subject: Small Business Web Hosts: Why A Reliable Host Is So Important [print this page] Small Business Web Hosts: Why A Reliable Host Is So Important
If you're building a website for your small business, you'll have very specific needs to ensure the website delivers everything you need it to. Throughout the website creation process, you'll make a lot of choices. You'll need to select a domain name and go through the domain name registration process. You'll need to determine what kind of site you want it to be. (Static? eCommerce? The possibilities are endless.) And one of the most important choices you'll make is where to host your website.
Reliable business web hosting is integral to the success of the business website. Any UK web hosting provider should deliver quality service and websites that are consistently and readily available to website visitors. Whether a site is for a blogger, community news outlet, or small business, everyone wants their website to be reliable, and for that, you need a reliable web host.
But businesses are particularly sensitive to this need. After all, if a blog goes down for an hour, that blogger will be frustrated and may lose some readers. But if a business website goes down, that business can lose income. Over the long term, an unreliable website hosting provider can do serious harm to that company. This means that business who run ecommerce websites will lose out on the potential customers who tried to visit while the site was down. But businesses who run "brick and mortar" companies may lose out on future business, also, as website downtime may portray the business itself as unreliable.
Things like design and content can be tweaked and improved as you go along, but UK web hosting is something you need to get right the first time, from the very start. It is well worth your time to put research and effort into the selection of your web host. To help you, here are a few things you should look for:
Stated uptime. Almost every host needs some "down time" to make upgrades and do maintenance. Ask how much uptime there will be. A good company will tell you and stay true to their word.
Website monitoring. To find out how much uptime you're getting with your current webhost, get website monitoring through your web host or independently to get the full picture.
Security. A reliable web host will also have measures to protect your site from malware and other security breaches. A reliable website, with no security risk, will be preferred by search engines and visitors alike, so a web host whose services are secure will help in this way as well.
Whether you are establishing a website for your online business or your local business, reliable business hosting is absolutely essential to the success of your site.
