It can be easy to quickly become overwhelmed by the options and features that are associated with business hosting. To help you through this complicated process, we will list some important points to consider while you are selecting your hosting company.
Will I have room to grow my site? Business hosting plans can limit the amount of disk space and bandwidth for your site so it is important to make sure that you have enough of both before getting stuck with a server that is too small to handle your needs. It is much easier to set up your site once on a server that is equipped to handle your needs than it is to move your site once it has been established.
Bandwidth can be the most expensive area on a site and it is important to make sure that there aren’t any penalties for exceeding your allotment and that you have an adequate amount of transfer each month. If you have never run a site before, it can be very hard to estimate how much bandwidth you will need. It is much better to purchase more bandwidth than you actually need than to pay exorbitant penalty fees later.
Will I have the tools I need? Running an online business means that you will need to have a set of tools that will make your site not only function well, but give you the tools you need to make it run more efficiently and attract new business. You should be able to have these features built into your account without having to spend more money adding them on later.
A good rule of thumb to follow is to find a host that offers a shopping cart, SSL certificate, mailing list software, unlimited databases, PHP, CGI access, and promotional tools. You should not have any problem finding a host in today’s competitive market that offers all of these features in one hosting plan.
Is my host compatible with my other tools? This area can include both your databases and your merchant account. If your host does not support the type of payment gateway that is required by your merchant account, you can be stuck with a server that is absolutely no use to you. This is also true of the shopping cart that is bundled in with you server. While it is always nice to get a free shopping cart already installed on your server, it will be of no use if it cannot connect with your merchant account.
Database support is essential and you will need to make sure that if you run your company’s data on an Access database that you select a business hosting company that offers a Windows based platform for your site. Conversely, if your business has it’s data stored in an SQLdatabase, you will need to make sure that your business hosting company provides a Unix based platform.
By asking yourself these questions now you will assure that you will be happy with your future site instead of frustrated with a site that is not robust enough to meet your needs.
