Secrets to Small Business Web Hosting
Congratulations, you are ready to launch your small business’ new website! Now all you need to do is pick a web hosting service—but with so many options out there, how will you choose? Picking a web host can be difficult, especially if you’re not an IT sort of person or have any experience with web building or web hosting.
Before picking a web host, there are important questions to address that can help you evaluate what type of web hosting service is best for you small business: Do you need shared hosting and/or dedicated hosting? How many servers do you need for your small business? How much money are you willing to spend?
Shared vs. Dedicated Hosting
- “Shared” or “virtual” hosting means that your website shares the space and IP address on the web host server with other websites. Shared hosting is easy to use and cheap, running from about $4-$20 per month.
- “Dedicated” hosting means that you get your own server. You control what happens to your server and you don’t share space, IP address, or any CPU capacity with any other websites. You’ll get lightening speed results, but it will cost you. The starting price for dedicated hosting is about $100 per month.
Good news for you—having a small business means that you don’t need a lot of disk space; and since you’re probably not going to get too much traffic, bandwidth will likely not be an issue. If your web hosting needs increase as your business expands, most web hosts will switch your website to another package for a nominal fee. Shared hosting services, such as Blue Host, provide an excellent option for small businesses, providing great service at a reasonable fee.
Spending the Right Amount
Beware of cheap deals and discounts. Your business is starting out and you’re understandably looking for ways to cut spending. However, you don’t want to compromise quality when choosing a web host. Basing your web host solely on its low cost could put your business at risk.
A cheap host might have only one server, which is not enough even for a small business. What if the server is down and there are no back up servers? Servers need maintenance and rebooting, and if the server is down, then your site is down: You could lose potential clients and money. You have to make sure that your web host has several servers and performs back-ups regularly.
Additional Benefits to Consider
It is important to note that most web hosts offer additional goodies for registered users. For instance, BlueHost offers a convenient one-click self installation for the WordPress website building program, allowing you to keep your hosting and building costs down without sacrificing on quality.
As a small business, you have to continually balance out cost and reliability. Choosing the right web hosting service can help you achieve that balance and begin building a successful business.
About the author: Melanie Citron is a freelance author who wants the web to be open to everyone. She regularly researches and writes about great free or low cost resources to help all have a great presence on the web. See more of her writing at BuildMySiteforFree.com.
About the Author
Melanie Citron is a freelance writer and self proclaimed “techie” who lives in Denver with her husband, Glenn, and their three dogs Ralph, Sam and Billy. Melanie has become the “go to person” for creating online businesses for her friends and family. “I do it every day so I may as well write about it” Her knowledge has appeared on websites, in local newspapers and in person as a public speaker. In her spare time Melanie loves the outdoors and hikes and cross country skis.