Answers to common Website Hosting questions!
Starting a business in 2021?
Chances are you’re going to need a website. So, you’re going to need a website host. This host plays the role of an online landlord, allocating you and your business a space on the big worldwide web.
Now I bet you’re worried on how to choose the best online landlord, but don’t be, that’s what I’m here for. Here are answers to some of the most common website hosting questions that people ask us…
1. What kind of Price am I looking at ?
Prices for largely the same service can vary greatly. Do your research and note that the most expensive, does not always translate to the best.
Not expecting a lot of traffic or bandwidth? The cheapest service is likely best. If your website is a tad more complex with a larger volume of traffic, then consider paying more.
2. What if things don’t always go to plan – what’s my backup policy?
Unfortunately, things can go wrong and you need a proper to avoid them going very very wrong. You need to know that you can get data back, should it be accidentally deleted.
Ensure that your website host regularly backs up your data, files and your overall database.
3. What happens if I need a helping hand? What are your tech support and customer service team like?
There is bound to come a point where you, or one of your colleagues needs assistance with something and you need to be sure that you can get it.
Ask existing customers how responsive and helpful they have been. A good indicator of this is their average response and resolution time.
24/7 support, even during the holidays, is a must.
4. How wide are your range of offers? What if I need to scale up or down?
You’re a young and upcoming business and you only need a small website. But, what happens when the time comes to expand?
It’s likely that your current service will have fallen it to obsolescence. Ensure that they are able to facilitate your growth, or a reduction in size.
Also consider the hosts hardware capability.
5. I’m not happy, what can you do to help?
To avoid this make the right choice to begin with. Tools like https://tools.pingdom.com and https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/ can help to check the speed and responsiveness of host servers before committing.
As well as this, make use of trial periods, trying before you buy.
Read into their guarantees and the T’s & C’s to ensure their guarantee policy is up to scratch with what you expect.
6. How good is your user interface/control panel?
This is the thing that you will be using to control, edit and manage your website.
If it’s far too complicated for you to use then it’s not going to be any good.
7. Do I need a shared or private hosting service?
When you use a shared hosting service it’s effectively like renting a house off of a landlord with flatmates. You and other website users will share the web server space and to run your websites off of.
For simple websites this is likely the best and more wallet friendly option.
But, for a more complex website then a private host service may be worth the extra $$$.
8. How secure is my website going to be?
You want to make sure that your landlord (web host) can provide you with a safe and secure space so that you’re belongings (data and files) aren’t in danger.
This is particularly important if you elect for a shared web hosting service, as you all share the online space.
A good host will provide you with robust security processes, such as functional Shared Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificate. This is an absolute must if your website contains any sensitive data..
Pack your own parachute and ensure that all of your security needs are met.
https://pentest-tools.com/website-vulnerability-scanning/website-scanner is a great tool that you can use to investigate the vulnerability of a server.
9. How often does it all go wrong? Aka, what’s your downtime history?
Downtime refers to the time period that a website is unavailable or ‘offline’. You want to know how often this has happened in the past. No one wants a website that’s constantly crashing.
The perfect answer? Never.
That being said even some of the web hosting giants have experience of downtime.
10. When can I hold you accountable for an outage?
You want to know when they’ll own up to a mistake, and most importantly when they’ll suspend their charges in the event of a crash.
Now you’re all clued up on how to select the best website host company for your business get out there and get your website online.
