As a small business owner, you’re juggling so many balls at once it can be hard to catch them all. Even your small business website has tons of components for you to juggle. What is your website strategy? What is your website care plan? Do you have any website technical support in place? Have you explored website hosting options and chosen one?
While “Have you explored website hosting options and chosen one?” is the last question we ask, it’s the first question you should tackle. Website hosting is what makes your website public, gets your website off the ground, and is what will help all those other balls fall in place.
If you haven’t yet given website hosting much thought, we can promise you will by the end of this blog. Throughout the rest of this article, we’ll highlight everything you need to know about website hosting so you can create the best website strategy for your business.
Simply put, website hosting is any website service that allows you to publish your website on the internet, to the public. Website hosting is more than publishing your website though – it encompasses everything from file and data storage to website technical support to website maintenance services.
Using a website service not only helps businesses focus on their website’s strategy, but it also provides them with website care plans. When you sign up with a website hosting service, once your website is public, all users will need is your domain name. Then once they type your URL into the search bar, their search will bring them over to your website.
If you are tech-savvy, you could try to host your website yourself. If you do this, just know that it will take your attention away from other aspects of your business. When you host a website yourself, you’ll not only handle setting up the server but you’ll also handle ongoing website maintenance.
That’s why website hosting is so important. Not only does it not take up your time, but these hosting services are a reliable option to securely store your website and data.
When it comes to website hosting for your small business, there are various web services you can use. Two of the most common types of website hosting services are shared hosting and cloud hosting.
Shared hosting involves multiple users using the same hosting services. Shared hosting offers a range of resources from memory to processing power to storage space. Shared hosting is a great solution for any small business website. That’s because it is not only affordable but you won’t need extensive technical knowledge to maintain your website.
The second common type of website hosting is cloud hosting. Cloud hosting is a great choice for businesses that have many websites. Additionally, cloud hosting is great for businesses that have one website that experiences heavy traffic. Cloud hosting provides businesses with many virtual servers to support the business’ host sites. This hosting service option provides excellent website maintenance services for larger businesses. With cloud hosting, if one of the servers is experiencing heavy traffic, or malfunctions, one of the other servers will be able to kick in and help.
The easiest way to decide what business should be using what hosting service is by looking at two things. Those two things are the size of the business and how much website traffic the business will receive. Smaller businesses would benefit the most from shared hosting. Larger businesses would benefit the most from cloud hosting. While the industries vary, these larger businesses are often in the e-commerce, food and beverage, and/or search engine spaces. If you aren’t sure what website hosting option is best for your business, think about these two things.
Whether you have a technical background or not, website hosting is crucial for your business. The good news though is that even if you don’t have a technical background, you won’t ever need to “host” your website yourself. As we noted above, there are a variety of website hosting services out there that you can use. For most of us, we fall under the small business owner category. Even in this category, the most important thing to do when it comes to website hosting is to look at your business’s individual needs.
If you aren’t sure where to begin, let BHirst Media take care of your website hosting needs for you. Our team will develop a website care plan, provide website technical support, and help you find a hosting service that is right for your business. To get started, contact a member of the BHirst Media team today.
