Tag Archives: support
Considerations for Your Website as Your Business Grows (Page 1 of 2)
It is the dream of most business owners and entrepreneurs that their business will grow over time and become a success. In the growth process, your business and web hosting needs may change. These changes can be a challenge to manage. Often expanding operations or venturing into new avenues of business is a matter of taking advantage of opportunities. Sometimes you can plan carefully and structure the timing; however, more often business find themselves thrown headlong into a situation where they suddenly have a rush of business and have to figure out a way of handling it. Planning the structure of your website and hosting package can help you cope with the changes as they happen.
Start with the Basics
As a start-up business, one of your priorities is keeping efficiency up and costs low. Your best option is to select a shared hosting package with a reputable service provider. Do an online search for different hosting providers. Read the customer reviews and find out what type of products they have to offer. It is not recommended that you select a free hosting package. Often these have limited customer service and support and they don’t allow you upgrade when needed. A good hosting provider should have entry-level packages as well as more advanced packages that you can migrate to when needed.
Key Things to Look for in a Hosting Package
One of the most important aspects of a hosting package is the customer support that is offered. A quick phone call to the support desk will quickly show how knowledgeable the support staff are. They should be able to provide you with technical information and advice regarding your web hosting package. You should then consider upgrade options. How easy is it for you to migrate from a basic starter package to a more advanced hosting option? Are there penalties involved? Are there different hosting requirements that you will need to incorporate into the design of your website? Do you have to use specific scripts? The last consideration is website security. Even on a basic hosting package, you will want to know that a level of security is maintained on the server.
When Do You Consider Upgrading?
One of the factors that determines what type of hosting package you choose is the amount of data or bandwidth that you require. Starting out, your website will probably be quite small. Unless you are going straight into e-commerce, it will probably be just a corporate or marketing-type website that profiles your company. As your business grows, you may want to add features such as a blog, forum, chat facility or various article posts. These features usually add quite significantly to the data requirements of your website. You may then need to upgrade to a larger package that can accommodate these features. If you decide to launch a full scale e-commerce site, you will probably have specific hosting requirements. Many web hosting providers have detailed e-commerce hosting packages available for businesses. If your business gets to the size where you want to have a dedicated server then you want to be with a hosting provider that can facilitate the transition without there being too much disruption to the uptime of your website. You may consider a dedicated server when you have specific hosting requirements. When you want greater control over your website and server or want to use specific scripts, a dedicated server is a good choice. You may also decide that you want improved security for your website that you can only get from a dedicated server. You can then upgrade your hosting package as needed.
Is HostGators Hosting Service A Good Choice For Newbies?
HostGators hosting services are frequently recommended as they are one of the top hosting companies. There are located in Texas but have customers throughout the world. Founded in 2002 they have grown to the point where they host four million domains.
A range of hosting packages are on offer starting with basic shared hosting and including reseller hosting, virtual private server hosting and dedicated server hosting. This means that there is an upgrade path as a site gets busier and that HostGators service is good for personal and business users.
It should be noted that until you get to the dedicated server level HostGators service is Linux based. Generally it is best to go for Linux unless there is a particular reason to use Windows based hosting (such as having a site developed that uses Microsoft technologies).
HostGators entry level plan is available from $4.95 per month (which requires payment for 36 months upfront). However, one key attraction of HostGator is that they do actually allow monthly payments, at a higher price, and you can still cancel at any time.
Like most hosting companies these days HostGators packages include resources such as bandwidth, disk space, email accounts etc. on an “unlimited” basis, which at least keeps it simple. The only limitation of the entry level plan is that only one domain can be hosted.
Most new users of hosting are seeking a service that:
* Is user friendly – HostGators service offers cPanel with Fantastico which makes it was to install software such as WordPress.
* Is always available – a 99.9% uptime guarantee is provided, some maintenance is always required so no host will offer 100%. Whilst maintenance is generally undertaken at night local time this can occasionally be at inconvenient times in other parts of the world.
* Loads pages quickly – In my experience this is no problem with HostGator.
* Provides excellent support – This is an area where HostGators reputation is good and my own experience has been very positive. They offer support 24/7 by phone, chat and email. This may not seem like a top priority to a new user of hosting but I can tell you from past experience how frustrating it is to have problems and be unable to get proper support.
HostGators service meets the above criteria and I would recommend it to new users. I have noticed that HostGator seems to be the choice of many internet marketers and if it is good enough for them.
Is HostGators Hosting Service A Good Choice For Newbies?
HostGators hosting services are frequently recommended as they are one of the top hosting companies. There are located in Texas but have customers throughout the world. Founded in 2002 they have grown to the point where they host four million domains.
A range of hosting packages are on offer starting with basic shared hosting and including reseller hosting, virtual private server hosting and dedicated server hosting. This means that there is an upgrade path as a site gets busier and that HostGators service is good for personal and business users.
It should be noted that until you get to the dedicated server level HostGators service is Linux based. Generally it is best to go for Linux unless there is a particular reason to use Windows based hosting (such as having a site developed that uses Microsoft technologies).
HostGators entry level plan is available from $4.95 per month (which requires payment for 36 months upfront). However, one key attraction of HostGator is that they do actually allow monthly payments, at a higher price, and you can still cancel at any time.
Like most hosting companies these days HostGators packages include resources such as bandwidth, disk space, email accounts etc. on an “unlimited” basis, which at least keeps it simple. The only limitation of the entry level plan is that only one domain can be hosted.
Most new users of hosting are seeking a service that:
* Is user friendly – HostGators service offers cPanel with Fantastico which makes it was to install software such as WordPress.
* Is always available – a 99.9% uptime guarantee is provided, some maintenance is always required so no host will offer 100%. Whilst maintenance is generally undertaken at night local time this can occasionally be at inconvenient times in other parts of the world.
* Loads pages quickly – In my experience this is no problem with HostGator.
* Provides excellent support – This is an area where HostGators reputation is good and my own experience has been very positive. They offer support 24/7 by phone, chat and email. This may not seem like a top priority to a new user of hosting but I can tell you from past experience how frustrating it is to have problems and be unable to get proper support.
HostGators service meets the above criteria and I would recommend it to new users. I have noticed that HostGator seems to be the choice of many internet marketers and if it is good enough for them.