A surprising number of small businesses have very little idea about the type of web hosting they use for their website. This is despite the huge problems and costs that a badly chosen web package can put you at risk of.
To help you get the right deal, the following are details of the essential parts of choosing a web hosting package:
Webspace – This is the amount of storage space that is available for your website(s). A basic website should fit in 10-20megabytes (MB); where as a larger site may need 20-50MB, a site with large downloads or online content (e.g.: programs or large documents and pictures) could need over 200MB.
Look at the size of your site and whether you expect it to get any bigger, and then check whether you are paying for space you are not going to use.
Bandwidth – This is the amount of capacity your website is allowed by the host, usually measured per month; the two key things here are how big your website is and how many visitors it gets. If you go over your monthly allowance the cost of extra bandwidth is usually much higher.
E.g.: If you have a 5 Gigabyte (GB)/5000MB bandwidth allowance, and an average user takes up 1MB of bandwidth; you could have 5000 visitors before it runs out.
If you have a 10 GB/10,000MB bandwidth allowance and an average user takes up 1MB of bandwidth; you could have 10,000 visitors before it runs out.
If you have a 10 GB/10,000MB bandwidth allowance and an average user takes up 4MB of bandwidth; you could only have 2500 visitors before it runs out.
Remember: The amount of bandwidth that an average user takes up will depend on the size and content of your site. A few small pages of text could use less than 0.5MB, but a number of pages with large images could use over 5MB per average user.
The amount of bandwidth is important to the value of your web services, going over your monthly limit can be costly; but so can paying over the odds for bandwidth you are not using. You need to find a reasonable figure that gives you capacity for growth without waste; having an option to increase your monthly allowance at a later date could help if your site expands quickly.
Reliability – If your website host’s service breaks down your customers will be unable to view your site; yet many small businesses fail to check whether their web hosting company offers a good uptime level (I.e.: The amount of time your website will be fully working). Most hosting companies will claim over 99% uptime, but you should get a guaranteed figure, and check that it is easy to claim if the figure falls below this.
Service – Does your web hosting company provide good service? Could you rely on them to quickly correct a problem that was losing you customers? Some cheap web hosting companies save money by providing very limited support and customer service. If you send an email to your host about a problem, you should expect a satisfactory reply quickly; certainly within 12-24 hours.
Features – There are many features and extensions available that you may need; such as ‘SSI’, ‘SQL’, ‘PHP’, ‘ASP’, ‘FrontPage extensions’, and ‘Ftp access’. These may not mean anything to someone with no website experience, but they can be vital to the running of your site. You must make sure that your web hosting allows the features used by your site, without them it may become unusable.
Registration – Your website address (E.g.: www.bizhelp24.com) should be registered in your name. Beware of some unscrupulous hosting companies that register your site in their name. This means that if you try to change to a better host they will either charge you a large fee to buy back the name or will try to keep it themselves, ruining your established web presence.
Beware bargains - Beware of deals offering “unlimited” web space or bandwidth, as they almost always have fine print that limits your use; they also tend to lack the features and support of higher cost hosts. The usual adage applies; if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.
It is important that you check a number of hosting companies to find the deal that best suits the needs of your business; there are hundreds of different packages, and you should match your needs to the features each package offers.
If you are unsure of your web hosting needs, you should get a knowledgeable member of staff, your website creator, or a web professional to help you get the right package. A small cost now will help to protect you from the large costs and reputation damage you could face later if you take an unsuitable deal.
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