Even if your business sells a unique product or service and manages to attract scores of website visitors through clever marketing campaigns, your chances of online success could fall apart by choosing the wrong hosting company.
To give an example, prolonged periods of downtime caused by a server outage could result in reduced traffic numbers and a tarnished reputation among customers. But by asking yourself the following six questions, you should end up with a host that can always deliver.
Is security a top priority?
With a virtual server solution from hosts like 100TB, your business can benefit from state-of-the-art security measures such as two-factor authentication, enterprise grade firewalls, and unlimited SSL certificates (click here for more information).
Mitigating the threat posed by cybercriminals is now increasingly important for most businesses with an online presence, as a recent study by the Ponemon Institute shows average annual losses to companies worldwide now exceed $7.7 million.
- What kind of backup and recovery do they provide?
Regardless of a hosting provider’s range of security defences, hackers may still find a way to infiltrate and exploit your most valuable information. In the worst-case scenario, they could shutdown your website and delete all data indefinitely.
For this reason, find out whether your hosting company of choice backs up data on a daily basis, which can also be recovered in the event of a natural disaster too.
- Can they scale in accordance with my needs?
Choosing a hosting company according to current requirements is all well and good, but what about your plans for the future? If you believe exponential growth is just around the corner, will your website be able to cope with more and more traffic?
The very best hosting providers will be able to scale up when your business is achieving success, or even scale down when things are quiet.
- Do they offer obtainable and expert support?
Say your site goes down and you need help to get it up and running again – if you don’t posses much technical knowhow, having the support of experienced and adept individuals to guide you through what needs doing will be invaluable.
However, it helps if this is available at anytime too, as support that only operates during normal working hours won’t be enough of an excuse for customers on the other side of the world trying to access a broken website.
- How does their pricing work?
When it comes to web hosting, you should give precedence to competency rather than cost. However, it goes without saying that every business needs to keep a close eye on finances too.
With this in mind, you might benefit from a hosting company with flexible prices based on hourly or monthly rates. That way, you know exactly what you are paying for and won’t get stung by nasty surprises.
- Will my site be competing with others for resources?
The differences in the price and performance of hosting packages will generally come down to their server infrastructure. For instance, with a shared hosting solution, you will be vying for the same resources as countless other sites.
Therefore, if availability and speed are of the utmost importance, make sure your hosting company has private or dedicated packages available.
