Most young small businesses understand the importance of producing high-quality online content and eventually start to know how valuable it is to create a robust website.
However, it’s often disregarded that vital process of selecting a trustworthy web hosting firm.
Carelessly choosing a web host can produce disastrous consequences, based on something other than pricing alone.
Are you searching a small business web hosting for your business website? When choosing a web host, there are many things to consider, but you don’t need to be overwhelmed.
Why You Need Good Web Hosting for Your Site
If you want to make some money from your laptop, are a freelancer, are about to enter a niche with a new business idea, or grow your business by taking it online, then you know why you need to own a website.
It will be the platform that’s the foundation of your brand and anything you’ll achieve from here on. It’s also what you’ll have full control over, unlike social media channels or any other sites you’re part of, where you just have a profile.
A proper website can be built in a matter of minutes with content management systems like WordPress. But to do it right, you also need a web host. That, and the domain name, are the 3 elements of your digital empire.
What is Web Hosting?
Here’s a good definition by Website.com:
‘Web hosting is a service that allows organizations and individuals to post a website or web page onto the Internet. A web host, or web hosting service provider, is a business that provides the technologies and services needed for the website or webpage to be viewed in the Internet. Websites are hosted, or stored, on special computers called servers.
When Internet users want to view your website, all they need to do is type your website address or domain into their browser. Their computer will then connect to your server and your webpages will be delivered to them through the browser.’
Most of the things you do online can be free. That’s creating videos with free software and publishing them on YouTube. Making infographics, book covers or beautiful image quotes with sites like Canva, then publishing them regularly to build an audience. Writing a short book in a simple Word doc, formatting it right, then publishing it on Amazon and becoming a self-published author. And so much more.
The Internet allows us to do all that.
But if there’s one thing you need to invest your first dollars in, that would be a trusted hosting provider.
Good web hosting will lead to:
- No downtime on your site;
- Pages loading quickly;
- Regular checks;
- Customer support;
- A secure and reliable server;
- Enough space to store the data of a site with more content;
- Plenty of add-ons to choose from;
And more.
As your site grows, you’ll invest more in hosting.
The bigger your site gets, the more bandwidth it will require. You also won’t be able to risk saving money on it if that can lead to downtime, or your site being hacked easily.
When you start making money with your site, or see how it’s directly related to finding new clients, you’ll understand the importance of good web hosting.
And will not only choose a more expensive package so you can sleep peacefully at night, but you’ll also pay for more than a year in advance to let Google know you’re serious about this site and domain name, as it’s your brand now. Also, the longer you pay for at once, the more you save (with almost any hosting provider).
How to Choose The Right Web Host for Your Business
1. Understanding your specific needs
Selecting the best online host isn’t as easy as selecting one from a list.
If you’re planning to build a website featuring video blogging, 24-hour streaming, and visitors ‘ ability to register and upload their videos, your site will require more features than really anyone using their website as a digital profile.
2. Look into hosting reliability and speed
The reliability and speed of the host are among the essential things to consider when selecting a web host.
Even a few minutes of downtime per day can result in loss of income and lousy customer experience.
For a beginner with little web traffic, speed may not seem significant. But as your site grows, it will become even more critical.
Read also: How Cath Turned Her New Blog into a Full-Time Business in 1 Year
3. Know your upgrade options
You will need more bandwidth, email storage, and other resources as your website grows. So upgrading your sites is very important.
Many agreements even need hosts to shut down your site or require you to upgrade if you use too many resources.
4. Explore security features
Security features are another crucial factor to consider in a web host.
This is particularly true if you plan to run a website that stores or carries sensitive information, such as credit card numbers for customers.
Ensure that your web hosting firm will provide Secure Sockets Layer to protect the personal information of your customer.
This is a crucial element in providing a safe transaction for customers and will be a feature that the web hosting company offers.
5. Look for quality customer support
Look at what kind of support channels are available during your development processes, such as live chat, email, or phone support.
Look at the hours of support for each host. Finally, read the reviews from each host you are looking at to get an impression of the quality of support they are offering.
6. Research prices – Don’t get stuck
Choose a budget-friendly hosting package. But, it is necessary to look beyond the initial monthly cost you’re shown when researching prices.
Recognize that for first-time users, many hosting providers feature first deals.
Be entirely sure that you don’t have just current budget for the introductory offer, but that you can also actually afford the standard rate.
7. Know the Backup Plan
It doesn’t matter why your site is down or why you’ve lost information from your website. You need to understand if you do have a contingency plan for the hosting company you want to help you regain in case only.
8. Do you get a control panel?
Some hosts also give a control panel that gives you only a few options and restricts what you can do, forcing you to do things like adding new email accounts or changing your password through customer services.
You need to look for user – friendly control panels such as cPanel or Plesk, offering multiple options and logically learning.
9. Avoid the New Guy who can’t cope with growth
Most new hosting companies, however, are not equipped to manage many customers at once successfully.
It’s important to stay with a more established brand that can handle growth without sacrificing the experience of their customers.
10. Read the Terms of Service
No, that’s right. Most people accept the Service Terms without bothering to read exactly what they sign. Usually, the terms of service include the refund policy, which may be useful to know later.
Now you should have a much clearer idea as to what to look for when selecting a web host. You should know that you have to think about quite a few highly technical considerations as well as look at the host’s service and support.
Your web host gives your small business with a digital storefront. Know what your needs are, read the agreement, investigate and ask about protection.