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(published in Brainstorm! July 2004)
There are many things to consider when looking for a web
hosting company. Sure you can select one from the phone book, put up a
static web site and bam, you have a web site. However, if you are thinking
of having a more robust web site in the future, there are many things
you will want to consider before signing a contract.
For starters, there is the email thing to consider. How many email boxes
are you allowed? For most small businesses 3 would be the minimum amount.
Typically you will want one for info@yourdomain for general correspondence,
yourname@yourdomain and an extra one for either sales, or the webmaster
or another employee. You'll also want to make sure you can check your
email remotely. If you are out of town or out of the office, you should
be able to see your email on any computer without needing to bring your
own. And finally, you will want to be sure your web hosting company will
help you with spam and virus protection. If you get a ton of unwanted
email, then you will have to wade through the spam to get to the emails
you want to read.
The next thing to think about is the operating system the web host uses
to display your web pages. The two most common types are Windows and Unix.
To the end user of your web page, the differences are unnoticeable, but
to a programmer they are substantial. Not all code and databases works
on all operating systems. So, if you should need to move your web site
to another web hosting company, be sure to keep that in mind.
Another thing to consider is something called transfer limit. What this
means is that there is a specific amount of data transfer in a given month.
Every page, image, and file downloaded to your visitors to view in their
browser counts towards the transfer limit. So you will want to be sure
that your images are as small as possible to lessen the amount transferred.
Or, a substantial amount of people coming to you're your page each month
will also bring you closer to that limit. After your limit, it may cost
you extra to maintain that level of traffic.
If you are planning to do an e-commerce web page, you will want to consider
whether or not the web hosting company has a secure area and a shopping
cart available. Although these may cost extra, they are two essential
items that you need to have an online store. The secure area provides
trust to your customers when they shop online in that they do not have
to worry that their credit card information will be intercepted. If they
have a ready-made shopping cart available, you will not have to pay for
a fully customized shopping cart to be built. All you will have to do
is upload your products and images and off you go. However, if you ever
decide to move your site somewhere else, you will likely have to leave
your shopping cart system behind.
Easy access to your web site so you can make changes is another consideration.
For programmers, something called file transfer protocol (ftp) is the
easiest method to transferring your updated web pages to your web site.
For the do-it-yourselfers a control panel that changes web page online
or publishing through Front Page might be the best method.
Be sure that the web hosting company is keeping the system up to date
with all the patches and anti-virus software that comes out from the vendor
of the operating system. It would be bad if your web site is down because
of a virus or hacker that your host could have prevented. Along with protecting
the software on the server, you'll also want to know what sort of physical
security they have in place for the server along with a system for backing
up your web site. If there were any kind of problem, you want to make
sure your web site is protected and will still be around after everything
is back to normal. With that maintenance you will also want to be able
to reach technical support should you have trouble or questions about
your web site.
Your web host should provide you with reports about your web site. With
trend reports you will be able to see how many people are coming to your
web site along with what browser they are using, which pages were most
popular, what search engines and keywords they used, what day and time
they visited, and much more. If you don't know all the details of how
your web site is being used, then you don't have enough information from
your web hosting company about your web site.
Along with knowing who's visiting your web site, you will may want to
communicate with your customers through a bulk email system. With today's
increasing rate of spam, by using a good bulk email system, you can reduce
your chances of your email being detected as spam.
And finally, the biggest issue, is the cost. For a basic web site, the
monthly or annual fees should be minimum. However, if you add extra features
like a shopping cart, security, extra email boxes, email list service
or a database for dynamic content, the costs will likely be higher.
If this all seems still too confusing, feel free to call
us at Whole Brain Technologies and we can help you with the decision.
If you're looking for a host for your web site, you might consider WBT's
Mindful Hosting.
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