These days, there are more reasons for any kind of business to have a website than ever before. While analog marketing tactics still have their place in terms of lead generation, one thing is clear: if you don’t exist online, you might as well not exist. After all, the Internet is where all of us go searching for any kind of information; including the services and products we need.
Thus, the incentive for a business to have a quality website is huge; mainly for the purposes of marketing. In terms of fast-paced raising of brand awareness, there’s nothing that will do you better than a viral online advertising campaign. Plus, most customers find new brands online. And as a business, you can easily communicate your message to the customers; showing them what you can do for them as a business, why you’re their best choice. Depending on the type of business we’re talking about, you could even find new investors for your project online!
The Devil Is In The Details
When you’re about to make your very first website, you’ll realize something – that kind of move entails plenty of different decisions for you to think about. And these range from search engine optimization to the functionality and design of your website. But one thing that certain digital marketing managers forget to focus on is the hosting of the website – which is why we’re going to talk about that right here!
If you do all of your due diligence, ask the right questions, and do enough online research – you won’t be stuck with horrible hosting, which gives you a poor service for high fees. So, before you sign up for any kind of website hosting plans, we’ll tell you everything you need to consider first.
And before that, you need to think about why website marketing relies on the right web host. It’s quite simple, really: from a marketing standpoint, you want to have as many conversions as possible and a lot of traffic. But if you’re stuck with a provider that doesn’t offer you the right infrastructure for that, you won’t be able to scale up as your website becomes more popular. Seeing as many companies offer similar web hosting packages, deciding who to go with is not always easy. With that in mind, take a look at some of the questions to ask below!
Security And Uptime Guarantees
When it comes to choosing a hosting package for your website, there’s one thing you need to ask about first: what kind of uptime guarantees do you get? When customers visit your website, you want their user experience to be one filled with functionality and slick graphics. The last thing you want is them getting a blank screen or an error.
Considering that, you want a hosting provider that gives you a 99% uptime guarantee. While there are some reliable and free web hosting services out there, don’t go for anything until you see the uptime you can count on. You need to do enough online research to make sure that your free web hosting provider is up to snuff. Considering that, here is a list of a few providers we’ve deemed secure in terms of uptime.
And speaking of security; it’s also important to have some guarantees in terms of general security as well. These days, cybercrime is not something you read about in a sci-fi novel; it’s a real threat, especially to online-oriented companies worldwide. So, you want your website to be completely safe from any threats of this kind. It’s not just about company data either; as an online business, you handle a lot of sensitive information about your users, such as passwords or credit card information. You don’t want a lackluster cybersecurity policy to wreak havoc on your public image, after all.
Content Backup Options
It’s really important for your web hosting service to back up the content on your website automatically; though this isn’t a feature all companies provide. This is a part of the service you don’t want to do without, so we advise going with a hosting company that provides automatic backups. There’s always a chance that you may delete some data from your website by accident, or something might go missing after a hacker attack; all of the important information should be safely backed up somewhere.
And sure, while this is something your company can do on its own, it’s always better for the process to be automatic, and on a frequent basis. Also, ask about the recovery plans for lost data that the hosting company provides.
Scalability
As we’ve mentioned above, proper web hosting is important for online marketing precisely in terms of scalability. After all, no matter how big your business is when you start making your website – you want it to grow. And if you’re already established brand, you can expect your online audience to expand even faster once you’ve set up a website of your own. That’s why it’s important to pick a hosting provider that allows you to scale up as the traffic increases.
Support
Being able to communicate with your hosting provider at any time is really important for a business website. If you’re not able to voice your concerns about issues at any time, you might find yourself losing a great deal of money because of downtime or other errors.
Considering that – you want your hosting provider to be someone who offers 24/7 support. Plus, you should have the option of talking to a local expert on the ground. Otherwise, you may be faced with the annoying prospect of a website crashing just as you make an ad run, or issue a great newsletter – and then it’s all for nothing! If you have any problems, there should be someone to sort it out at any time of the day or night!
Conclusion
While web hosting may seem like a purely technical concern, in the intertwined world of online advertising: details like that can be a major influence on an important campaign. With that in mind, choose your hosting provider wisely!