Articles & Tips
How to choose the correct webhost for your business site
Ok, you have nearly completed your website and you are quite certain it will be ready to be launched soon. Now it's time to choose a
suitable webhost for your
business website. How do you choose a webhost for your website? Here are some factors to consider.
1.
Bandwidth - How much data transfer do you think you will need?
It depends on whether your site has a lot of graphics or audio/video or flash files. Or if you expect to have a lot of visitors? Or you have some bandwidth
intensive application running? If you have, you need to get a webhost which can provide you with
enough bandwidth for your needs. However, I would not
recommend you to choose the webhost with the biggest bandwidth at the lowest cost. Why? Because very likely, they are overselling and/or don't provide the
needed support. Avoid webhosts which have offers that
sound too good to be true, because they
usually are.
2.
Web Space - How much
diskspace will you be using?
As with the bandwidth, it all depends on your site or application. You should also think whether your site may need to expand in the future. But most webhost
have options which allow you to increase your badnwidth and diskspace in the future when you need.
3.
Speed / Performance - How fast your webhost transfers your data?
This is different from bandwidth and web space. The speed is measured by HOW FAST your data is transfered. Bandwidth is the amount of data transfered. If
your host is fast, your site will load fast and your visitors will certainly be pleased. No one likes to wait for a slow site to load, right? This can be
dependent on 2 things, namely the server load and the connection speed. If your webhost's server is overloaded, it's response will be slow and your site will
be affected. Likewise if your webhost has a conjested connection, your site will be affected too. Ask the webhost to provide you with a file to download to
test the speed. You should try that on different times, especially during peak periods. Note that if you are getting a
shared webhost (which means other sites are hosted on the same server), you are sharing resources with them.
Thus your site's speed is also dependent on how much your other friends on the same server uses. A dedicated server for your site will eliminate this problem, but it is going to cost you.
4.
Features -
Databases,
PHP support,
ASP support and so on.
If you have an application or script which requires a certain feature like MySQL databases or php support, you need to ensure that you webhost does support
it. How about Anti-Virus or Anti-Spam features? There are usually 2 main types of servers, Windows Servers and Linux Servers. If your application uses ASP or needs frontpage extensions or MSSQL, then I
would recommend you to get a windows server. If your application needs PHP or MySQL Databases, I would recommend you to choose a webhost with a Linux Server.
5.
Emails - What storage size and how many do you need?
Usually webhost provides emails together with their plans. Check what is their storage limit and attachment limit for their email accounts and how many email
accounts do they allow. If you receive big attachments through emails, you may need a big storage space and attachment size for your email, make sure your
webhost allows that. And do they provide web-based email(for users on the go) as well?
5.
Reliablity - What's the uptime?
No point having a server with tons and tons of diskspace but it is
down constantly right? Check what's your webhost's uptime performance. Read reviews on
webhost at
Singapore Web Hosting Talk and see what others have to say about a certain webhost.
6.
Support - How prompt and competent is their support?
Test out a webhost support by emailing their technical support and see how fast they reply. However this is rather difficult to test because it is nearly
impossible to gauge what kind of technical questions you will be facing. Again, I would recommend you to check out the forums at
Singapore Web Hosting Talk to read up on other's experiences with their webhost. But as in all public places, do note that not all reviews or
comments are accurate or truthful.
Another thing about support is to see how helpful they are. If you have a problem which is beyond the scope of a webhost, like installation of a script for
example, would they be willing to help you install it? Or if you did something wrong to your application, are they willing to troubleshoot for you?
7.
Price - How much do they cost?
Such an important factor, but so little to say. It depends on your budget but it is true what they say, you pay peanuts you get monkeys.
Finally, do a research on the webhosts and make a shortlist of which webhost suits you and your business best.
SEO is the best way to drive traffic to your site. It is cost effective as well. I would also recommend even the beginner webmaster to use some form of basic SEO on their website. You can follow the above tips to help you get started on your webpage.
With all that being said, I need to tell you that SEO is seriously more an art than science. Even SEO experts don't have all the answers. Even engineers in the Search Engines don't have all the answers. So I think it is better to go slow and just start basic and if there is a problem with your rankings, find out why and correct it. It takes time to get good results from SEO. And please be patient.
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Basics in setting up an Internet presence.
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Types of Advertising Options in Singapore
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Why getting listed on business (niche) directories will benefit your business
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Your business site is not getting to first Page of Search Engines? No worries.
