A website is a crucial part of any business these days as more and more people are using the internet on a daily basis to search for companies that offer the services which they require. When you are designing a new site it can be easy to put all of your concentration into the content and to overlook the hosting of the site. However, not doing your research when you are first looking for a hosting service can have a number of repercussions further down the line if you make the wrong choice.
Poor hosting can hit your pocket
A bad hosting service can ultimately lead to loss of revenue. If customers are able to make purchases from your website, you’ll need to ensure that downtime is kept to an absolute minimum. If your website is down customers will not be able to make purchases which, naturally, will lead to a direct loss of revenue. Even if your website only provides customers with information about your business and the products that you offer, if customers cannot find this information they may look to another company to provide them with what they need. If not being able to access your website becomes a common occurrence, then this can lead to people giving up on your website altogether, which essentially means you are losing business.
Slow and unattainable sites generally suffer in rankings
In order for your customers to find you easily in an internet search, you need to take steps to ensure that your site ranks highly on the results page. However, not many people are aware that using a poor hosting service can actually negatively affect your SEO. When search engines try to find your site, they will not be successful if your site is down for a lot of the time. This can adversely affect the ranking that the search engine will give your site, making it harder for potential customers to find you. There is also a school of thought that believes that a slow website can also damage your rankings as much as a site that has a lot of downtime.
Security can be an issue too
Every website is at risk from malware attacks, but if you are not using a reputable hosting company, then you may be even more at risk. Not only may your site not be as well protected as you may like, a poor hosting company may not take precautions with your data than more reputable company would. If your website was hacked then it may be difficult to restore it if the proper backups have not been made and stored securely. In the event of an attack on your site, you will want to work closely with your hosting company in order to get things back to normal as soon as possible. This may prove difficult if the hosting company does not provide the level of customer service that you would like, and are difficult to get hold of.
All problems are solvable
Fortunately, these problems are easily avoided by finding a hosting company that can offer you the service you need. As a minimum, you will want to choose a service that can guarantee pages that will load quickly, and a site that will remain live. Other features that you choose will depend on the specific needs of your business.
Choosing a good hosting company does not mean that you have to pay a lot of money either. There are a number of cheap VPS hosting options available that have all the features you need at a very competitive price. So, the bottom line is – do your homework or pay the price.
