Key Considerations When Choosing a Web Hosting Service
Your website is more than just the online hub for your business. Today, your website is your business.
Building and maintaining a credible online presence is not easy. Presentation, performance, functionality, UX, content, navigation and so on – all technicalities that can make or break a website.
But even when you have put together a website of flawless quality, its success (or otherwise) still effectively lies in the balance. There is one other consideration to factor in, which, to a degree, is entirely out of your hands:
When you entrust your website to a web hosting provider, you effectively place all aspects of its performance and credibility entirely in their hands. You are at the mercy of their systems and services, without which your website would not exist.
Consequently, taking things for granted when selecting a web hosting provider is inadvisable. You need a web hosting service that is up to the job and can be counted on to support your business.
With this in mind, here are the five most important factors to prioritise when selecting a web hosting service for your business:
Uptime: In an ideal world, there would be no such thing as downtime. Every moment your business spends offline could cause significant harm to its reputation. Unfortunately, guarantees of 100% uptime cannot be made—too many mitigating factors can cause websites to go offline. Instead, it would be best to look for a realistic promise of minimal downtime, complete with full details of what your provider will do during an outage.
Security: The threat posed by cybercriminals is at an all-time high and continues to escalate. Your website (and those using it) will only ever be as safe as your hosting provider makes it. Safety should be the top priority for all responsible hosting companies who understand the importance of safeguarding sensitive information. Remember that every e-mail address, password, credit card number, and so on you collect will most likely be stored remotely.
Automatic Back Ups: It is impossible to eliminate the risk of a catastrophic website failure or your site's complete deletion. You could be hacked, or a technical issue could wipe your website from the face of the earth. At this point, your most recent backup comes into play. The best web hosting providers back up all critical information regularly. Ideally, a recent carbon copy of your website should be on standby so that it can be used as soon as needed.
Scalability: One of the few things all businesses have in common is their desire for growth and expansion. This is where the scalability of a web hosting solution comes into play. Your hosting provider should have the technical capabilities and resources to support your business long-term. However rapidly your business grows or changes, they should be able to accommodate your needs at short notice. The greater the scalability and flexibility of a hosting service, the easier it becomes to grow your business.
Support: Last up, nobody knows your business better than you. At the same time, nobody knows the ins and outs of hosting better than your service provider. Therefore, choosing a hosting company that demonstrates a genuine commitment to quality customer support is essential. They should be on hand at all times to help you get the most out of your hosting package and optimise the performance of your website.