Finding quality web hosting services for your small business can make or break your entire endeavor.
When reading about getting your business online, you will undoubtedly come across articles speaking about the importance of a website domain, bandwidth, SSL certificates, and free web hosting.
But nothing is free, and everything has a price … the question is what you actually need and what you are willing to pay for it.
Before choosing between the many quality web hosting services available, you need to know what kind of website you want to have.
- What is it this website will have to do?
- What is your business going to be?
- Will you have to accept payments?
- Does your business involve a lot of media content that has to be displayed on the web?
Once you know the business of your business, you can figure out the rest:
Custom Domain
A website domain, very simply put, is the text that follows the [www.] in a www.somewebsitesname.com scenario.
The text between the [www.] and the [.com] is your domain name and should be similar or identical to your business name. All quality web hosting services will show you which website domain names are available.
When choosing a domain, you will have to choose your [.com] as well.
Choosing your [.com] ?
Website domains can end with one of many endings, [.com] just being one available option.
The [.com] part is called the Top Level Domain (TLD), and it categorizes websites according to an entity (business/person, etc.). For example, [.com] stands for commercial, and [.edu] represents an educational entity.
Countries have their own Top Level Domains like Australia using [.au]. Using a country’s specific TLD is a smart choice if your business is operating in only that country.
Choice of Hosting Type
These are the basic meanings behind the following 4 different types of hosting.
- Shared Hosting (Good Option for a Small Business).
Your business shares server space with other businesses.
- Dedicated Hosting (High Levels of Security and Control).
Your business has its own server, and you have full control of all hardware and software.
- VPS Hosting
Dedicated hosting abilities, shared hosting prices. Note that VPS stands for Virtual Private Server – you do not have a physical server at a physical location housing your data.
- Cloud Hosting
Uses the power of the cloud to pull resources from several sources, meaning you run very little risk of experiencing website downtime.
SSL Certificate – NON-NEGOTIABLE MUST HAVE
If your web hosting does not supply this web security or the free web hosting option does not cover it, figure out how to add it to your website separately before committing to that web hosting.
Knowing what you need and what value different services will provide to your business is key. Luckily many excellent comparisons of quality web hosts for small businesses are available!
