For any small business, one of the most vital investments and requirements would be a website. Many business owners think that the only way to accomplish this is by employing a team of IT experts, which certainly is not the case. All you need is a web hosting service provider.
When you choose the right website hosting provider, a company that’s renowned and reliable, and offers the best customer support, your whole experience will be a breeze.
Therefore, it is crucial that you don’t rush into making an agreement with a hosting provider without doing proper research beforehand. So, here is a guide on how to choose a good website hosting provider for your online business:
Understand Your Specific Hosting Needs
With so many hosting service providers out there, you might think that choosing one is as easy as picking a company from the list. But, that’s not really the case.
Each of those companies will claim to be the best at what they do, and ultimately, it really depends on your specific hosting needs. To understand this, you should be aware of a few things:
✓ The type of website you are looking to build. For instance, if you are looking to work with WordPress, there will be hosting providers who excel in the same.
✓ Do you plan on developing more than one website?
✓ The technical requirements for your website. For this, you should have some knowledge about the different coding languages and those that can help you achieve your desired web design.
✓ The amount of traffic you expect to attract on a monthly basis. Being pragmatic is important in this case because knowing this aspect will help determine the amount of resources you require.
✓ Your monthly budget for the hosting.
✓ Any additional features or special software your website might need.
Server Speed and Uptime Scores
When you have a website for your online business, you want to keep in running almost all the time, without any downtime, in order to provide your customers with a pleasant shopping experience, which in turn will help you generate revenue.
Of course, there is no guarantee that servers will continue operating a hundred percent of the time, regardless of the hosting provider; however, you will be able to find a host that can deliver more than 99% uptime, which is exactly the type of company you should choose.
Yes, you should look for higher uptimes, but what’s equally important is the speed of the host’s servers. This helps maintain the speed of your website, which otherwise cannot be achieved even if you make improvements to other aspects.
Even if you are just starting out and don’t expect a lot of traffic, you still need to look for hosting services with fast servers so you can benefit from the same in the future.
Examine the Host’s Security Features
As an online business, your website is most likely to store a lot of sensitive data, such as your customers’ personal identification details, credit card details, etc.
When this is the case, you should examine the security features offered by the hosting provider you choose. Check if the host constantly monitor their servers to catch any unusual activity; see if they run malware detection software or firewalls on their servers; and look for any other security feature they have in place.
Server Upgrades
As a beginner in the online business world, when you want to have a website, choosing shared web hosting would be a solid ground to start with.
However, with time, your website will obviously start to grow, requiring more resources to cater the increasing traffic. In this case, what you need is a hosting service provider that allows you to upgrade your server options based on your changing requirements.
Look for hosting service providers that offer upgrades to dedicated server hosting and Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting, enabling you to attain more storage space, memory capacity, better security features, and more such upgrades whenever needed.
Good Customer Support
Going with a website hosting service provider that offers quality customer support is crucial for any online business, especially if you know that you will need a great deal of help initially to start your site and have it running.
When you research about the many hosting services, look at the different customer support options they offer, which could include phone support, email, online ticket submission, live chat, etc.
Make sure that the provider you choose offers more than one of these options for you to contact them, and also, a host extending 24/7 support is always the best and wise choice. Read a lot of online reviews to know about a host’s customer support.
Pricing
Of course, you would want the website hosting package to fall within your budget. While the initial signup costs usually tend to be less expensive, especially if you go with shared hosting, there is more you need to consider.
This is because most service providers offer their hosting services for first-time users at an introductory price, which you will pay for the first month, after which the package will be renewed to their usual pricing.
Therefore, what you should do is make sure that their regular pricing falls within your budget. Also take a look at the costs of any additional features you might require.
Yes, there are a lot of website hosting service providers extending their services. But, where you should start is by knowing your own needs, after which you can begin your research and find a good hosting provider.