Selecting The Right Web Host	Visited: 1179 3.5/5.0 (2 votes total) Rate: Select 1 - Terrible 2 - Poor 3 - Average 4 - Good 5 - Outstanding
by Rene Spronk May 10, 2006

The Importance Of Hosting For Your Website.

Keeping a business website online for as much of the day and as many days of the year as possible is absolutely vital to the financial success of your business venture. Your website host is the company that is responsible for ensuring that your website remains stable and online for this time. Most hosts will give an estimated downtime or uptime for their service and this is measured as a percentage. For example, if a host declares they have a 99% uptime, this means that for every 100 hours that your site is hosted with them, it will be down for 1 hour.

The Downtime Of Your Host Directly Affects Your Business Performance.

1 hour may not sound like a lot of time in this context, but when you consider that 100 hours is only 4 days then your website will not be accessible for 1 hour in every 4 days. Not only will you lose the potential custom during this hour but any potential future business from the customers that eventually and inevitably look elsewhere. For this reason it is absolutely vital you get a web host that has as high an uptime as you can possibly find to protect your business and to protect your profit.

Other Areas You Should Consider.

Many companies may have similar reliability with their offering, and this means there are other areas you must concentrate on to determine the most appropriate web host for your needs. If you have a personal website then you may want to use a free host. Free hosts usually make no guarantee as to the reliability of their site and use advertising to supplement the lack of direct income made from your account. However, with a business website it is not advisable to use a free account. With paid accounts you receive many benefits, some are essential items while others are more luxuries that will inevitably make your website business run much smoother.

Contemplate Your Requirements.

You need to sit down with your site designer and discuss exactly what is required from your host. You should also consider whether you need responders, unlimited email addresses and many other factors. Only by considering all of these different factors will you be able to make a reasonable judgment on the hosting account you will eventually opt for. These factors will include whether you require FrontPage extensions, regular backups of your site, site analysis, email responders, form handling capability and many more different factors.

Look Around For The Best Deal.

Always shop around to ensure that you are getting as good a deal as you possibly can. Whether you are working on a shoestring budget or you do not consider the amount you spend to be that important, you should never pay more than is really necessary. Your best bet with hosting is to make sure you have more than you actually require, because this way should you need to expand the site or you require more options in the future you will already have them. You certainly need to select a host that allows for this level of expansion.

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