Website Hosting

The growing number of Internet users worldwide coupled with the development of broadband Internet connection has made the net an intergral part in improving business opportunities. People expect to find your business online. If you're getting ready to put your business on the web, or if you're not getting what you need from your current web host, what should you look for? Here are some of the most important items to consider.

First of all is service, especially technical support. Unless you plan to host your web site for free (which is not advisable for a serious business), you should expect fast and accurate responses to your questions. Look for 24/7 phone and online tech support. And before you buy, try calling them (maybe even after midnight) and see if they're on the level. If you are not impressed by their response time and their answers, move on.

Look at the disk space and bandwidth they offer for the price. Remember, if you bump into your disk limit you won't be able to upload everything you want on the site. And if you exceed your bandwidth limit, your site could go dead, or they could charge you some nasty penalties. It's a good idea to have more than you think you will need, so you never run into these problems. Consider the kind of content, the amount of traffic, and number of downloads you expect, and size accordingly. Then think about doubling whatever you estimate -- hosting is cheap, dead-time and penalties can be expensive!

Think about what kinds of script support you will need. Research the kinds of scripts you want to run, and what host support they'll require. Most Linux hosts support CGI, Perl, PHP, and MySQL, but double-check to make sure. If you need an NT host with support for ASP, FrontPage, and MSAccess, that's a whole different set of requirements.

Are you going to need merchant services like credit card processing? If so, then make sure your hosting package includes SSL (secure sockets layer). What about a secure shopping cart and customer contact database? Some web hosts include e-commerce software in their business packages at no extra cost. With others, you may have to spend a few hundred dollars to add the features you want on your site. Take a look at what they offer for security and ready-to-install business scripts, and you could save yourself a lot of money in the long run.

Find out if you can test an online demo version of their control panel, which is the way you'll manage your files, applications, and e-mail accounts. It should be easy to use, but not all of them are. Your time is valuable, and you don't want to spend it learning how to set up a new e-mail account, or how to quickly edit a typo on your home page! The control panel should also take you to a page that shows your site's traffic and referral statistics. Once you start testing different advertising and site variations, you will need a way to see what's working and what's not, which ads are driving the traffic and which are wasting your money. An easy-to-understand stats page is important.

These are some of the things to consider when comparing web hosting comapanies. Your business will have it's own needs, and some of these factors may be more important than others. Don't just jump for the plan with the lowest price, or the most disk space! Take the time to compare the vendors below, and their different hosting plans, and make sure you find the best fit for your business. And if you get stuck deciding your requirements, look for a plan with a 30 or 90 day trial period, and be willing to switch if you make the wrong first choice. Hey, sometimes success is like that!