If your business has an online presence, picking a Web host is one of the most critical decisions you'll make. The host manages the servers on which your site will run and literally has control of your company's connection to its customers.
But picking the right one can be daunting: Because most major hosting companies
offer similar features, it takes some sleuthing to figure out which one will best suit your company's needs.
A quick overview
As you start your research, be wary of side-by-side comparison sites. Some are
affiliated with hosting companies - their "reviews" are actually paid advertisements. While it's good practice to use a wide variety of sources to get multiple opinions, it's best to conduct your own fact-check with the host itself, which may require a thorough look through the fine print.
Top Ten Reviews is a well-known, ad-supported ranking site for about a hundred different consumer-technology categories. Its Web hosts review offers a
side-by-side features comparison for an assortment of major hosting companies.
Top 10 Web Hosting is another ranking site that offers a similar rundown.
Updated daily, the site is run by Eli Herskovitz, a hosting specialist who has
ranked sites for seven years and has published numerous articles on the topic.
Some hosting companies contribute financially to Herskovitz's site, payments
that he says help defray the site's operating costs, but Top 10 Web Hosting's
reviews process is editorially independent.
A third source is CNET's review site, which isn't as user-friendly as other
ranking sites but does feature a useful forum in which users discuss their
hosting experiences. CNET (CNET) ranks providers on a scale that awards up to
three stars, one each for site functionality, consumer protections and customer
service.
After you've identified legitimate resources for comparing hosts, the next step
is to evaluate the features most vital to small businesses.
Customer service
Hosting experts say good support is the most crucial issue for a small business
owner. "Nothing is more frustrating than paying on a monthly basis and not being
able to get through to customer service for hours and then having to pick up the
pieces after the damage is done," says David Ropelato, IT director for Top Ten
Reviews.
"Make sure that support is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week," suggests
Herskovitz. "Technical problems could occur any time."
Test the hosts by calling or e-mailing them with questions and concerns. If they
can't deliver an answer within 24 hours, ditch 'em. Contrary to popular belief,
it's not technical issues that usually require immediate responses. It's the
legal ones.
Los Angeles-based Internet attorney Erik Syverson has seen many small business
Web sites taken down without notice, causing headaches and financial setbacks.
Web sites that allow users to post content are particularly risk. Under current
law, if copyright owners find their work illegally posted on a Web site, they
can send a message to those who run the site demanding the content's removal.
Those messages usually go to the Web host.
"The hosts tend to have a knee-jerk reaction when they get these notices, and
they pull down the site without question," Syverson says. "The unfortunate part
is that the host is not required to look into the matter but is required to take
down all alleged infringing content. Hence, bogus claims can shut down a site.
This is why it's important for the host company to be responsive."
If a site gets shut down, the business owner can file a counter notification
within 10 days, and then the burden is on the complainant to file a copyright
infringement suit in court. The process, lasting days to weeks, usually results
in lost business. (One way to keep this from happening is to ask those who see
copyright infringement to contact you directly. Remember to publicly provide an
e-mail address.)
Reliability
Reviews from current users, on forums such as CNET's, can give you a sense of
how reliable a Web host is. Does it have effective backups to prevent data from
being lost? Does it often shut down for maintenance? The Better Business Bureau
is another good place to get an honest perspective, Herskovitz says. You can
look up customer complaints online on the BBB's Web site, which also features
customer reviews.
Ryan Roskilly runs Tidal Media Group, which designs and hosts small business Web
sites. He recommends that customers check out their host's service level
agreements, will often say how many minutes or hours of uptime each year
customers are guaranteed. The agreement may also describe the host's redundancy
arrangements.
"Normally a Web host has a server farm. In the event that one server dies, the
other servers in the farm can host the Web site," Greg Bozigian, owner of
digital business development firm Visionary View. "Small business owners should
always ask about the backup and disaster recovery plan in the event that an
instance does occur."
Disk space
Once you've established which companies have five-star support levels, the next
thing you should look at are the specs for their hosting plans. What's best will
vary depending on your site's needs - both now and in the future. If you'll be
using the site as an online business card for your crafts business, for example,
you probably won't need many features. But be sure to think ahead. As you grow,
you may want to start selling those crafts online, and you'll be out of luck if
the host you chose doesn't have a quality checkout application.
"Disk space" is the amount of content and data that you can store on your host's
server. If you've only got text, there's little you'll need to worry about. But
if you've got images, downloads or audio and visual files, pay attention to what
is offered.
"Most simple Web pages average about 40KB in size," says Herskovitz. "Thumbnail images will probably be about 2KB or 3KB, and full-size images can be kept to as low as 150KB to 200KB without sacrificing too much in the way of quality. An 8-second video clip will be about 1MB in size. Any site that is
graphic-intensive or has downloadable files will need a large amount of disk
space for storage."
Tidal Media Group's Roskilly says that most small businesses use less than 100MB
of space.
The rule of thumb? "Shoot for the stars," Ropelato says. "Get as much as you can
up front or it could cost you to upgrade later. I recommend a minimum of 4GB to
5GB if you are creating an e-commerce site."
TAG: Cnet
0 comments:
Post a Comment