Choosing A Web Host and Getting It Right First Time …
Once you’ve decided to take your business online and you’ve considered what you need for your business web hosting it’s time to decide which web host is right for your business. Making that decision and getting it right first time is vital.
Yes, if you find your first choice of web host hasn’t quite hit the mark, you can always change your web hosting later. But moving your website can cause some very big problems, and you should consider what’s involved in moving, before you finally decide on your business web host.
The main problem is the potential for downtime. Depending on how and where you move your business website to, can result in varying lengths of downtime. Functions, business files and customer data need to be analysed to make sure they will survive the move.
So, to avoid having to move and potentially inconvenience your website visitors, clients’ and yourself, make sure your initial choice is the right choice for your business.
What to consider when choosing your web host :
1. Everything on your website requires space and resides in a file structure …
Your data, information, videos and the images used to design your webpages will all use disk space. When reviewing youe potential web hosts consider exactly what web space you will require, how large your file structure may grow to be and make double sure that the web host offers sufficient space for a growing business website.
2. Control – every website owner needs some form of control panel …
Control panels can be a matter of taste or insignificant providing they do what matters. The most popular control panel is cPanel and to ensure ease of use and maximum compatibility between web hosts, (should you ever have to move web host), as well as easy recruitment of IT staff (when required), then settling on a web host that provides a well known control panel is a wise decision. Your control panel makes setting up sub-domains, email accounts, FTP accounts and other website functions simple. If opting to use cPanel make sure your business web host is offering the latest stable release version of cPanel.
3. Bandwidth – Unlimited is Good for Business …
Selecting a business web host that offers an all inclusive web hosting plan, which provides unlimited bandwidth in addition to unlimited disk space and unlimited domains and email accounts hosted is possible and in the very competitive world of web hosting there are a lot of these low cost web hosts to choose from. Providing ‘unlimited’ really means no limits, especially when you read their terms and conditions of use, then this can be a great choice.
Look for business web hosts that state something like …
Your web host should provide enough bandwidth to handle the traffic generated by increasing visitors. If your traffic exceeds your website bandwidth, it can either cause downtime or result in extra costs charged to your hosting account. Avoid this by making sure your business hosting package has a minimum of several GB of bandwidth per month, and the option to buy more or upgrade your package.
3. Speed – Google now views loading speed as a ranking factor …
Adhoc website visitors, clients and staff can become seriously frustrated if your business website will not load and display quickly. Searching for and clicking on search results is easier than it has ever been, so if your website takes too much time to load in the visitors browser, there’s a good chance they won’t waste their time waiting.
There are many good quality cost effective web hosts that provide fast reliable connections, and you don’t have to simply settle for the more expensive hosting suppliers.
4. Top Quality Hardware And Reliable Data Centers …
It’s essential that your business web host utilises high quality servers. Shared hosting servers, in particular, vary radically in a number of areas including disk space, processor speed and connectivity capabilities. Some hosting companies utilise robust energy efficient servers with high specifications, including Intel Dual Quad Core Xeon processors, large amounts of RAM and large Raid 10 storage arrays for maximum performance & redundancy and 100 Mbps connectivity.
Web hosts that cram too many clients on to one server can overload the servers disk space, bandwidth and processor usage. If your web host offers, shared web hosting try to ensure that it is running at optimal levels and does not have hundreds of websites on the same server.
5. Help & Technical Support …
Top quality technical support 24x7x365 via live chat, helpdesk, email and phone must be available. If you contact your web host, you must be confident they will answer and that your issues will be solved within minutes. Even the most complicated of technical issues should be guaranteed to be answered promptly. The last thing you want is your business website to be experiencing technical problems outside your control and for you or your staff to be waiting for an email answer from your web hosts technical department.
Worse still, is having to queue a support ticket when your website is offline. Chances are all websites on that server will be offline and you will be queued behind dozens of other support tickets. Make sure the web host you choose has an excellent reputation when it comes to help and technical support. It can make a real difference.
Business Grants & Funding
Grants for Starting a BusinessWhat's the point in having a great idea if you don't have any cash? You need capital to move your business from an idea to reality.
Raising Business FundingFunding is essential for every start-up business. Do you get it from family and friends, business loans, the SBA or other sources?
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