With more businesses than ever focussing on their online presence, it has never been more important to have a great website. After all, a website is often the first point of contact between a brand and its customers, which is more crucial than ever with so many premises closed thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Table of Contents
Web hosting is a great choice
For all but the biggest organisations, the cost of running a website entirely in-house is usually out of reach. Thankfully, there are many excellent web hosting companies that can make creating a website simple and affordable. Businesses can lease server space according to their needs and enjoy the reassurance of benefits such as security monitoring and tech support, all for a great price; however, the wrong choice of web hosting service can do more harm than good, so read on to discover what you need from your web host.
Reliable uptime, and speed
A website is only going to be effective if people can visit it – slow-loading or unavailable websites will lose customers fast. When looking at choosing a web host, it is vital that you check its uptime guarantee. You want to choose a provider that will promise you at least 99 per cent uptime. The leftover percentage will be when your hosting provider installs vital updates, such as security patches, which are usually scheduled in the middle of the night when traffic to sites is likely to be extremely low.
Speed is also important. You will want a hosting provider that can ensure your website loads quickly for your visitors. Not only will this give your customers the best user experience but also fast loading times can boost your valuable search engine rankings.
Safety first
You need to make sure the data files comprising your website are regularly backed up by your web host; in this way, if the worst should happen and your website is forced offline, you will be able to recover quickly with minimum disruption. When it comes to security, choose a hosting provider that uses the latest version of TLS and offers your website SSL certification as standard. With SSL certification, not only will your website be more protected but also your customers will have increased confidence using your website, as it will have the secure padlock symbol and ‘https’ showing.
Explore your options from buying a domain name through to your website launch; for example, you can buy a domain at names.co.uk
Get support
You want to focus on running your business rather than IT issues. If you are a smaller enterprise or sole trader, you may not have access to IT expertise in-house; if this is the case, choose a web hosting provider that can give you 24/7 support. Check reviews to see how responsive the hosting company’s tech support is; after all, you want to be helped promptly if the need arises.
Follow these tips and start enjoying the benefits that a great website can bring.