subject: Which Website Hosting Service Should You Choose? [print this page] Marketing is among the first things a new company should invest on. You need to establish a consistent presence in order to introduce your line of products and services to the widest possible audience. The most efficient way to market your new company is by creating a website for it.
In order to create a reliable website, you are going to need to subscribe to a webhost. Website hosting services come in a variety of packages, but whatever package you select, make sure that it contains the following features:
1.Service level agreement adherence. Downtime for maintenance is acceptable. Downtime because the main server keeps going kaput is not, and gives you a valid reason to complain to the Better Business Bureau. Ideally, website hosting services should have a backup server to ensure that clients websites remain online and that you get what you are paying for. If you are a business owner, you cant risk losing valuable time for your online presence. Time lost is money lost. Moreover, an ecommerce site that sporadically goes offline negatively impacts your brands name and image. Thus, ask them how many hours of uptime they can guarantee you.
2.Space. This is your disk space or the amount of data that domain owners and clients can store on the servers of companies with website hosting services. A personal website that serves like an online diary doesnt need a lot of space to store blog copy and images. However, an ecommerce or government services website may require so much more disk space due to the volume of information they need for their online presence. More disk space is required if the website will be media-heavy and graphics-intensive. If you own such a website, try to get as much disk space as possible in the beginning so if you need to upgrade in the future, your upgrade requirements will be minimal.
3.Reasonable price. We all want the best possible price for the package we select. Sometimes were willing to go just a bit above the budget if we think the website hosting services are worth the additional dollars and cents. As enthusiastic domain owners, we will invest where needed to ensure the success of our online presence. However, you still need to watch your cash, so to speak, especially in these tough economic times. A very well put-together and ably hosted website may be critical to your business, but dont fall victim to steep prices. Find out what the industry averages are for the package you want and use that as a peg. Anything way above that is a no-no.
4.Security. Hackers are an ever-present threat to any online presence. The best website hosting services should possess reliable and consistent security features for their clients peace of mind and business continuity. An ecommerce site that accepts credit cards and other forms of payments should have SSL (secure server) and Shopping Cart features to ensure that their online customers details will not be compromised even by brute force. But even if your site does not handle financial transactions, you might still have data that could be valuable to a hacker, such as your online community members email and physical addresses. These are details which could be sold as lists to third party marketers.
5.Good customer support. The world of website hosting services is never without its fair share of glitches. Even the best hosts experience downtime a few times a year, partly due to maintenance and upkeep. Those are acceptable reasons but what about on days when your online presence suddenly takes a tumble and its not even maintenance day? As a paying customer, you have a right to seek and get answers as to why your website is suddenly down. Good, round-the-clock customer support that is easy to get a hold of should be available to address your issues.
A strong online presence can help establish even new companies. You too can reap the benefits of good website hosting services as long as you pay close attention to your own online needs. Marketing your company products and services is so much easier with your new website functioning well.
