Web Hosting for Small Business: 5 Things to Consider Before You Buy

Take a look at these five things before you purchase more infoclick here services for your small business. Don't be the one to get burned! Learn about the things that make a web hosting company stand above the rest!1. PriceObviously, the first thing you should base your web hosting decision off of is the price. You should definitely compare the prices of a few of the best web hosting companies to get an idea of what a reasonable price for web hosting is. Hosting prices change often so it is likely that the prices have changed since the time this article was originally written. First, do a few searches online to see which companies are currently providing the best prices, services and discounts for your small businesses. When looking at web hosting prices you should look for discounts the web hosting company offers for new members and for members who pay for bundles of hosting service up front. Introductory web hosting discounts range anywhere from paying only one cent for the first month of your hosting to having no customer discounts at all. Most hosting companies offer discounts if you purchase their services in lots of a few months or years at a time. Some companies also offer discounts to new customers. Make sure you do your hosting company pricing research before you make your final decision, it's the first thing you will save money on. Worst case scenario, you don't like the hosting services and cancel the service. That's one penny wasted.2. Customer Service and SupportThe next thing you should consider is the quality of customer support. This quality is often overlooked or sacrificed for cheaper monthly rates. Don't make this mistake! One of the best and only services a web hosting company can provide for your small business is great customer service. After all, a hosting company without a dedicated customer service team is just a couple of rooms filled with cables and servers. Reputable hosting companies offer 24/7 customer service and are always friendly and willing to help at any time of the day. Make sure the company you choose offers great customer service and support for your small business! The service is really what you're paying for. Also be sure to look online for reviews and see what others are saying about their services. 3. Service DiscountsAnother factor you should think about is whether or not the hosting company offers you free credit for online marketing services. Most people don't consider this before they decide on a web hosting company. Don't overlook this! Almost all web hosting companies offer coupons and discounts for popular online marketing services, most of the time these coupons offer free service just for signing up with the hosting company! Some of the best web hosting companies offer coupons for free search engine marketing from huge media sites like Google, Bing and Facebook. I've seen companies offer up to $300 dollars in free advertising credit to customers.Don't miss out on a couple hundred dollars worth of free marketing for your small business! Your business could be selling the best, most interesting product in the world but if nobody knows your business exists then you're not going to make any sales. Marketing your website is the key to being successful. Additionally, some companies also offer money-back guarantees for a certain period of time in order to let you evaluate their services risk-free. Free things are always a nice little bonus.4. Number of ServicesYou should also look at the variety of services your website host will provide for you based on what your small business will be doing. The number of services the companies provide will often be slightly different. If you plan on starting an e-commerce business, make sure the hosting company offers services that will make it easier for you to get your products online and available for customers to buy. Some web hosting companies are entirely dedicated to hosting customers with e-commerce who want e-commerce websites. This is another time where the small business web hosting reviews are important. Once again, make sure you browse reviews before you choose any service online, including web hosting services.If you plan to start a blog, make sure the company offers things like free automated WordPress installs and databases that can support your blog. If you plan on starting an e-commerce website make sure they offer secure checkout and allow you to take credit card payments. Most web hosting companies offer services like e-mail accounts and templates for your website at no extra charge so don't place too much emphasis on standard services like these. Think of what your business goals are and look for services that are specific to your what your small business plans on doing in the future.5. Disk Space and BandwidthFinally, you should consider the amount of disk space and bandwidth that your web host offers. Most web companies will give you more than enough space to host your website so don't worry about this unless you plan on storing a massive amount of large files or creating massive databases. The thing you really need to look at is how much bandwidth the hosting company offers your business every month. Bandwidth is basically a measure of how much user traffic your website can handle. If you don't have enough bandwidth your website won't be available to your customers after the maximum bandwidth is exceeded.A lot of companies offer hosting plans with unlimited bandwidth which enables your website to handle all the traffic it could possibly want. The last thing to look at is the uptime percentage rate. This is basically a measure of how often your site will be available on the web. All hosting companies experience occasional problems or require some time to do server maintenance so it's important to check this uptime rate. A 99.9% uptime guarantee means that a web hosting company guarantees that your website will be viewable by people on the web 99.9 percent of the time. Be extra cautious if a web hosting company doesn't have an uptime guarantee.