Types of Small Business Web Hosting

It does not matter whether you have a home-based business or you own a company the running a business website is a modern day necessity. One of the biggest factors in getting your business website operational is setting up some web hosting for the site.

Basics of Small Business Web Hosting

A web hosting service can be described as a process of getting a website live on the Internet. A hosting company puts a website on a server and connects the server to the Internet and your small business website becomes live. However there are many different options you have available when it comes to small business web hosting.

Different Types of Web Hosting Packages

There are various web hosting packages available in market including;

• Shared Web Hosting - If your business website is simple and doesn’t require loads of disk space or bandwidth then shared web hosting will often be adequate and is the cheapest option available. With this sort of hosting your website will be put on a server that is shared with lots of other clients of that company and you will share the resources of that web server. This web hosting option is the most affordable, but has several drawbacks, the biggest being that like all shared resources, the condition of the server is largely dependent on those who you are sharing with. So if there are other resource intensive sites on your web server you could find your website’s loading speed and performance significantly affected.

• Ecommerce Hosting -If you are planning to run an online store selling your business products or services then ecommerce hosting might be a good option. This form of hosting is tailored for those looking to sell products directly online. Ecommerce hosting package often come with installation of shopping cart software and SSL certificates. Given that you will be conducting business online, you should also look to make sure that prospective ecommerce hosting providers guarantee uptime so that your downtime (and therefore lost sales) are minimised.
• Dedicated Hosting – Unlike shared hosting, dedicated hosting is more secure, advanced and reliable. If you are operating a large business website or want to guarantee web server resource availability then dedicated web hosting is the top of the range in web hosting. You will be able to rent your own server from a provider and you will be provided with your personal IP. It will enable you to fully control your web server and make all of those web server resources available to only your sites. Of course the drawback is price, you are essentially rent an entire server that is dedicated to making sure your website is accessible to everyone, and the reality is the vast majority of websites would never fully utilise all the server’s resources. Nonetheless the few extra dollars a month can be worth the peace of mind, especially given website downtime can be very expensive.
• Virtual Private Server Hosting (VPS) – A VPS server can be described as one server being divided into several virtual servers of which each client is entitled to their section of the server resource. This setup combines the beneficial feature of not having to share server resources with other server users, much like a dedicated server setup, with the added benefit of not needing to pay to rent an entire server just for one business website, much like a share web hosting setup. This is a highly recommend web hosting options for small businesses because it offers many of the benefits of a dedicated server at a price that isn’t that much more expensive than shared hosting.
• Cloud Hosting – cloud hosting in one of the latest developments in web hosting, which basically offers a much more dynamic hosting option which focuses on offering hosting based on resource consumption of a website rather than a fixed server cost. So in the dedicated server example you might buy a server that is larger than your website requirements because you don’t want to reach your servers resource limit during peak periods otherwise your users will experience a slowdown in site performance and potentially downtime. Of course this means paying for resources your don’t use regularly, if at all. With cloud hosting you have the ability to quickly add and remove server resources as required which can greatly help reduce web hosting operating costs. So if for example you start a big marketing campaign that is only going to last a month, you can add the necessary server resource to cater for the boost in traffic for one month then remove them at the end of the campaign without the downtime involved with upgrading server hardware or moving your site to a different server.

How to choose a Package for Small Business Web Hosting

Choosing an appropriate plan for small business web hosting requires careful consideration. Therefore, while looking for a package, you should consider the following:

• Web location: The speed of your website depends on the hosting location of your website. It is better to host a website in the place where most of your website visitors reside as it helps ensure quick page loading. So if you customers are from the US then have your site hosted in the US, if your visitors are from Australia then Australian based servers are the fastest.
• Important features: While choosing a web hosting plan, you should carefully check whether you are getting all the necessary features in the plan. Disk space, RAM and bandwidth are the three most considered features of a hosting server and should be checked for. Also make sure that there aren’t any extra fees and charges tied into the hosting contract for industry standard web hosting features.
• Good Customer Support: Many hosting companies offer a round-the-clock technical support facility. This is invaluable for small businesses that often don’t have dedicated IT staff. It will enable anyone in the business to solve any problem related to server.

In Australia, many renowned web hosting companies are available in the cities like Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. The reviews of most of these companies are available on the Internet which offer as a good guide. Some popular international web hosts include are Bluehost, HostMonster, FastDomain, Yahoo Hosting. Some Australian based small business web hosts include Web24, Webcity Web Hosting, Melbourne IT and Crazy Domains.