Business Web Hosting Tips
Read these 9 Business Web Hosting Tips tips to make your life smarter, better, faster and wiser. Each tip is approved by our Editors and created by expert writers so great we call them Gurus. LifeTips is the place to go when you need to know about Web Hosting tips and hundreds of other topics.
Business Hosting and Uptime
It is vital to have a website that is reliable so you should find out how much down time to expect when selecting your business hosting. Some web hosting providers offer free web hosting or inexpensive hosting options, however their service can be down quite often. Make sure you find a provider with 99.9 percent uptime because your business depends on it. The decision of who you choose for your business hosting is vital. If you need guaranteed 100 percent uptime, then you should go to a dedicated server or colocated server which will cost more, but will be there when your customer wants to find you.
Small Business Web Hosting and e-Commerce
Most small businesses need some type of shopping cart system or e-commerce features when they select their web hosting. If you have a small business you probably want to turn visitors into customers on your website and not just use it as a yellow pages advertisement. Small business web hosting providers vary widely in what they offer. Make sure you get enough bandwidth and disk space, then analyze the other features such as number of email addresses, FTP access, monthly fees and set up costs, log files and statistics, and e-commerce packages.
Cheap Web Hosting for Small Business
Small businesses have specific needs when selecting a web service provider. It is important to find cheap web hosting for small business owners. Costs for cheap web hosting range widely and with a little research you can find hosting which will fit your needs and your wallet. Word of mouth goes a long way in finding a good web host. Ask people you know and trust who they use as a web host provider. Make a list of your requirements and take some time researching. If your web host doesn't work for you then you'll lose valuable time and potential customers.
Choosing Business Web Hosting
There are many things to think about when choosing a business web hosting provider. There are so many options make sure you check out what your web host offers. How much time is the service guaranteed to be up? How much space do you need? How much bandwidth will you get? Do they offer FTP support? How many email addresses are offered? Do they offer e-commerce or shopping cart software? What web stats will you have get? Are there setup fees? Is there a money-back guarantee? A little research is well worth the time to find a good business web hosting provider.
Know Your Ecommerce Before Choosing a Provider
Other website hosting providers will run specific ecommerce software on their own host machines, allowing you to set up and run your own store. You need to know which is right for you. Other things to check out: Does the website hosting provider offer a merchant account, payment gateway and secure server? Is the cost of the package reasonable compared to purchasing all these applications separately?
Business Hosting and Uptime
One of the most important aspects of business web hosting is the ability to view your statistics. In order to improve your traffic you need to analyze what is working and what is not working. Vital statistics for web hosting include traffic with detailed visitor tracking and analysis, bandwidth usage, campaign tracking and pages visited. Know where your customers are coming from and what they are looking at it so you can improve their experience, know what campaigns are working and more effectively turn visitors into customers.
How to Find the Right Shopping Cart
One of the most important features of your ecommerce site will be your shopping cart. Most hosting companies that offer ecommerce hosting plans will supply you with at least one free shopping cart. It is a good idea to try out a demo of this cart before you purchase an ecommerce hosting plan to make sure that it is easy to use, and to administer. OpenSourceCMS.com is a great place to find a number of popular shopping cart demos that are almost fully functional.
If you find that you like one more than another, you can search for an ecommerce hosting plan that offers your favorite cart. While you can easily pay for a regular shopping cart and install it yourself, it is much easier and cheaper to find an ecommerce hosting company that provides you with the cart you want to work with.
How to Get the Best Business Hosting Plan
When you are looking for a business hosting plan, you should be aware of certain features that will make the difference in how you can run your business. Mailing lists are a very good way to keep in touch with your customers, but not all business hosting companies will allow you to have them. In other cases, if you are allowed a mailing list, you may be limited as to the amount of subscriptions per each list. While it is easy to purchase a secondary off-site mailing list solution, this is an extra expense that can be avoided with some smart shopping.
Look for a business hosting company that offers an unlimited amount of mailing lists, or at the very least, an unlimited amount of users per mailing list. This will give you the freedom you need to keep in touch with your customers and significant savings.
Know Your Ecommerce Before Choosing a Provider
Ecommerce is no longer a specialized niche for web site hosting companies. Virtually every commercial hosting provider is going to offer some sort of ecommerce plan. You need to know something about how ecommerce works to decide which plan is right for you. Generally, there are two types of ecommerce hosting plans. Remotely hosted plans make everything web-based and are usually very easy to set up.
| Guru Spotlight |
| Patricia Walters-Fischer |
