Top tips on how to get the most out of your website.
Web Hosting Blog
You can’t have a successful business without a strong online presence in this age. And part of that is having a good website. But it’s not always easy to know how. We’ve created this list of things to consider when creating your online brand.
Have the right hosting solution for your website
There are several different types of hosting that you can pick from including:
- Shared hosting: is when your website shares a server with other users.
- VPS Hosting: VPS is the next step for businesses that have outgrown shared hosting and need a dedicated resource at an affordable cost.
- Colocation: is the practice of renting space for your servers and other computing hardware at a third-party provider’s data centre facility.
- Dedicated servers: A dedicated server is a physical server/s that is solely dedicated to a single business and customised to their business requirements, including performance and security.
- Cloud hosting: Cloud hosting consists of multiple servers (called nodes) and external SAN storage. With virtualisation software, like VMWare, installed onto the nodes converts the physical hardware into cloud-based platforms.
To find out more about the different types of hosting, you can read our blog here.
Pick the right hosting partner
Not all hosting providers are created equal, and you want to choose one who understands your needs and offers the right products which meets those requirements.
To get started, it’s a good idea to sit down and make a list of your needs so you can ask the website hosting provider the right questions and ensure that they can supply you with the right product/service.
You also need to check their reputation. You can do this by looking at their Trustpilot reports and case studies and asking others if they have heard of them.
Another essential service to investigate is their uptime guarantees. “Uptime” refers to the percentage of time that your website is online and available to internet users without any issues. Your host should guarantee something close to 100% uptime.
Decide if you need managed or unmanaged hosting
You are fully responsible for your server and its upkeep with an unmanaged hosting solution. Your hosting provider simply houses the server for you. It’s great for companies that already employ a team of experts to maintain and manage their servers.
Managed hosting is the best solution for companies that don’t have in-house experts. If you choose unmanaged hosting without in-house experts and things go wrong that you can’t fix, it will affect your business. Your hosting company can help you, but it could cost you a lot in charges for one-off fixes, and it’s more cost-effective to have a management plan.
With server management, you get:
- Technical support and enhanced response time
- Proactive server patching
- Data backups
- Test restores
- Monthly System Admin allowance
- Faster response times
- Server security scans
- Advanced server monitoring
These features help highlight potential issues and allow you or your hosting provider to fix any concerns before they become problems, keeping your site healthy and online.
To find out more about monitoring and server management plans , read our post here.
Choose your Domain Name for your website
Your domain name is a part of your brand identity, like your logo, company name and values— first impressions matter. Your domain name is sometimes the initial exposure to your brand. If you don’t nail your domain name, you’ll put potential customers off visiting your website.
It’s also not easy to change your domain name. It’s time-consuming and can lead to unnecessary downtime and lost opportunities. So it would be best if you got it right the first time.
Read our blog post here for more help picking the perfect domain name.
Invest in an SSL Certificates
An SSL is a protocol for servers and web browsers that ensures that data passed between the two are private by using an encrypted link connecting the server and browser.
They are small data files that cryptographically confirm this encrypted link between a web server and a browser — ensuring that all data passed between the web server and browser stay private.
If your site has an SSL, your customer’s browser will form a connection with their web server, examine the SSL certificate, and then secure their browser and the server. This secure connection means no one besides you and your customer can see or access what they type.
Companies that request personal information from a user, such as an email address or payment information, must have SSL certificates on their website.
It means that the details you are collecting are private and assures the customer that their data is safe.
To find out more about SSL certificates, read our blog post here.
To find out more about any of these topics or if you wish to speak to a specialist about your hosting, get in touch with us today.