subject: What To Look For When Finding Small Business Web Hosting Services [print this page] If you have a small business today, you probably realize that you must have a web presence. The problem is that there are literally millions of small business web hosting services out there. How do you know which one to pick and what are the criteria?
Here are a few tips that might help you decide which hosting service is right for you.
Price
Price is always a major issue when choosing a hosting service for a small business. Just remember, you get what you pay for. If the price is low, then the quality of the service probably is too. Instead, find a service that is mid range in pricing and compare small business web hosting services in that range. This way you ensure you get an "apples to apples" type of comparison.
Customer Service
Customer service is probably one of the most important things you can have in your web hosting service. Things are going to go wrong and you need to be assured that you will be able to talk to someone who can and will help fix the problem quickly. What kind of communication can you have with them? Look for chat, email, Skype, phone, etc. Look for reviews that might help you in determining this factor.
Disk Space
If you start with a small space it allows no room for growth. So consider plans that offer more space than you think you will need anytime soon. Simple but very important.
Uptime
Uptime is basically the amount of time the service stay up. In other words, the uptime is how dependable they are. Obviously, the higher the number the better, but is it usually also more expensive. Instead of trying to find small business web hosting services that offer 99.999999% uptime, look for services that can boast 99.99% uptime but offer you something in the way of discounts for downtime. Every service will have downtime, so look for the service that offers you the most when it does go down. The more they offer, then usually the harder they work to reinstate the service when it is down.
Programming Flexibility
You want a service that will be able to provide you with the amount of flexibility necessary for you current business site and future changes that may occur. This includes the ability to have multiple programming services available in the hosting package. While many programmers still use basic HTML to design web pages, most small business web hosting services will allow for database driven programming. Look for PHP, SAP and other database driven site services that you will probably end up using for your site.
Extras
Look for companies that are willing to go the extra mile to attract your business. Bells and whistles like solid web analytic tools, content management and domain registration are things that you should look at as icing on the cake but not the main reason that you choose a web hosting service.
All of these things are important to take into consideration when you want to put a cyber face on your company. Take the time to do it right and you won't regret it later.
by: Lawrence White
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