Ecommerce Solutions for Businesses: Your Consumer Mini-Guide to Web Hosting

If you run a business and you have a website, one of the most important things that you will have to consider is choosing the right web hosting solution.

If you experience problems with your hosting, your website could go down, and that could affect your reputation and hurt your sales.

So what do you need to consider when choosing your host? Here are some of the most important factors.

Read Independent Reviews

There are many hosts to choose from, and it can seem a bit overwhelming at first. Luckily, you can often read reviews to find out what other customers and industry experts say about the hosts before making your decision.

You will quickly be able to find out whether the host has a good reputation or not, as well as specific issues that the host has, and this can help you to make a more informed decision.

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What Is the Customer Service Like?

A good level of customer service is essential when you choose a web host. Many hosts will boast about their excellent customer service, but what is it really like?

A good way to find out is to contact the web host in question before you pay for their package. Call them or send an email and ask them some questions related to the hosting, and you will quickly find out how efficient their customer service is.

How Much Downtime Will You Experience?

Downtime is bad news for websites. Customers will not be able to access your website, costing you sales. Every host will experience a small amount of downtime, such as for scheduled maintenance. But you can reduce the amount of downtime your site experiences by choosing a better web host.

Make sure you find a host that has at least 99.8% up time, and the higher the better. But also check independent reviews to find out whether they really live up to their promises.

How Secure Is It?

Security will be a major concern for you when you choose a web host, but how can you be sure you will be using a secure host? Once again, the reputation of the host will help you to make a good decision.

Also check that it provides a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Certificate. This provides your customers with more confidence when making purchases.

You may also want to look at cloud hosting solutions, so talk to an AS400 expert to find out about how they can help provide you with a secure solution.

Find Out How Much It Costs

Finally, you will want to know about the price of the hosting. However, this is one area where you should avoid simply choosing the cheapest option. A cheap host is not always the best host, and remember that you are entrusting them with the smooth functioning of your business website.

So look around for a good price by all means, but don”t make a cheap price your primary requirement. And don”t worry too much about things like a “free domain” thrown in because sometimes these come with a catch.

Luca Boyle recently became an e-commerce consultant, and works mostly with small and micro sized retail businesses to help them succeed online. He shares his tips with others by writing articles which appear on business blogs.