The online world is continuing to lure many aspiring entrepreneurs to satisfy their desires to have a business of their own. The days when you needed to have access to a large amount of capital, just to get a business started, have long gone.
Now, a working laptop or desktop computer and a reliable internet connection are all you need to open up a successful business. No matter what product or service you are planning to offer, in order to start any online business, you will require a website. Your website should be convenient and easy to use in order to entice your prospective customers to buy from you.
You will also need to make it easy for customers to return and make repeat purchases, or refer your site on to their friends or social media contacts to spread the word. The simple truth is, your website could make or break your business.
Because of this, it is extremely important to find a reliable web hosting company to accommodate all your online business’s hosting needs.
Listed below are some general tips to consider when choosing a web hosting service to get you started:
1. Consider your requirements
The two biggest factors you will need to consider are bandwidth and storage capacity. Chances are that several transactions are going to take place simultaneously once your site goes live and your customer base grows. You will also need to consider if you are going to be storing a lot of files and data on your site’s backend.
If this is the case, then you should go for a web hosting service who can give you a plan covering a large bandwidth and has a large storage capacity. If not, then it is just a waste of money to get a large-scale hosting plan. If you’re not certain yet what your requirements will be, get the least expensive plan first, evaluate the service for a month, and make some changes afterwards.
Tip: Many hosting companies offer unlimited bandwidth and storage on a large number of their basic plans. So it’s important to check out as many as possible.
2. Do your research
There are a large number of web hosting companies that you can search for online, but just be sure to do some thorough research before making a final decision. Read reviews of different companies and try to find as much information as possible. Do a comparative study on some of the companies and choose the one that best suits your needs.
3. Review their customer support services
If this is your first online business, there will likely be instances when you’ll need help. For this reason it is important that you decide on a web hosting service that offers good customer service and support. Try contacting them to ask about their services.
If they are prompt, provide simple, easy to understand answers and are easy to talk to, you will get a fairly good idea about whether you can count of their technical support when you need it.
4. Site builders
Unless you are an experienced web designer you probably know very little about building a website from scratch. This is the reason many web hosting providers offer web site builders with their plans. Site builders are great for beginners as they make building your site as simple as a mouse click and drag.
Tip: Make sure to check whether a site builder is in fact included in the plans though, as there are some hosts who offer their site builders for an extra fee.
5. Steer clear of free web hosting
While free web hosting may seem like a good idea when you are starting out, you really should think again, as there are several big drawbacks. Have you ever known many things in life to be truly free? I haven’t. And this is a good example.
Free web hosts have to get revenue from somewhere, and they typically do this by placing advertisement on your site. “But I will have advertisements on my site any way”, I hear you say? The problem with advertisements from a free web host is that you have no control over what they advertise on your site. This creates a credibility problem as your customers will be seeing these unnecessary ads.
The other problem is the domain name. With a free host your domain will be a sub-domain of their company. For instance <a target=”_blank” rel=”nofollow” href=”http://www.yoursite.theirsite.com”>http://www.yoursite.theirsite.com</a> or vice versa, instead of <a target=”_blank” rel=”nofollow” href=”http://www.yoursite.com”>http://www.yoursite.com</a>. See the difference? Customers will likely not take your business seriously if you don’t choose a dedicated domain name.
So if you’re serious about your business, and serious about making money, choose a professional web hosting company and a dedicated domain name.
Tip: many hosting companies offer free.com domain names with their hosting packages. Hopefully these tips will get you on your way to finding a reliable host for your online business.
Hopefully these tips will help you to find the right host for your website needs.
Amy Lowe is a public speaker, mother, author and CEO. She loves business, writing, sleeping under the stars and scary movies. She’s a nut for clothes and shoes, and when she’s not working she can be found in the closest shoe store:)