Why You Need a Good Web Host
When you’re planning to set up your web-based business, web hosting might be the last thing on your mind. But neglecting your web host can be a big mistake. You can have the best concept and the best design in the world, but if you’re working with a host that can’t support your site, no one will ever know. And if you’ve got a web host that has excessive downtime, technical issues, or problems with security, your massive traffic could go completely to waste. Now that you know how important the right web hosting plan is, here are some factors to look at to help you determine whether a certain web host is going to be the right one for you.
Web Hosting Issues: Minimal Downtime
Most of today’s web hosts will make claims like 99.999 percent no downtime. It’s hard to know if these claims are true. You certainly want to make sure your website is concerned with downtime, but even if they make an impressive claim, you should do some research to make sure it’s true. Downtime is death to a commercial website. Not only can it cost you money for all the conversions you lose (for example, if you get 10 conversions an hour at $5 a conversion, every hour costs you $50 in lost revenue), it can also lose you a good flow of site traffic. People who are accustomed to your site being down may simply stop going there altogether.
Web Hosting Issues: Security
Security is critical to your web business, and you must make sure that your web host has a good reputation for security. A security mishap can be disastrous for your business. Not only could it result in hackers making detrimental changes to your site, or causing it to crash altogether, but it could allow cyber thieves to steal critical personal information from your customers, causing serious financial damage and ruining your reputation.
Web Hosting Issues: Support
Support is like a reliable car. You don’t realize how much you need it until you don’t have it. When you’re having trouble with your site, you want to get in touch with a human being who can help you fix the problem fast. E-mail support is great if your e-mails are responded to in a timely manner and effectively, but if not, or if your problem is beyond the scope of e-mail, you want to be able to get someone on the phone. Make sure you know what kind of support you are going to get with your web hosting, and what the various support alternatives are.
Remember, a lot goes into making a great, successful website, but it all starts with web hosting. Make sure you’ve got great web hosting first, and it will be much easier for everything else to fall into place.
The above article has been contributed by Karen who is part of createhostwebsites.com.
