Most business owners
understand the value of creating quality web content and they’re finally
beginning to understand the importance of developing a web site that is
responsive.
But,
that very important process of selecting a reliable web hosting company is
often ignored.
When
business owners take the time to select a reliable web hosting company, they
ensure their website remains accessible and safe at all times.
Choosing
a web host, based on something like pricing alone, can produce disastrous results.
Choosing the Wrong Web Host
According
to Forbes contributor James Lyne, more than 30,000 web sites are hacked
each day. Target, Home Depot, and BlueCross BlueShield are just a few of the
many top brands that have been hacked in the past two years. There is no
perfect solution to prevent hacking. A reputable and reliable web hosting
company will perform regular backups of your data to a secure and remote server
just in case there's a security breach and you lose your data.
When
your website is down, it’s like having the door locked and the closed sign
hanging at a brick-and-mortar business. Your customers can’t enter your store
to shop and you can’t make money. Websites are designed to allow customers to
shop 24 hours a day. This doesn’t happen if your website is inaccessible. In
August 2013, Amazon lost $66,240 per minute when the web site went down for more
than 30 minutes.
Security
breaches and lost revenue are just the beginning of your problems. Websites
that have long downtimes regularly often see a drop in their search rankings.
If your website is down, that great content you developed can’t get accessed
and indexed by the search engines. This can have a negative effect on your
website’s search rankings.
How to Avoid Problems With Your Web Host
Here
are 10 tips that will help business owners choose the right web host; avoiding
mistakes that can create big problems later.
Know What Kind of
Web Host You Need
Understanding
the needs of your business can
help narrow your web hosting options. If you plan to build a website that
features video blogging, 24-hour live streaming and the ability for visitors to
register and upload their own videos, your website would require more features
than someone who just uses their website as a virtual resume. Websites that
receive a lot of daily traffic will likely not function well on a shared server
because these servers are designed to accommodate a lot of small websites that
have limited demands.
Choose the Right
Hosting Package
Many
small businesses turn to shared
hosting as a way to save money,
but with the smaller price tag comes a bigger risk of slow website response
times. Slow websites turn customers away. An option like a Virtual Private
Server (VPS) is slightly more expensive, but it provides a faster, higher
quality web performance and delivers a better customer experience.
Read Web Hosting
Reviews
Refer
to reputable websites when doing research on the reliability and reputation of
web hosts. Researching a web hosting company through
third party reviews is very
useful in discovering any consistent issues or persistent complaints from
current or past users. Pay attention to how the company responds to complaints,
if the company responds at all. This will give you an idea of how the company
deals with unhappy customers.
Get the Right
Amount of Bandwidth
While
most new websites don’t use a lot of bandwidths, it is important to leave room
for growth. Make sure the web hosting company you choose doesn’t lock you into
a certain amount bandwidth and then charge you additional fees if you need to
revise your hosting plan later.
Don’t Get Stuck on Price
When
you’re a new business owner with a limited budget, the web hosting company offering the lowest price might be very tempting. As cliché as
it sounds, remember: you get what you pay for. The cheapest price might just
result in slow servers, poor customer service, constant downtime, and an
association with thousands of unprofessional websites that you would be
embarrassed to share with your grandmother.
Read the Terms of
Service
No,
really. Read the Terms of Service. Don’t just skim through them. Read them.
Most people accept the Terms of Service without bothering to read exactly what
they’re signing. I’ve done it. We’ve all done it. Stop doing it. The Terms of
Service usually includes the refund policy, which might be good to know later.
Test Customer
Support
When
you are researching web hosting companies, always look for a way to contact customer support. Can you find
a quick and easy way to contact them via email, online chat, or 24/7 phone
support? Yes? Great. Now test them. Be sure to test each feature before you
purchase their services to see if they meet the needs of your company.
Know the Backup
Plan
It
doesn’t really matter why your website is down or why you have lost your
website’s data. You need to know if the web hosting company you choose has a
backup plan to help you recover just in case. Ask them, “What’s the plan,
Stan?” If you’re not comfortable with the answer, you know what you need to do.
Ask About Security
Features
Security
breaches happen, even to the mom-and-pop store in that small town in Idaho
Avoid the New Guy Who Can’t Handle Growth
Many
times new companies offer low prices hoping they’ll make up for it with a large
influx of clients. However, most new hosting companies are not equipped to successfully manage that many clients at once. It’s best
to stick with a more established company that can deal with growth without
compromising their clients’ experience.
When
web hosting companies experience growth too quickly and they don’t have the
resources to handle it, that creates problems for business owners like
downtime, slow page loads, lost revenue, and negative effects on search
rankings.
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