If you have your own business or are a decision maker in one, then it is all but imperative that you have a website that your users can access. It may come as a surprise, but even the smallest of ventures will profit greatly from a good online identity. With today's heavy reliance on the internet for virtually anything, you pass on a lot of great opportunities if you do not have a website. And as you know, in business, opportunities mean profit.
Before we get into any technical information, let us first look into the design of your website. If you do not have your own web designer, and most small business owners do not, make sure that the company you choose adds gravy points to your deal by providing a web design team or at least a template program that you can work with. Keep the design clean and functional so that it does not come off as amateurish.
The first thing that you need to look at is the space allocation that your provider has to offer. The amount of data that you can upload or use will dictate the functionalities and appearance of your website. You may need to get more space in the future as you explore the possibilities of the internet and as your business expands, so make sure that the service provider you have can adapt to this and offer you a much better rate for upgrades. Remember that websites are more interactive these days and are not just text heavy, but loaded with videos, music and even interactive programs for your customers.
Another thing that you have to look into is the options that you have in regard to updating your website. So as to not get too technical, you have to make sure that the company gives you as much elbow room as possible so that you can make changes to your website on the fly. You can do this by either asking for FTP or File Transfer Protocol access from the company so that you can put up new pages or with a company provided program that lets you choose and edit ready-made templates. Make sure that you discuss this meticulously as the internet's main thrust is real time activity.
The next thing to take notice of, and really the most important, is the stability and speed of the web hosting service. See, when a user opens your website, what his or her browser will do is try and access the content of your website from the servers of the web host. You will lose customers who will only see a blank warning page informing them that your site is currently having some system issues or it will take forever to load. Having these kinds of problems defeats the purpose of your website all together.
The battle of David and Goliath, in terms of industry giants and startup providers is never more apparent than in the quality of the service that they offer. With smaller companies, you might have better rates, but there might be more system glitches, offline time and difficulties that you will not have as much of with a bigger, more established industry leader so make sure you weigh everything carefully.
Lastly, and the most basic, of course, is the price of the package that they will offer. Taking everything above into consideration, make sure that you do not ask just one company, but contrast service to cost ratios from many providers.
Before we get into any technical information, let us first look into the design of your website. If you do not have your own web designer, and most small business owners do not, make sure that the company you choose adds gravy points to your deal by providing a web design team or at least a template program that you can work with. Keep the design clean and functional so that it does not come off as amateurish.
The first thing that you need to look at is the space allocation that your provider has to offer. The amount of data that you can upload or use will dictate the functionalities and appearance of your website. You may need to get more space in the future as you explore the possibilities of the internet and as your business expands, so make sure that the service provider you have can adapt to this and offer you a much better rate for upgrades. Remember that websites are more interactive these days and are not just text heavy, but loaded with videos, music and even interactive programs for your customers.
Another thing that you have to look into is the options that you have in regard to updating your website. So as to not get too technical, you have to make sure that the company gives you as much elbow room as possible so that you can make changes to your website on the fly. You can do this by either asking for FTP or File Transfer Protocol access from the company so that you can put up new pages or with a company provided program that lets you choose and edit ready-made templates. Make sure that you discuss this meticulously as the internet's main thrust is real time activity.
The next thing to take notice of, and really the most important, is the stability and speed of the web hosting service. See, when a user opens your website, what his or her browser will do is try and access the content of your website from the servers of the web host. You will lose customers who will only see a blank warning page informing them that your site is currently having some system issues or it will take forever to load. Having these kinds of problems defeats the purpose of your website all together.
The battle of David and Goliath, in terms of industry giants and startup providers is never more apparent than in the quality of the service that they offer. With smaller companies, you might have better rates, but there might be more system glitches, offline time and difficulties that you will not have as much of with a bigger, more established industry leader so make sure you weigh everything carefully.
Lastly, and the most basic, of course, is the price of the package that they will offer. Taking everything above into consideration, make sure that you do not ask just one company, but contrast service to cost ratios from many providers.
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