sometime down the road? If the host declines, your business expands past them or your account gets closed, you could lose any money already paid.
The amount you must pay for services charges typically depend on how many visitors you have visiting your site on a regular basis. Find out how web traffic changes your bill. Some hosts charge a flat fee but raise the fee if you get a certain amount of traffic, while others charge you monthly based on the number of visitors your site received.
Think about paying extra to get secure server certificates for site safety purposes. A logo can be added to your website that lets your visitors know that your website is secure. This will make them feel more at ease with regard to completing transactions and entrusting your company with their personal information.
Many web host companies require that you back your data up. This is an extremely important function of website ownership, not only because you must comply, but mainly for keeping your data safe and secure. Doing so will help ensure you still have your site, in the event something happens.
Hosting Service
As you shop for hosting service, look for providers that offer a variety of site analytical tools and traffic monitoring. A good way to double-check the traffic numbers provided by your hosting service is to install a visitor counter on your landing page. To maximize the effectiveness of your web site, this information can help you tailor your marketing approaches.
You should aim to talk directly to a web host’s customers through message boards or forums if you can. If you can ask about your concerns, you can rule out services that won’t work for you. After you engage others through these channels, it will become easier to choose the right provider. If you can speak with a current customer of a company, they will probably be the best person to find out information about a company you are interested in.
Find a service that supports the programming languages you are using for your site, or plan to use to develop it. If you don’t have the support you need for the languages that you are currently using, you cannot properly launch the website. Furthermore, if you choose to switch to a different programming language further down the road, your provider may not be capable of accommodating your site. Switching web hosts can take a lot of work.
Web Host
Research a web host’s history before signing up for a plan. Be certain that it is an established company and has a good track record. Be sure your web host has been in business for one year at least. What would you do, after all, if your hosting company went out of business?
You also want to ensure that your web page hosting company is connected in multiple ways to the Internet. If they only have one Internet connection, you go offline when they go offline, and that is not good for your business. Speak with the company and confirm that they have redundant connections and that every single one has a decent level of bandwidth for ensuring that your website will stay online despite any problems that may occur on their end.
If your website experiences growth, you will most likely need to upgrade services from your host provider. Make sure to understand the process for any upgrades to be sure that yours will happen quickly and with ease. Also, ascertain that bandwidth increases happen quickly to allow for a higher level of functionality. It should also not be difficult to move from a server that is shared over to one that is dedicated.
Figure out how many years your web host company has operated for. A company with a longer history of operations is generally more capable of offering an acceptable level of support. When issues pop up, these companies have generally dealt with them before. Most likely, the company will have set procedures in place to deal with the most common issues. This can increase your confidence that the provider is experienced and capable of offering support and other resources.
As you can now see, it is not the best idea to keep costs low in the area of web page hosting. If you want to be successful online, your business needs to accessible at all times. Put the suggestions and information from this article into use. It will help you steer clear of the mistakes often made by small business owners when deciding on their web hosting service.
