Whether you’re a seasoned professional with an expanding online business or an entrepreneur launching an e-commerce venture, understanding your web hosting needs is essential for success. There are numerous factors to take into consideration before opting to agree to the terms of a web host’s contract, however, there are a couple of things to keep in mind when assessing your web needs.
Do Your Research
As any successful businessperson can testify, doing your homework is the fundamental foundation to making wise business decisions. Before deciding on a final web hosting service, read both industry and personal reviews for a collective unbiased opinion. Also, perform a quick search for a Wiki company profile entry. Once you’ve narrowed your choices, thoroughly browse the web host’s website, review basic tutorials provided and make mental notes of customer service support options available when troubleshooting issues arise. The cliché is true; time is money. Perhaps no more evident when your website is down for only a couple of hours – valuable resources are quickly swindled!
Databases
Understanding the product or service you provide to customers is important, however, it’s also essential to identify with your web host in order to efficiently accommodate visitors’ needs. When shopping for a web hosting package, select an option that offers the tools you need without all the unnecessary add-ons tagged with a ridiculously expensive price tag. If your site is dependent upon blogging, forums, or virtually every Web application in demand, ensure your web hosting package offers a sufficient number of available databases. Many entrepreneurs soon discover creative juices are stifled and expansion capabilities are thwarted once reading the small print to find the standard server packages usually doesn’t include more than five databases.
Domain Names
Another similar issue is a limit on domain names available on a shared server. Although perhaps not a large obstacle if you’re launching a new website or testing the waters in a specific market niche, however, chances are your domains will be maxed out once you decide to demonstrate your company’s flexibility attempting to use a standard shared server plan. When browsing for an effective web host, opt for one with at least 20 domains. Ideally, the more you can add, the better!
Developer Support
After doing your homework, you should be able to determine if a specific web host offers advanced developer support to keep your website ahead of the fierce competition in today’s global economy. Long since the days of FrontPage extensions, advancements in developer tools seem to currently travel at the speed of light. With that in mind, you should never settle for a web host plan that offers less than the following developer tools: PHP, MySQL, CGI, .htaccess and Python.
A little time initially invested into assessing your web host’s needs proves to be a worthwhile return on investment!
