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How to Choose Web Hosting for Your Small Business
It’s important to choose a reliable web hosting company
that allows business sites and offers a variety of packages
so that you can upgrade as you grow. You will need to choose
a package based on disk space, bandwidth or file transfer
limits, email accounts, and additional services such as
databases and included software.
Choosing a Web Host Consideration: Disk space
Disk space refers to the amount of room you have for your
files – the number and size of your pages, graphics, and so
on. You will probably want 25-50MB (megabytes) of disk space
to start. Most web pages are under 50K in size (unless they
contain a large number of graphics) so a 25 page website
will require just 1.2 MB of disk space.
You will need additional disk space for email storage,
database use, and other files necessary to run your website.
50MB of disk space should give you plenty of room to grow,
but be sure that you can easily upgrade (without exorbitant
prices) should the need arise.
Choosing a Web Host Consideration: Bandwidth
Bandwidth is the amount of activity on your site so the more
visitors you have, the more bandwidth you need. Many
packages provide unlimited bandwidth, but 2 GB should be
more than enough to start. Again, make sure you can upgrade
if needed.
Choosing a Web Host Consideration: Email Accounts
You’ll probably want at least one pop3 email account
associated with your site, but having at least several can
help you organize your incoming email.
Choosing a Web Host Consideration: Reliability
One of the most important factors to consider in selecting
your web host is reliability. It’s probably also one of the
more difficult factors to evaluate. Most companies will have
“guaranteed up time,” but what does that really mean? It’s
really no consolation to have your monthly fee refunded if
your site has been down for days. Look for a site that
provides a history of their uptime. All sites will have some
downtime for maintenance and other issues can occur, but you
want your site to be available consistently.
Other factors to consider:
Is customer support available 24/7?
How often are back-ups performed? If data is lost, the
backup system will help you recover your site. You should
also be performing your own backup on a regular basis.
What other software do you need? Examples include message
boards, FrontPage Extensions (more about that in the
building your website section), shopping cart, web design
service or templates, sub domains, mailing lists, databases,
etc.
You’ll want website statistics so you can see how many
visitors you receive and from where.
If you are going to collect personal information from your
visitors such as home addresses or credit card information
you will want a server that supports encryption.
You may also want to ask for recommendations from friends or
other WAHMs by posting on the message board. If you are
going to have someone design your site, they will likely
have suggestions too.
By the Way......A note about free web hosting
As tempting as it is to start out using a free hosting
service, we advise against doing so. Free hosting is
supported by advertising that you will have no control over.
Additionally, those ads are often delivered via annoying
pop-ups. Free hosting does not give you the professional
appearance you need to succeed online. The monthly cost of
hosting is very affordable and well worth the investment.