Your business is in need of web hosting for your new site, but you are lost as to which of the many types of web hosting providers will give you the services and tools that you need to have your web site not only fully functional, but thriving. While there are a lot of possibilities, once you take a careful look at what’s available, the choices narrow down rather fast. Let’s take a peek at the basics of choosing hosting for your business.
• How Many Domains – Some host’s budget plans only allow for a single domain to be hosted there. You may think that is all you want or need right now; but for a few dollars more, you’ll be not so limited, and able to take advantage of opportunities when they present themselves.
• Size and Bandwidth – Make sure there is both enough space and bandwidth for your site. If you are planning a large ecommerce site or store, or are planning on hosting a number of images or videos, this is a vital concern going in.
• Pricing – While we all want to pay as little as we can for as much as we can get, the cheapest web hosting will get you little. Web hosting plans aren’t expensive to begin with, so don’t scrimp. Get as much as you think you need, and then a bit more. You’ll be glad you did!
• Control of Your Site – This has to do with where you purchased your domain name. You’ll want to keep this separate from your web hosting in the event you might someday need to move your web hosting. There are horror stories galore of site owners at the mercy of their previous, not so wonderful web hosting companies, who are now holding their domains hostage. Don’t let this happen to you!
• Is Your Hosting Plan Scalable? – When your business grows, your site needs to grow right along with it! Make sure there is not only enough space and bandwidth, but also the infrastructure there to take on new things like possibly a shopping cart, forum, multiple databases and more. Don’t be limited by your web hosting plan.
• Site Builders – If you are relatively new, or don’t have the resources available to have your site built for you, you may want to find a host that has site builders available for you to use in your account. These are usually very simple WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) web editors that allow you to get a simple site up and operational fast.
• Super Support – This probably should be the first item, as it is so important. Stellar support can save you when the chips are down, and conversely poor support can sink you faster than a stone! Always opt for phone support if possible, live chat, and then lastly email. If your site is down for any significant length of time, (more than a couple of hours, more than once) then consider switching hosts. Your business can’t thrive if you can’t be found. Don’t tolerate poor support!
Those are some of the basics. Get most of these right, and you should have no trouble finding great web hosting for your new business site!
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