The Web hosting firm you choose can make or break your small
business. Good ones can run things smoothly, are easy to reach,
and fix problems efficiently. But bad ones can have more problems
than they are worth, be unreachable at critical times, and bring
your business to a screeching halt. Finding a good one is crucial
to your success.
Here are some tried and true ideas for how to select a host that
will save you money, avoid technical snafus, and build your
online platform for the future. 1. Choose a Service that Primarily Does Hosting Although it might be tempting to sign-up with a firm that
provides an umbrella of services in addition to website hosting,
a good rule of thumb is that if a company overly-diversifies its
services, it won't deliver top quality in any of them (e.g. tech
support, updates, maintenance, etc.) 2. Choose a Host with a Great Record for Online Security Most secure hosts will provide SSL Certificates to guarantee
your security. Without an SSL Certificate on your site, visitors
may come and go without identifying themselves, and this could
put your site at risk. Make sure your host implements best
practices when it comes to maintaining security architecture,
updating security software, and responding effectively to
breaches if and when they do occur. 3.Excellent Technical and Customer Service Support via Phone Does the host provide phone support around the clock? Or can you
only email for help during non-business hours? You definitely
want the option to call a staffer. Studies show that
over-the-phone tech and customer support systems are vastly
more efficient than e-mail support centers, on average. 4. Solid Add-On Services
A number of great web hosting companies provide little extras to
make sites more effective and user-friendly. These can include
image upload galleries, blogs, control panels, order forms,
support scripts, databases, and embedded video features. When
evaluating various firms, examine sample sites and note what
value add-ons you like and what value add-ons you feel are
missing in each sample. 5. Don't Rely on Numbers Alone to Make the Decision Many hosts promise uptime approaching 100%. But there's no way
of verifying that kind of claim. If your website goes down, for
instance, the company can easily explain it away as a
statistically insignificant outlier. Similarly, a potential host
may brag about oodles of bandwidth and space on servers, but if
your online small-business needs are modest, these numbers
shouldn't be your incentive. Finally, be wary of online rating
systems. These figures can be jiggered and rejiggered to make a
web host look better (or worse) than it actually is. 6. The Right Price for Your Needs
| It is of course not full article. You should login first to show full article. If you have not account, please register. It is FREE!!! |
Amy Armitage is the head of Business Development for Lunarpages.
Lunarpages provides quality web hosting (http://www.lunarpages.com/)
from their US-based hosting facility. They offer a wide-range of
services from linux Virtual Private Servers and managed solutions
to shared and reseller hosting plans.
|
