Small Business Tools Pro

Selecting the right webhosting company to service your small business website should be approached with some considerations in mind. I liken it to building a new house. You wouldn’t build a house with shaky foundations so why launch a website with a shaky hosting provider? There are currently thousands of webhosting companies to choose from so it can be difficult to know if you’re getting the best deal.

As a small business owner you may be considering the merits of free webhosting and if you’re on a budget it can seem tempting. I would however warn against hosting your site on a free host provider. You tend to have less control with this setup and are certainly more prone to spam and malware. Most hosting won’t cost you more than $10 a month so it’s certainly worth the small investment.

Prices for basic hosting can vary wildly so it’s important to do your homework when selecting a package that suits your needs. Signing up with a less reputable provider could cost you thousands in lost revenue and hours of stress that your small business can ill-afford.

There are two well recognized operating system platforms that hosting providers operate from: Windows and Linux, with Linux currently enjoying more favour in the market place. As an end user you are unlikely to need to concern yourself with the difference between the two platforms but it is worth knowing which platform you are choosing.

It’s also worth mentioning that it does not matter what operating system (windows or mac) you use to access your web server as this can be done from any operating system with a simple FTP (File Transfer Protocol) client installed. This client will act as the interface to your hosting account and allow you to upload and download files from your web server. I use FileZilla which is free FTP client.

While the choice of options can seem daunting there are some basic features you would want included in your hosting package:

• 24/7 support
• Money back guarantee
• Disk space (1 GB +)
• Data transfer (10 GB p/m +)
• Instant backups
• 99% uptime guarantee
• Sub domains
• FTP accounts
• Auto responders
• Control panel (cpanel)
• Easy install scripts

Hostgator is widely recognized as the industry leaders in providing quality, affordable and reliable webhosting and currently hosts over 2.5 million websites. As a small business the last thing you want to be worrying about is whether or not your website is up and investing in a hosting company with a proven track record will put your website on a solid foundation.

Hostgator are renowned for their timely, attentive support and on the occasions that I’ve had to contact them I’ve never waited more than 10 minutes to have an issue resolved.

Signing up for a hostgator account is very easy. You will be prompted to register a new domain name or enter an existing one (i.e. www.yoursite.com). If you get stuck there is a live chat feature where someone from their sales team will assist.

Once you’ve signed up you’ll receive all the instructions you need to get your website up and running.