How your Hosting Decision Impacts Online Marketing Efforts

When it comes to choosing a Web hosting provider, there are many factors to be considered and it can become overwhelming.  There are a multitude of hosting companies and a vast amount of hosting packages with little noticeable differentiators.  Without specific knowledge of the hosting industry, many firms are uninformed about what they should look for when choosing a hosting company.  Considerations such as cost, bandwidth, and storage space are the primary factors most consider, but there are other components that are often overlooked.  Making a decision about hosting, although complicated, should be done thoughtfully as it is easy to choose an unfit host without realizing the detrimental impact it can have on your online marketing efforts.

Website Builders and Templates

Often a key consideration when choosing a host is the option of a website builder application.  While a website builder may seem like a perk to many organizations due to the cost of designing a website, it can often be damaging to SEO efforts.  Website builders that output poor URL structure, create non W3C compliant code, that don’t provide options for meta tag adjustments, or that do not implement other SEO best practices on the site can set your search engine visibility efforts in the wrong direction.   If you do choose to pick a host with site building included, make sure your site will be able to be optimized for the major search engines.

Ecommerce

Depending on what type of service you offer, ecommerce solutions can be an important factor when choosing a host.   For example, my firm, NeboWeb, would typically look for a provider that supports the technology of the ecommerce solution we design or customize.  If you are using ecommerce software before you join a hosting company, it is imperative that your host supports that software.  For example, Magento and PrestaShop, two of the most popular ecommerce suites available, require an Apache server, PHP 5 or greater (note – it’s actually version 5.2 for Magento), as well as additional PHP modules not regularly installed on an Apache server.  Some hosts include ecommerce software in their packaging and this can be a good option if you are not currently using an ecommerce solution, as long as the host’s software fits your needs. 

Security

Security is vital when choosing a host.  Hosting companies that don’t protect your information can lead to infiltration of your website with corrupted code or data.  Hackers can add links or inappropriate content as well as take sensitive information that’s stored with on your server(s).  Encompassed in this security concern is protection from spammers.  Many firms rely on their hosting company for email delivery, and if hosts are acting as launching pads for spammers to run campaigns they will quickly be blocked by ISP services.  This can prevent emails from your company that contain important information from being sent.  When choosing a host, an easy way to check if a hosting company has secure email servers is by checking sites such as http://www.spamhaus.org or http://www.dnsstuff.com to make sure they are not blacklisted.
 
Server Uptime and SLAs

Perhaps the most important consideration is server uptime.  With the rise of social networking, viral content can drive thousands of unexpected hits to your site over a brief period of time.  If your server is not adequately prepared for this influx, your site could crash and all of the potential sales & leads from this traffic increase could be lost.  Although many servers are occasionally down for minutes or hours, a serious outage could result in days of missed opportunity.  Temporary outages are an inconvenience, but days of server downtime can have more serious consequences.  Having your server crash for extended periods can categorize your site as unreliable to your customers and result in loss of brand confidence as well as possibly lowering your search engine rankings.

Server performance is vital to every website.    Browsers quickly become impatient while waiting for content to load and will navigate away from your page.  This is of particular importance for sites with a lot of data, such as sites with multiple products or rich media.  Having a long lag time between clicking on a link and having the page appear can result in lost customers and decreased ROI in advertising. 
Reputable hosting firms provide SLAs that provide a benchmark for server uptime and outages as well as a remedy for poor performance.  This is primarily in the dedicated hosting industry; with firms such as VIA Networks leading the way in the Windows and SharePoint managed hosting space and Rackspace in the Linux arena.  Firms like Media Temple and DreamHost have built solid reputations in the shared and virtual hosting categories as well. 

In Summary

In conclusion, there are multiple issues to consider when choosing a hosting company.  By evaluating the factors listed above, you will have a better chance of finding a host that can meet your requirements.  Considering metrics beyond storage space and cost is crucial to finding the right solution for your organization.  By using host review websites, and making sure you compare pertinent information about each company that you are considering, you can choose the right host for your needs.