If you are starting your own online business, you are probably eager to start making a profit as soon as possible. You have decided on your trade name, your products, your services, your prices, etc. But have you chosen the right hosting company? Making a bad decision can cause your business to fail if you are not careful. Here are some guidelines on what to look for in a quality, trustworthy company.
• Technical support: Are they available to answer your questions 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a week? Are they qualified to offer technical support or are they really just salespeople? Give them a try by contacting them before signing up for anything.
• Reliability – Many hosting companies promise uptime of at least 99%. Try to find one that is at least 99.5%. This means that your site will be available at least 99.5% of the time. Customers and visitors will have no problem accessing and browsing your site.
• Mail Forwarding / POP3 – Many companies will provide you with at least one email that matches their site, such as ‘[email protected]’. That email can be forwarded to a normal hotmail or gmail account you already have.
• Traffic / Bandwidth – Usually there are different packages available that will give you some tolerance for unique traffic and visitors. When you’re starting out, you won’t need much, but as your business grows, so should your GB capacity.
• Secure shopping cart – If you sell products online and want to accept credit cards, your hosting company must provide it to you; It may cost you a bit more, but it’s worth it.
• FTP / Panel C Access: Find a company that allows you to make your own changes and updates to their site, so you don’t have to rely on their support team to make them. This will only waste everyone’s time and become extremely frustrating.
• Price – Decide on your budget before looking for a web host, but remember that you almost always get what you pay for. Stay away from free sites; That being said, there is no reason to go for the more expensive package either.
Your online trading company will get off to a much better start if you choose your web hosting company wisely. Take the time to determine what your business needs now and what it may need in the future.