The majority of small and medium business owners do not have much knowledge about running web servers. As a rule their web designer will handle these matters on their behalf. The problem comes in if the web designer suddenly moves to the other side of the planet and you have no idea what’s going on with your website. That’s why it’s always better to know the basics of website hosting so you will at least know what questions to ask the hosting company.

Probably the most important aspect you have to consider is that of reliability. You don’t want to give out business cards to your associates, only to hear a month later that half of them could not access your website because it was down most of the time. You will most likely lose business this way. You should therefore choose a hosting company that can prove a high uptime ratio – preferably more than 99.5%. Ask for an independent report to verify this.

Another factor that is very important is technical support. No matter how good the company is, from time to time something will go wrong. If your email doesn’t work one morning, you need help and you need it fast. Make sure the company provides support around the clock, seven days a week.

Something that most business websites could need is a secure server. You should under no circumstances request your visitors to provide confidential information, like credit card details, over a non-secure connection. This kind of information should be collected via a secure server so it can’t be intercepted.

As far as disk space and bandwidth are concerned, most hosting accounts should be perfectly adequate. The truth is that the majority of websites don’t take up more than a few megabytes of disk space. Unless your website is therefore used for video distribution or to store thousands of pictures, you should have no problem with space or bandwidth. Only pay for what you need in this regard.

If you want to use scripting languages, such as ASP or PHP on your website, or databases, you should make sure the company’s servers can handle this. Also ensure that you get enough email addresses for your needs. Any good web hosting account should include at least fifty or a hundred email accounts.

Often you will want your website visitors to be able to contact you right from the site. In this case a web form is the best option. Fortunately most website hosting companies nowadays will give you access to a free script which can handle web form data. In fact, there are many web hosts that will provide you with a host of free scripts: everything from online forums and blogs to live support. These scripts can usually be installed from a control panel without the need for any technical knowledge.

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When setting up a website and shopping around for a web host, you may find all the technical terminology a bit confusing. In reality, it isn’t really that complicated. By understanding a few basics about web hosting and web hosting service providers, you can easily select a web host that is best for you. Some of the questions you need to ask pertain to your business and others related to the web hosting industry. Here’s a quick run-down of 10 basic questions you need answered before choosing a web host.

1. What Is a Web Host?

A web host is a service provider that manages a number of different websites on a particular server. They provide the platform on which your website is located. Many web hosts will have a number of different hosting packages available. They may have shared or dedicated hosting facilities as different options. The type of hosting package that you choose will largely depend on your hosting requirements.

2. Where Is Your Business and Where Are You Going?

If you have a start-up business, keeping costs low is a major priority. However, if you see your business growing rapidly in the future, you will need to keep in mind how this may affect things such as your website and web hosting package. There are many good entry-level basic web hosting packages. These are usually on shared servers and have a limit on the bandwidth available. If your business grows rapidly, you may find that you need to expand your website and enlarge your hosting package. Not all web hosts have migration or upgrade facilities and this can make it a tedious task to upgrade your web hosting package. Your best option is to choose a web hosting that has the capacity to grow with your business.

3. What Level of Technical Expertise Do You Have?

Often business owners have a limited understanding of web hosting and web design. If this is the case, you want to sign up with a web hosting provider that has a wealth of technical knowledge and expertise that you can draw on. Ideally, if your budget allows, you will want to go for a web host that offers a managed hosting service. This means that they will take care of all the web server maintenance and security ensuring that you have maximum up-time on your website.

4. Are Free Hosting Packages Worthwhile?

While there are some good free hosting companies out there, you need to think carefully about signing up for one. Generally, these hosting packages are free because the hosting providers sell advertising space on the websites they host. This means that you may not entirely be able to control the content on your website. In addition, free hosting packages generally have limited support services and can seldom be upgraded to other packages.

5. What’s the Difference Between Shared and Dedicated Hosting?

Dedicated hosting means that your website is allocated its own unique server. This means that you have a greater level of control over your website and generally improved hosting efficiency. You can also ensure higher security levels on your server and have more flexibility in the way you manage your website; however, this comes at a premium. Generally dedicated servers are quite expensive which is why the option of shared servers became available. A shared server hosts several different websites. Generally, the capacity of each is limited and because there are different site owners accessing the server, you have lower levels of security.

6. What Is an E-commerce Website?

An e-commerce website is basically an online shop. It requires specialized hosting and web design to ensure it functions properly. The web host you choose should be knowledgeable about hosting e-commerce sites and be able to provide you with technical support.

7. What Is a Marketing or Corporate Website?

A standard commercial or marketing-type website is less complicated than an e-commerce website. This type of website is a shop window for your business as it showcases who you are and what your business is about. While you may not sell products on the website, it still requires that you choose a reliable web hosting service provider.

8. What Makes a Web Host Reliable?

One of the most important considerations is the level and efficiency of the technical support provided. No systems are flawless so when things go wrong, you need to be able to fix the problems as quickly as possible. A good hosting provider will have technical experts available on their support desk who can assist you with any problems. The stability of the server is another important consideration. A well-maintained and managed server should seldom go down and this is what you want from a web host — a website that is accessible 24/7.

9. What About Website Security?

A good web host should provide a level of security on the server. However, as the owner of a website, it is important to maintain a good level of security on your website as well. This may include having anti-spyware, anti-virus and anti-tracking software installed in your system. It is important to keep it constantly updated to keep your system protected.

10. Where Do You Find a Good Web Host?

Your web designer will probably have a hosting provider that they have an established relationship with. It is a good idea to follow their recommendations. Alternatively, you can ask colleagues and business associates which company they use. Lastly, you can search online. However, if you do this, be careful to read the industry reviews of the web host to ensure they are reputable.

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Hosting support can possibly best be compared to insurance. Most of the time you won’t need it but when you do, it will be critical. Many people are sold on the benefits of cheap and free web hosting solutions only to find themselves up the creek without a paddle when things go wrong. Good hosting support is probably the biggest deciding factor when it comes to differentiating between a good and bad hosting provider. If you are relying on your website as a major marketing tool, you cannot afford to be without 24/7 support from your hosting provider. Your website is being accessed by customers 24 hours a day from around the globe. If your site goes down and there is no support from your hosting provider after hours, you could be losing out on valuable business. Let’s take a more detailed look at why 24-hour support is essential.

What Downtime Means for Your Business

It could just be for an hour a day but in terms of anyone’s business, that is far too long. For the period of time that your website is not accessible, you simply don’t exist on the Internet. You may know that it’s just a temporary downtime but your customers don’t know this. If they search for your company and your site brings up an error then they could assume that you are no longer in business. Think of how many unique users visit your site in a month, and how many of those potentially search your site in an hour. That’s how much potential business you could be losing out on if your site is down.

Your Website Is Your Biggest 24/7 Business Marketing Tool

Many businesses are operating on a global scale. This means that when you have shut your doors for the day, your website is still working for you. Think of how often you go home and browse the Web in the evening. You may be looking for a holiday package, investigating new gadgets for your favorite hobby, or shopping online for books, videos or gifts. Any of these businesses featuring the products that you are looking for will need to be up and running if they are to be picked up on the search engines. The same applies to your business website. You cannot afford downtime as it can cost you valuable business.

Customers Have a Wide Range of Choice

Perhaps one of the most important reasons to have 24-hour support is that you want to retain your customers. If they try search for your website and come up with an error, they will simply take that at face value and move on to the next supplier. Seldom will they try contact you by some other means or think that your website may be temporarily down. Customers have such a broad range of choice on the Internet. Unless you give them a compelling reason to buy from you, there is no reason for them to exhibit loyalty to your business.

Why You Need Server Support When Your Website Goes Down

When your website goes down, it is really only your server host that will be able to tell you what the problem is. If you have shared hosting, it could be that one of the other websites on that server is using all the bandwidth. Or it could be that there is a more serious problem with the server. If there is 24-hour support, they will be able to investigate and address the issue immediately. This means that your website’s downtime is minimized. Hosting providers generally have diagnostics that they can run to identify and isolate the problem. But if your hosting provider’s support desk only operates during office hours, you could have a website that is down for 12 hours or more and that could be disastrous for your business.

What’s the Difference Between 24-Hour Support and 9-to-5 Support?

Most often, hosting providers that have 24-hour support will charge a little more for their services but in the long run, it can be worth every cent. If you have a dedicated server, you will want that extra service guarantee. Most often, you will have an e-commerce site or user interface where your customers can log in. And that needs to be operating 24-7. The only way you can ensure that happens is to have a hosting package where you know you have 24-hour support. It can make the world of difference to your business.

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Increasingly, people are turning to the internet for their shopping and information needs. It’s no wonder then that more companies are choosing to market online, and more individuals are using the internet to promote products, services and ideas. If you are interested in reaching more people, online marketing may do wonders for you. All you need to start a website is a domain name and website hosting. Once you have those, there’s no limit to the number of people you can reach.

A domain name is the address people will type in to get to your website, or simply the address they will be taken to when they click a link to go to your site. You can purchase one from a domain name registrar, usually for just ten dollars or so. As far as business marketing costs go, it’s not bad at all.

The next thing to do is to get a web hosting service, also called an internet hosting service. This will store your images and web pages for you. Many hosting providers include domain registration services so you can get a domain name through them. They may also provide e-mailing services and other various advantages.

One of the more popular types of hosting services is the shared service. It allows many sites to be hosted on a single server, so the website owners share the cost between each other. Each site has its own server space allotted to it. All in all, it’s a very cost-effective solution and one that is popular with smaller sites particularly.

On the other hand, if you want more control and security measures, you may prefer a dedicated hosting service. That way you can lease a server all on your own and not have to share it with anyone. You control everything, choosing an operating system, installing hardware and software. This type of service is especially beneficial for large corporations with a lot of data to access through their website. To make sure the data is secure, they may have security measures like firewalls.

You may also be interested in an e-mail hosting service, which is now included with most hosting providers. You’ll get a number of e-mail accounts with your website address on it, so you can give employees of a company, for instance, e-mail addresses with the company name. For example, employee at company dot com. The number of these addresses will vary depending on the plan offered by the hosting provider.

Blog hosting is also becoming more popular. If you want a blog on your site, all you have to do is activate the software that is already been installed, if you have a blog hosting provider.

You can even get an e-commerce hosting plan, which is great for companies that carry out sales activities online. The plan may include things like shopping cart software, a merchant account, and other add-ons. To get the most of your website hosting provider, check out a number of different options so you can have a better idea of what may be best suited for you.

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For those of us who run a business on the internet, being able to rely on the providers of our web hosting is one of our core requirements. If you have just started in this business and not yet encountered any of the situations, count yourself lucky, but keep an eye out for these signs. Self education is one of the best ways to grow as an entrepreneur, and if you can learn from the experience of others who have been in this business longer then you should definitely take advantage of that opportunity. Vigilance is the key to maintaining a business that will grow to meet your expectations, so stay aware and keep these signs in mind as you monitor your web hosting accounts. This way you won’t end up with a company that could care less whether or not you do business with them on a long term business.

5. Bad Web Hosting Reputation Online – The fast features of the World Wide Web is basically there that almost everyone can end up with a sudden decision anytime. Certain patches are made to counter any unforeseen change in the terms from the top search platforms, legal regulations and marketing trends. Most of the businesses that have long remained and made it successful on the fickle online environment are those who have been always on the lookout and do positively address these changes effectively. This evidence suggests that these businesses have long present and that may already have experienced jumping to another web host provider in an instant. This and other reasons can only connote that we are already in the business long time ago or that we have been through the experiences of shifting from one hosting company to the other. In such cases we might have failed to scrutinize the past performance and reviewed the previous statistics of our past providers. For one reason or another we might not have dig down deep on to the details of the company to look for those stats that would indicate their relatively poor performance.

At one instant that you try to check on your company over the internet with the aid of top search engines just to find out that there is the numerous dissatisfied comments and reviews they are earning over the message spaces, online forums and blogs. You should always take note of those other issues and concerns by other website owners for you may possibly experience those and may be a yardstick for you to note the possible failure of your existing host company. Alongside, very good judgment is also necessary to establish whether such negative feedbacks are only those released and manufactured by competing host companies. Still, the judgment is yours but it is still a worthwhile to keep on track of these relative notes and experiences you have with your current provider. This is definitely the smartest step not to totally entrust the future of your online enterprise to the hands of a certain website company.

4. Price Increases – When you first sign up with a web hosting service, you often get a discount that can last a few months and then prices eventually return to their regular levels. This is obviously nothing to be alarmed by, but if you begin to notice that the prices you pay for service are slowly creeping higher then you may want to evaluate whether or not those price hikes are coming with any level of genuine value increase. Bandwidth has been getting cheaper as technological advances become more widespread, not more expensive. This means if your provider is raising their prices they could be suffering financially and making a desperate move to stay afloat. Monitor your bill and make sure you are getting your money’s worth because your bottom line is as important as your web host’s.

3. There Are No Well Versed Tutorials and FAQs – With the current technological pace, there are relatively hasty software improvements that abound us almost daily. As a technology expert, it is always necessary for us to get acquainted with well organized online help guide for us to be able to do some self-help properly. Sometimes, whole day technical support is not present and if proven otherwise, attempts on making a call and eventually speaking to someone may cost you a lot of time. Today’s presence of numerous tutorial enabling soft wares over the online world prevents the hosting company of excuses not to have a reliable tutorial situated on their site. FAQs that may be helpful in aiding you put up and maintain your website activities should also be present. For persons who opt to get know for their self the know-how, it might prove beneficial to study beforehand posted FAQs and tutorials than to wait for the e-mail or call responses of the technical support representatives.

2. Significant Downtime – In today’s hosting industry, the standard has come to be offering a 99% Uptime Guarantee. This sounds attractive and is generally fairly accurate, but downtime is to be expected from time to time even by the best hosting companies. As long as the company makes a sincere effort to fix the problem then you really should not have to take drastic measures such as switching your provider. Still, if you begin to notice that your site is down frequently or for long periods, you will want to get in touch with tech support right away.

If they disregard your concerns most of the time and still end up not satisfied, then that is the time for you to go to another company. There is a relatively greater amount of expectation coming from the client for a better hosting service most especially that only a few of these clients know the intricate details of every hosting aspect. Alongside, your regular customers who suddenly experiences difficulties in going through your website may already be hesitant on returning back. You might end up earning nothing and having a hard time paying for the website provider if you don’t have a running site that provides you business activity. If the company is having a hard time in maintaining their operation, then they may probably be in the state of closing.

1. Tech Support Gives You the Runaround – This is the number one problem when it comes to web hosting companies. Many people need a high level of assistance when it comes to things of a technical nature, even webmasters. Due to this, hosting companies tend to need larger support staffs than some companies. If you are finding that you get the brush off or even rude comments when you call in for support, you want to take action immediately. Firstly, make sure you contact someone outside the tech support team to report your negative experience to the company.

In confiding to another person, you may be lucky enough to get positive results or even an apology from the rude representative whom you dealt with earlier. You should know that different individuals have their own types of behaviors although negative ones are not generally allowed when it comes to their work. Some technical representatives who are just playing around would not certainly know how to assist you with your problems. The best representatives are those who seek out answers and assist you all throughout even if they are not that familiar with your concern. You should never accept un-justifiable excuses from the tech support people since you are just merely doing business.

The topics discussed are just the most prevalent 5 reasons to be seen in case the website owner is trying to decide whether to stay in his current host provider or to leave. Nonetheless, there are a lot more factors to be considered. To be able to achieve that planned outcome, you should always handle your company in a manner that is mutually beneficial for the both of you. And lastly it pays well to gather details.

Laurence Flynn is the CEO of HostNexus, a top Reseller Hosting provider. Thousands of webmasters switch to HostNexus every year, lured in by incredible uptime and excellent uptime. Check out HostNexus today!