Introduction
You can think of the owner of your web hosting service in the same way that you'd think of a landlord for a brick and mortar business. This is because you are essentially renting space from this web hosting service. There are a wide variety of levels and prices available for you to choose from here .some are even free. While a free web hosting service will work for personal websites, it is not a good choice for a business website.
Step 1
Search for “ecommerce web hosting” services. Create a list of those companies that you want to take the time to check out.
Step 2
Decide whether you want to share a server (shared servers mean you're hosted with other websites who are also renting the space) or if you need a dedicated (you're the only one on the server so things run faster and are more reliable since you pay more money) one. You also need to think through what extras you need from your web hosting service. Make sure to factor this cost into your total, overall pricing. Get a total cost for every web hosting service that you are considering using.
Step 3
Look at what each web hosting service is offering for the price they're quoting. Notate how much space they are offering, what extra services they're including and how much they are charging. Some of the extra options that you may want to think about whether or not you need include:
- Email accounts
- Auto responders for your email accounts
- Storage room
- Bandwidth
- The ability to process your customers credit cards online
- An easy way to build your website
- 24/7 tech support via chat instead of by email only
Step 4
Look at both the up time and the downtime for each web hosting service. This information is usually clearly stated on their website. If not, you should ask them about this. It is important to have this information since your customers wont be able to access your website if your host is down. So you should be on the lookout for a web hosting service that guarantees at least a 90 percent up time, if not better. You can double-check this information by looking the company up with the BBB (Better Business Bureau). This is something that you will want to do with each of the web hosts that you are considering using. In order to do this though you are going to need to have either the physical or mailing address for the web host so that you can look them up with the BBB in their hometown.
Step 5
Make your final decision as to whom will host your website. The company that you choose should be the one that provides you with the best value for your money. This is something that you will only be knowledgeable about after you have taken the time to do your research.
Tips and Comments
Remember that while switching web hosts is time consuming, you can always do so later on if you discover that you're unhappy with the one that you have chosen. Nevertheless, you are better off taking the time to find a good fit the first time around.
