Choosing Web Site Host for Your Home Business
Choosing the right web site host for your home business can be quite a daunting task. There are many, many web hosting companies on the internet today, all claiming to offer the very best features for the cheapest rates. There is such a conglomeration, that the new webmaster, someone just starting a home business for example, would simply not have any idea where to start.
Your web host is like a manager who is responsible for keeping your URL address up and running with little to no down time. This service should also be available to fix certain problems should they arise. The web hosting provider is not usually the ISP, Internet Service Provider, which is the company responsible for getting you online by providing your dial up or DSL account.
As you begin your website development plans for your web business, take time to spell out and analyze what you expect of a Web Hosting Service. What do you consider necessities, and what are the frills.
It is wise to communicate with the sales and service department of any hosting company you are considering so that you can evaluate their promptness in responding to your inquiries, their knowledge in areas important to you, their willingness to be of service as you ask your questions or voice your concerns. You might also consider asking others you respect for their recommendations. Another avenue to pursue would be to sit in on forums that are discussing web hosting issues.
Basic Essential Features
- A guarantee of the projected time your site will be online, in other words, what percentage of time will your site be up, running and visible to your visitors. What is their record of down time.
- Service personnel available 24-7. This probably should be one of the first things to consider in choosing a web host. When you have a problem that adversely affects the working of your site, ideally, you should be able to call and speak with a live person any time, night or day. At the very least, an email reply should be forthcoming within a reasonable amount of time. You have to be the judge of what "reasonable" means to you.
- Fast connection time is a must. The importance of fast loading times for our web pages is critical these days. Since we all lose patience if we have to wait more than a few seconds for a web page to appear, 30 seconds might represent the outer limit a person would be willing to wait on a page to download. Web hosts are quite aware of these issues.Naturally, the webmaster or designer has a responsibility in this area also. The number and size of graphics has a slowing down effect on loading time.
- If you are planning to sell on the internet, you should choose a web host that offers access to e-commerce services, i.e., secure order forms, shopping cart, and merchant account.
- The hosting service you use should provide its customers with some of the very basic free options such as information about: web page design, internet marketing, search engine optimization, search engine submission, affiliations. Also available to you should be email addresses using your own domain name, domain name registration, autoresponders, mailing lists, web statistics, guest books, quizzes, form outlines, forums, FTP, ability to edit your site online, cgi-bin applications, page counter, to name a few.
- Consider the amount of space you will need, the various packages offered, and whether your web host service has the option to upgrade your options as your business grows.
Web Hosting Costs
There are Web Hosting costs to fit every budget. Free hosting usually requires
you to display some type of banner advertising or pop up on your site. Also, you
probably cannot have your own domain name. I find the free hosting services make it
much easier to set up a web page. This can be important is you have absolutely no
knowledge of html, meta, etc.
However, there are very good, quality web hosts that cost as little as $10.00
per month. Of course, this cost can skyrocket into the hundreds for large companies.
In summary, analyze your particular needs very carefully, and take your time choosing
a Web Host for your new ebusiness. Communicate and compare what a variety of hosts
offer for what price. Get recommendations from others. Read everything you can find
on the subject. These are some of the things that will help you make an educated
choice about your Web Host Service.
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