You’ve spent time and money on a website that grabs attention and provides quality content. The next step is to present the website to the world. This calls for a great web hosting service.
A web hosting service will affect your site’s return on investment (ROI). It is all too easy to start off with a large investment in your eCommerce business and realize that the returns are far less than you expected. But with so many hosting services available, how do you pick the right one for your business? No worries, this article summarizes the eight (8) key points to consider.
- Reliability
A reliable web hosting service should be able to prevent downtime. When your site is on downtime, customers will not be able to make purchases. They will also pass the word around in reviews about your site being unreliable, and this negatively affects your brand.
Visit the web host website and see if they guarantee uptime. In addition, it is a good idea to examine their client base. A very high number of customers may indicate that they offer high-quality services. At the same time, read the reviews and see what their customers say about them.
- Speed
When talking about speed there are two main factors that you need to consider. These are page speed and age load speed. Page speed is the length of time it takes for media files to download from the web host service and display on your screen. On the other hand, page load speed is the length of time it takes for the website content to download after you have clicked on the link. Both factors have a huge effect on website profitability and on user experience.
For instance, because online shoppers are impatient, speed is a highly important factor when choosing a web hosting service. If your website doesn’t load within four (4) seconds, one in four (or more) of your visitors will click away to another website. Your server must be super-fast to allow your site to load fast.
Second, when your site loads slowly, search engines will record its high bounce rate. This tells Google that visitors are not interested in your content and will, therefore, rank you lower which, in turn, affects your SEO.
Therefore, it is crucial to ensure that you have a fast-loading website. You can achieve this by hiring the services of a company such as MangoMatter which specializes in web design and web marketing.
Factors that contribute to a slow-loading website include being on an overloaded server or on a slow network. How can you tell? Simply visit websites hosted by the company and see for yourself if they load fast. You can also visit the web host site and see how fast it loads.
- Bandwidth
The amount of information or data that can be downloaded from a site is called bandwidth. It is crucial that you are able to determine just how much bandwidth you will need, not just at present but also in the future as your site grows. You can analyze three key points:
- Layout – The more complex your site layout is, the more bandwidth you will need to ensure that it loads fast and ensures optimum website performance.
- Traffic – The more traffic that your site gets, the more bandwidth you will require. You don’t want to buy web host services with limited bandwidth, that’s why you should take a look at unlimited web hosting providers.
- Expansion – every business has a plan for growth. If you anticipate rapid growth in the next few years, it is important that you choose web hosting that provides you with sufficient bandwidth to accommodate future growth. This will prevent you from experiencing downtime.
- Available Space
The webspace, also known as disk space or storage space, is a key factor that affects the performance of your website. It holds the text files, image files, databases, scripts, email as well as other elements of your website.
There are two main factors that make disk space a highly important consideration. First, you can upload content that will be available to site visitors all over the world. Second, you are also able to upload files that are not accessible to site visitors but are crucial for the proper functioning and management of your website.
It is important that you have an idea of how much disk space you will need. This is a crucial first step when choosing the right web hosting services. There should be more than enough space for you to upload content crucial to your website and so that your site visitors get value for their money.
Lastly, it is important that your web host provides more than enough space for your website as this allows you to scale up. Since changing web hosting services is not easy, you should not rush into things so that you can get everything right the first time.
- Features and Tech
You don’t just need a web host service provider; you also want one that gives you everything you need to start and run an eCommerce business. Go into the control panel and take a look at all the features and tech. Look for elements such as databases, scripting language support, subdomains. Find out if the website will be hosted on a UNIX or Windows platform.
- Support
At some point, when you experience a problem with your website or with your host company, it is crucial that you are able to receive immediate professional support. Identify web hosting services that offer 24-hour support. They should be easy to reach through either a phone number or a chatline. Reliability of technical support is an effective way of identifying the web hosting service you should choose (or avoid). Find out everything you need to know at Hosting Foundry.
- Email Options
When choosing an ideal web hosting service provider, consider the email capabilities that they provide. You want a web hosting service that will not limit the number of incoming emails. It is also important that you can get full control and management of the email features.
- Location
You are more likely to get faster speeds from a local web hosting company compared to one that is located far away. At the same time, you can also find it easier to contact the service provider when you need support. For instance, if most of your site visitors are in the UK, it makes sense to use a web hosting service situated in the UK. On the other hand, if your business site and server are located in the USA, then you should have a service provider located in the same state. In addition to that, you should prioritize security features when choosing a local web hosting service.
Takeaways
With proper use of research and the tips summarized in this article, you can find a fast and reliable web hosting service to provide you with all the features required to run your website. This can help and translate into more traffic, more conversions, and helps your site to rank higher on search engines.