Website Hosting

For businesses big and small, your online presence starts with your website. Your website is like your digital storefront – where you welcome customers and prospects in the door. But to get your digital storefront operating, you need website hosting. It’s like the lease you would sign on that storefront – it gets you up and operating so customers can search for you and find you on the internet.

What is Website Hosting?

Website hosting ishow your businessshares your website on the internet so your customers canview it and visit. This is done through a web hosting service.

Websites on the internet are accessed via their servers. When you visitedContentFirst.Marketing’ssite, you are first connected to ourserver, and thenour website appeared in your browser. Without website hosting, your business website is just an inaccessible page.Web hosting is the technology that lets your sitebe accessed, and function properly.Your website host provides all of this for you, unless you choose to control your own servers through dedicated hosting.

Website hosting providers usually require that you own the domainwhere your website is built. You can buy the domain from themsometimes, orpurchase it through a domain purchasing siteanduse that with your web host.

Website hosting services also usually offervarious levels of support and security to keep your website safe and functional. They’remostly invisible to your prospects and customers, but they’reabsolutelyessentialto your business website.

Choosing a Website Hosting Plan

There are a few types of website hostingplans. Whichhosting planis right for you depends on the type of business you run, and what kind of traffic you expect your website to get.It also depends on your budget, as costs vary widely depending on the option you choose.

Shared hosting

Shared hosting is affordable and basic. You sharea server with other businesses and websites, so the cost is low. This option is best for small businesses who don’t get much web trafficor beginning bloggers.

Virtual private server hosting

Virtual private server hosting (VPS) isstill technically a type of shared server, but it mimics having a whole server to yourself. It can be a good balance of price and function for small businesses who are growing.

Dedicated server hosting

Having your own dedicated serversis one of the priciest options.You will have plenty of server capacity andfull control over yoursecurity,systems, and everything else. But you’ll need a dedicated team member (or whole team) to manage your dedicated hosting for you.

Cloud-based hosting

This is a newer option whereseveral separate servers operate like one big server. It allows server space to grow as needed, meaning you canget more space as your website traffic grows.If you’re starting small but expecting big website growth,this is an option worth exploring.

Hosting Tips for Your Website

Once you’ve decided which hosting plan is right for you, the search for the right host begins. You’ll want to take stock of what else you need from a website hostin addition to just server space. Do you want managed hosting, where your web host takes care of managing your server for you? Do you want your plan to include your domain name, or will you purchase that separately? And do they include email accounts for your business? Is there a support team on hand to fix any issues, or are you on your own when something breaks?

There are dozens ofwebsitehosts out there of varying quality, so do your research carefully. There are a few free options but it’s worth paying to ensure your site is always operational and professional. You don’t want to risk missing out on sales because of a poorly managed website.

What Your Web Host Should Provide

There are quite a few offerings that various web hosting providersinclude with a hosting account.Many of the more-specific ones may or may not work for your business. But there are a few basics youshould expect to get from your web hosting provider.

WordPresssupport

The most popular websitecreation tool isWordpress. How popular is it? Well,more than25% of all websitesin the world areWordpresswebsites.You will probably want to useWordpressyourself for your business website.Your hosting providershould tell you right away if they’re compatible withWordpress.

Email accounts

Most hosting providers require you to haveyour own domain name, whether you purchase it through them or through another site.You should look for a web host that allows you to set upyour own email accounts with your domain name (i.e.yourname@yourdomain.com), which looks professionalfor your business.

Website support

With so many hosting providers out there, you want to be sure you choose one for your business that offersplenty of support. Youwant to select one that might have 24/7 technician support in case something goes wrong with your site.Andif your site just needs general help and troubleshooting, you’ll benefit froma strong support team that can identify and fix the issue for you.

This is especially essential if you’re building your business website yourself and don’t have your own IT support personlike many small businesses.Any number of things can affect the functionality of your website.As a business owner, you have plenty of other things on your plate – you probably don’t want to spend it wrestling with technical website problems.You want to be able to get those issues fixed before they affect your sales too.

Expert Guidance

At ContentFirst.Marketing, we design and build business websites for people just like you every day. We recommendusing Amazon Web Servicesfor your hosting account– one of the biggest and mosttrusted names in the business.Need help setting up your business websiteor web hosting, optimizing your site for search engine traffic, or anything else? Schedule your free business review today and we canstart setting you on the path to measurable growth.

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