Choosing the best web hosting provider is an important decision. For small businesses it can be a difficult one with many things to consider, such as the hosting requirements and the all important price. It is especially difficult for new businesses as they don’t necessarily know how many visitors their website will generate, and therefore the bandwidth they will require.

It is a good idea to opt for a cheap hosting package to begin with for the obvious reasons. Your income may not be particularly high as a start up business so you don’t want to be forking out high fees for a hosting package you don’t yet require. You don’t want a large outlay if not necessary so it is best to be a little cautious. Some therefore opt for free hosting, but this is short sighted and rarely a good idea for a business website. Free hosts often force their clients to carry adverts on their site as this works as their income stream (as you are paying them to host your website). This means your website will contain adverts that are not relevant to your site; something that may work against you as a business as it looks unprofessional. Another problem with free hosting is that you often don’t get to choose your own domain name, and the URL must carry the hosting companies name with an extension at the end for your individual site. This again looks unprofessional and means you are unable to use your brand name as the domain name, something that is expected by potential customers. This also makes it harder for SEO purposes (search engine optimisation) because it makes it more difficult to appear high in the search engines for your brand name, making it more difficult for people to find your website. This could have a major negative impact on your business. The cheapest packages, and especially free hosting, cannot cope with many visitors, so if you have a sudden rise in visitors it could pose a problem.

Although you shouldn’t pay too much for your web hosting when you first start out, the most basic packages (such as free hosting) should be avoided as well. You need to find a balance between not paying too much, but while having some scope for an increase in visitors above your expectations. So a fairly cheap and fairly limited package, but with some flexibility is probably the best option for most new businesses. This means some flexibility without the high prices of the most advanced packages.

As your business grows so will your website. As more people get to know your business more will want to check out your site to find out more information. This will mean that a basic package may no longer be adequate so an upgrade may be necessary. Although the prices will be higher, so will your revenue so it will pay for itself.

Managed Hosting is one of the better options once you require more advanced hosting. With Managed Hosting, your hosting is managed by the hosting provider so you don’t have to worry. This doesn’t only have the advantage of meeting your more advanced needs, but also means you won’t have to take care of your hosting as you can leave it to the Managed Hosting provider.

There are so called ‘Unlimited Managed Hosting’ packages available. Although nothing can be unlimited the limits are very high so you are unlikely to reach them. This will effectively mean your hosting is completely taken care of and allows you more time to focus on your core business. It may be more expensive but to many it is worth the extra cost.

Andrew Marshall (c)