Determining the best hosting solution for your business can seem rather overwhelming when faced with the seemingly never-ending choices available on the web. If you already have a hosted site, this can make the task a bit simpler. But what if you are just now getting your business out there for all to see? Going over exactly what your business site needs are can help make this less of a chore.
Space
The first thing to consider is how much web space your business will need. Think about what you want to convey to the general surfing audience about your business.
If you plan on merely putting out an informational styled web site, you can figure about five pages in total – a home page, an about page, a news page, a contact page and possibly one miscellaneous page. In this case, your space requirements will be minimal and you can choose a hosting company that offers around one to two megabytes minimum in web space storage.
However, if you will be needing a site that covers several aspects of your business, offers product information and purchasing options, will be disseminating a lot of information to the public, or will grow and expand over time, your best option is to choose a web hosting company that offers unlimited amounts of web space.
Bandwidth
The next thing to consider is how much bandwidth your business web site will need. Bandwidth, or data transfer, is the amount of data that is transferred from your web site. This encompasses page views, images, videos, documents and files.
If your biggest concern will be consumers visiting your web site to gather more information about your business, then you can easily work with a hosting company that imposes monthly transfer limits. However, if you plan on allowing customers the ability to download files or documents or your business site will involve a lot of video embedding, check out the hosting companies that offer unlimited amounts of bandwidth.
E-commerce
If you plan on selling products, e-commerce is a big concern when determining which web host to choose. Almost every hosting company on the web will offer some form of shopping cart and secured server access (SSL). Be certain to choose one that includes this within the monthly price and that the e-commerce solution offered is simple to use. Nothing can cause a headache quicker than when having to deal with the actual manual setup of shopping carts and connections to SSL. Another item to watch for is hosting companies that allow you to choose from several different shopping carts. Not every cart program is going to be suited to the type or amount of products your business offers.
Support
When looking at the hosting companies on the web, one important aspect of their services to keep in mind is their support. Look for companies that have a “one-stop” type of support section. This should be one easy to find link on their main page that leads you to a section that offers (at a minimum) contact options (e-mail and phone), FAQs, a knowledge base and some form of tutorials. An even better setup would include a ticket support system, a live chat option and 24 hours a day, seven days a week support. Even if you’re an old hand at web hosting, knowing you can access support easily and have an array of options to choose from will give you peace of mind.
Extras
Extras to check out would include the types and number of add-on programs available – bulletin boards, social media plug-ins, and blogging software to name a few. If your web pages are going to be built with PHP, Perl or Ruby on Rails, be certain the hosting company you choose has their sites already equipped with the proper scripting language. One very popular extra and beneficial to businesses on the web is advertising credits. Many web hosting companies offer this within their packages. Decide which places you would be most likely to need advertising (Google, Yahoo, etc.) and choose your hosting company accordingly.
Wrap up
While there are a few things to consider when looking for the perfect web hosting company, it doesn’t have to be a daunting task. Simply write down your requirements as far as space, transfers, e-commerce, support and extras and you are quickly on your way to finding the hosting company that will fit your business needs beautifully.
October 14th, 2009 at 3:41 am
I really look the support and price of any web hosts. how responsible and quick support works and also how much a host is charging you.
I am currently with shopaserver.com , I am happy and satisfied with them so far!
October 14th, 2009 at 9:57 am
Hi,
A really excellent review. I totally agree that the first thing anyone should do is take a look at their web site, is it going to be interactive, i.e. with forums, blogs etc, are they going to sell from it, via a shopping cart or is it just going to be an online brochure.
There is no point in paying for features that are not need i.e. unlimited webspace, if the site is only 2 – 3Mb in size.
When evaluating web hosts this checklist may come in useful.
1) The Company – Do they have a proven track record, are they established and environmentally aware
Technical Support – At a minimum email only, but preferably, email, online, live chat and telephone.
2) The People – All communications from the staff should be professional and knowledgeable.
3) Reliability – As a minimum they should be able to prove a 99.9% uptime record.
4) Redundancy – They should have minimal or no potential points of failure.
5) The Future – Can you upgrade easily and in a cost effective manner.
6) Infrastructure – Fast servers and networks, with expert staff and comprehensive monitoring facilities.
7) Backups – Backups should be as often as possible and checked by the host on a regular basis.
9) Responses – Should be courteous, knowledgeable and received within a good timeframe.
10) Fees – All fees should be made readily available to you, not hidden away in terms and conditions.
Regards
Compila