Judging by most web hosting company advertising, you'd think that a great web hosting company is one that offers the MOST of everything: disk space, bandwidth, email boxes, all for the lowest price... Not so!
A typical small to medium size web site (1-100 pages) doesn't need all of that, and will never use it. In most cases, you can easily get away with just 50MB of web hosting space. Web hosting companies know this, and they're banking on you not using all that they sold you. So what really sets a great web hosting company apart?
There are really only 4 factors to use when selecting the best web hosting company for your small business.
Price
Web Hosting Up-Time Guarantees
When evaluating a web hosting company, be sure they advertise at least a 99.9% up-time guarantee, but never a 100% up-time guarantee. A 99.9% up-time guarantee means your web site will be up virtually all the time, but leaves some wiggle room for a few momentary glitches now and then, right? No.
Let's do the math. There are approximately 8,760 hours in a year (365 days x 24 hours). Times that by 01% (this is the 1% wiggle room left out of a 99% guarantee). What do you get? 87.6 hours. You see, a web hosting company that advertises a 99% up-time guarantee is only promising that your web site will not be down for more than 87.6 hours each year. That's more than 2 WEEKS out of a year in business hours!
A 99.9% up-time guarantee cuts that to 8.8 hours out of a year - still alot of down-time if it all happens in a day or two, but let's see why this is still reasonable.
The fact is, technology is not perfect. A web hosting server is really no different than your own desktop computer. Once in awhile you have to reboot your computer if it locks up or you just need to refresh it. Rebooting can take about 15 minutes for a web hosting server. Although (good) hosting companies strive to do necessary reboots at night when web activity is slower, they cannot always wait for nighttime when a server is having a glitch.
Not only are web hosting companies dependent on their web servers, they are also dependent on their Internet connection. Hosting companies use an Internet Service Provider like you and I do - only on a grander scale. What if their ISP goes down for a period of time? All of their hosted web sites become disconnected from the Internet, and your site goes down.
Web hosting companies are additionally dependent upon their own internal networks and hardware. They have racks and racks of interconnected web servers and network routers. What if the hardware on one router wears out or goes bad? It could take down their whole web hosting network, or a large portion of it, until they can replace the router. Network hardware is made to last for up to 5 years, and many times it doesn't even last that long. Most often, there is no warning when hardware decides to fail.
Taking all the hosting company dependencies into account, we can conclude that a 99.9% up-time guarantee is a very realistic figure, even for a great web hosting company. Any web hosting company that advertises 100% up-time is simply pulling the wool over your eyes, so steer clear of them!
Support Turnaround Time
This is where a great web company really stands out from the others.
Most high-volume web hosting companies that offer cheap web hosting have too many web sites and too little support staff. Many can't even read your support request for up to 24 hours. What if your web site is down or your email is down? Is 24-48 hour turnaround time fast enough? I say no. If your web site is down, 24 hours is too long.
A great web hosting company will keep the ratio of support staff-to-websites much lower. This means they can answer your support requests in under 2 hours, in most cases. It is expensive to hire lots of web support peoeple, though, so expect to pay a dollar or two more per month to get great web hosting. Believe me, it's worth it!
Customer Service People
We all dislike bad customer service. It's hard enough to run your small business without having to deal with tech-talk from a customer service representative with a bad attitude.
Before you sign up for web hosting, call and ask to talk to a support staff member...not a sales rep... but an actual support staff member. Sales reps are trained to talk a great story, but the support staffer has the real story. Ask the support staffer about their ratio of staff to web sites. Ask them what their company average turn around time is in solving support requests (not answering them, but actually solving them). While talking to him/her notice their attitude, politeness and the wait-time you had before you got to speak to them. If they are quickly reached, forthcoming and wish you a very pleasant day after you drill them, then they are a part of a great web hosting company!
Web Hosting Price
Web hosting prices range from 'free' to double-digit-dollars per month. Are the more expensive hosting companies the best? If so, how do you hire a great web hosting with a small business budget? How much should you realistically expect to pay for small business web hosting?
First, the most expensive web hosting companies are not always best. That said, it's important to steer clear of the Free and $1 - $5 web hosting range, if you have a serious web site (no matter the size) for your small business. A $5 web hosting company can't possibly give good service and up-time at that price.
You can find great web hosting for $8.95 per month. Be aware of companies charging over $12 per month and not offering more features than the next web hosting company. They are simply over-priced, and there are many of them out there.
Finding a great web hosting company for your small business isn't about the most space, bandwidth and email boxes for the price, it's about up-time, support, customer service and then price. Remember, you want to pay for good support, not more disk space that you won't use.
