If you are starting your own business online, you are probably anxious to get going so you can start making profits as soon as possible. You’ve decided on your business name, your products, your services, your prices, etc. But have you chosen the right hosting company? Making a poor decision can set your business up for failure if you’re not careful. Here are some guidelines as to what to look for in a quality, reliable company.
• Technical Support: Are they available to answer your questions 24/7, 365 days a week? Are they qualified to offer tech support, or are they really just sales people? Test them out by contacting them before signing up for anything.
• Reliability: Many hosting companies promise uptimes of at least 99%. Try and find one that is at least 99.5%. This means that your site will be available at least 99.5% of the time. Customers and visitors will not have a problem gaining access to your site and perusing through it.
• Mail Forwarding/POP3: Many companies will provide you with at least one email to match your site, such as ‘ceo@sales.com.’ That email can then be forwarded to a regular hotmail or gmail account that you already have.
• Traffic/Bandwidth: There are usually different packages available that will give you a certain allowance for traffic and unique visitors. When you are first starting out, you won’t need a lot, but as your business grows, so should your GB capacity.
• Secure Shopping Cart: If you are selling products online and want to accept credit cards, then your hosting company should provide this for you; it may cost you a bit extra, but is well worth it.
• FTP Access/C-Panel: Find a company that allows you to make your own changes and updates to your site, so you don’t have to depend on their support team to make them. This will just waste everyone’s time and become extremely frustrating.
• Price: Decide on your budget before looking for a web hosting company, but remember that you also almost always get what you pay for. Stay away from free sites; having said that, there is no reason to choose the most expensive package either.
Your online business venture will get off to a much better start if you choose your web hosting company wisely. Take some time to determine what your business needs now, and what you may need in the future.