Shopping around for the right hosting provider can be daunting, time-consuming and a bit confusing if you’re not sure what essentials you need from a great web host. With so many options out there, it can be hard to narrow down the best hosting solution for your new website.
When choosing a host, you want to choose a provider that has a robust line of features that not only satisfy your new website now but will enable your website to expand in the future. Your website’s performance, speed, readability, security and functionality all depends on which hosting provider you choose. Not to mention you need a host that all offers: Monitoring Services, Backup, Email clients, storage and bandwidth, etc.
Going with the wrong UK hosting provider from the onset can have negative effects on your business in the long run, so to lend a hand, we’ve compiled a list of the Web Hosting Essentials your new website needs.
How Web Hosting Works
Web hosting functions a lot like Real Estate. But instead of renting a physical building, you rent space on web servers owned by a hosting company, in order for your website to have its own slice of internet real estate. There are various types of hosting options you can purchase but when first starting out shared hosting in the best option for small businesses and bloggers. In a shared hosting environment, you purchase space on a server shared with other websites. With shared hosting, you want to choose a fast hosting solution that can easily grow with you. As your business grows, you may need to upgrade to VPS/Managed VPS Hosting plan and then further down the line to Dedicated Hosting. However, the plan you choose depends on your website data files, traffic There are many other factors to consider when choosing your preferred UK Host.
7 essential Web Hosting services you need
1. 24/7 Technical Support
Things can go wrong and when they do you need expert web hosting support to help set things right. As your business grows and your website begins to use more sophisticated apps and systems that are more intricate for daily operations. Every minute counts and having an on-demand web hosting expert around the clock to provide technical support will be a vital lifeline.
2. Monitoring Tools
All websites require constant monitoring to ensure that security breaches do not happen, uptime is always at 99.9%, server health, web applications, metrics and network performance just to name a few. You want a hosting provider that includes monitoring 24/7/365 to ensure your website is always functioning at its optimum. Before choosing a host, browse their website for monitoring tools. If you are still not sure you can as, you might be luck to find a hosting provider who bundles this in hosting packages. After all, it is a very important commodity to have.
3. Backup Solutions
Another excellent feature to look for in a robust hosting provider is Website Backup. You nor your website you can afford to lose data or your client’s sensitive information therefore you need to constantly have automatic backups in place in case something happens to your website. With shared hosting you want a hosting solution to provide regular off-site backups of your website to protect you and your future customers. For example, if you run a product-based website or a blog and you are constantly adding new items or content, in the event that something goes wrong, or a security breach happens due to a cybercriminal, having a saved version of your latest website update can save you time and money.
4. Guaranteed Website Up-time
Nothing ruins an online business’ reputation faster than a website that is constantly going offline or one that is unavailable. Your audience and would be customers depends on your website to always be available when they need it. This can happen sometimes on shared servers that are old or not properly maintain and host too many websites. Having a website that doesn’t have a steady up-time can not only affect your business’ reputation, but it can also hurt your search engine ranking, and lower confidence in your brand. Therefore, you need a hosting provider that can guarantee you website up-time 99.9% of the time. You also need to ensure that your web has fast shared hosting.
5. Robust Security Features
Having great web security is crucial to your website’s success and reputation with your audience and clients. Cybercriminals and hackers are using more and more sophisticated software systems to probe millions of websites daily to exploit vulnerabilities and bring sites offline. Cybercriminals will use any vulnerability they can find in your website’s defences to bring your website to its knees. This is why, you must ensure that you choose a reliable and security savvy hosting provider who uses powerful servers, and effectively secures their website and data centres. You can even search for a Host that offers website security services in addition to your hosting plan. What’s more is that a breached website can cost you hundreds of pounds in fines and fees as security is the utmost in data protection for your customers.
6. SSL Certificates
While security is a top priority in data protection and internet safety, having SSL Certificates is a must. SSL Certificates protects your user’s data as it passes from server to sever making all connections secure. SSL Certificates are especially important for anyone operating an online store, web forum or sign in sections on a website, and so much more. In fact, not using the secured https:// can affect your ranking on Google. Google now flags websites not using SSL Certificates as “Not Secure.” This can make online users wary of visiting your website so using a hosting provider that offers SSL Certificates in conjunction with their hosting plans is crucial.
7. WordPress Support
WordPress is one of the largest Content Management Systems (CMS) on the internet. Millions of websites use WordPress to power their websites and blogs. While WordPress may be a popular CMS used by over a third of websites, not all hosting providers are equipped to install WordPress. So, if you plan to use WordPress be sure that your chosen hosting company has the capabilities and tech support. In fact, some Hosts now offer WordPress optimized hosting solutions, so why not opt-in?
Conclusion
We’ve given you a lot to consider in terms of the essentials you need when choosing a hosting provider that is scalable and can grow with your business. Beyond having excellent around the clock support, security features, SSL Certificates, backup solutions, and monitoring be sure that your hosting provider also provides cPanel to help you manage your website effectively. You want a host that can give you what you need now as a small business and the comfortable room to grow with you in the future.
