Starting a new business can be overwhelming. There are a million things to think about and to get up and running. Your website may be one of the most important. In addition to having your site designed and content created, you’ll also need to think about how your site will be hosted. As you consider companies for hosting, here are some questions you’ll want to ask.
1. What are my hosting options? There are three types of web hosting server options. A dedicated server means your site is the only one on the server. VPS Web hosting means you’ll share the server with other sites, but you will have dedicated storage, bandwidth and configurability. Shared hosting means you will share the server with an unknown number of other sites. Not all web-hosting server companies offer all three options.
2. How reliable are your servers? Your proposed vendor should be able to tell you what his reliability statistics are like. You want your site to be up and running 100% of the time.
3. How often are servers backed up? Daily backups of your information are optimal.
4. When are you available if I have a problem? It is important that your vendor has good customer service and be available if your site goes down any time, day or night.
5. What are your price plans? You may pay a little more for a vendor with great reliability and service, but it’s well worth it. At the same time, you may be surprised to find that a vendor whose reliability and service promises are not that great actually costs more than a vendor who costs less.
6. How long have you been in business? There are a fair number of “fly by night” web hosting server providers. Your server vendor is key to the reliability of your website, so it’s important that you choose one who has been around for a while and has a solid reputation.
7. Will you make it easy for me? If you’re not particularly computer savvy, this is a really important question. Some vendors are simply better at going the extra mile with things like making common software installations simple and easy to navigate.
After asking these questions, you should be well prepared to choose a web hosting server company that can meet all your needs and ensure that you don’t have to worry about your website being a reliable and consistent part of your business.