Getting the right hosting service for your website is crucial in ensuring your business’s success. The right web host can significantly boost your site’s performance. And it can even help you reach your target market within a short period of time.

However, picking the wrong web host could damage your business even before you start. It is, therefore, essential to understand what you need and what available options you have. This involves looking into different hosting service providers with an understanding of what to look for and which factors are important to your business.

Below are some of the things you need to consider in your search for a hosting service.

Security

The security of your website is important, and at no point should it be compromised. Ensure that the web hosting server is equipped with good firewalls. These security tools should be continuously monitored for unusual activity and unauthorized accessibility.

If your business involves online transactions, your web hosting company should support Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificates. SSL offers an extra layer of security. And this layer encrypts the information shared between your server and the user’s browser. The last thing you want is for your clients’ credit card information to leak, as this can be detrimental, leading to loss of funds for your client or your business. It can even potentially lead to your business facing a lawsuit.

Speed

Let’s face it, consumers can be quite impatient and might have a short attention span. That said, you have less than 3 seconds to impress a potential consumer. If your website is slow, the chances of them sticking by and waiting for the information to load is next to nothing.

On that note, Google also uses page speed as a ranking. Thus, slow site performance will negatively affect your search rankings and drive potential customers away. When doing a google search, most people only look for information on the first page; and that’s where every organization wants to be. And so, if you want to be there, optimize your site’s speed.

Cost

What is your budget? Web hosting services range from free to a couple of dollars to thousands of dollars a month. And yes, you heard it, you could get it for free. And just like in any other business, you get what you pay for. This doesn’t necessarily mean that free website hosting services are anything less than those that charge.

Free websites are not entirely free since you will have to let the host run ads on your site. So you somewhat pay for specific services instead of the whole package. Many times there are different options available, including a cheaper paid hosting plan. For someone on a tight budget who needs more features than the free hosting provides, a cheaper paid option could be a good choice.

The free option is ideal for startups that cannot afford to pay thousands of dollars monthly. It’s a win-win. An affordable web hosting deal could have limited flexibility and access to resources. And this could lead to performance  issues that, in the end, could affect other things. To avoid this, ensure you know and understand the web hosting requirements.

Support

Web support is essential for organizations that are not yet equipped to manage the website themselves. If that is the situation for your company, it’s necessary to ensure that the web hosting company provides support and 24/7 monitoring. In case of an outage or any other technical issue that may arise in the future, they are available. You only realize your website’s support importance when there is an issue and thousands of your potential clients are in the dark. In 2013, the amazon website went down for only 30 minutes, yet it cost them $66,240 per minute in revenue!

It goes without saying, frequent and unattended breakdowns could hurt the website’s performance and ranking.

Scalability

No matter how small your organization is, the sky is always the limit, and the goal is to reach the sky. You expect your website traffic to grow, to get more consumers than predicted, and so on. So when it comes to your web hosting services, the ambition should be the same. Go for a web hosting service that can accommodate your growth and expansion over time due to increased traffic and content.

Free Trial/ Refund Policy

If you are starting your company, you should consider going for a web host service that offers a free trial period. A web host can be quite costly, and having free trial offers could save you money. You have the freedom to figure out precisely what your website needs before fully committing, thus saving you money.

Cancellation fees when you opt-out after your trial period is over is also another thing to look into. Saving money is crucial for any organization. So, always go for a web host provider with decent refund policies to avoid unnecessary losses.