Business Web Hosting

Business Web Hosting

Web hosts are companies that offer space on a server that they own as well as internet connectivity for use by their clients. This kind of web hosting service or internet hosting service thereby allows organizations and/or individuals to provide their own web sites that can be accessed via the World Wide Web. There are various types of web hosting services available today to cater to a diverse audience and meet various client requirements. Most of these web hosting companies charge a particular fee either monthly, quarterly or yearly (as preferred by the customer). While comparing the pricing structure of these various hosting companies remains the customers focus, other related aspects also need to be taken into consideration when choosing the right web host, especially because a galactic number of web hosting companies out there are vying to offer their customers the best possible services. Factors like technical support, features offered and many more related aspects need to be taken into consideration, depending upon the customer requirements and goals.

In today’s competitive environment, all businesses out there are trying to carve and secure a respectful rank and position on the internet. Everyone is aware that for a business to succeed and broaden its reach, internet connectivity is indispensable. Whether small or large, businesses of all sizes and nature need to communicate and stay in touch with their vendors. To create a perfect environment for the visitors or customers it is vital that the web hosting companies offer all the essentials to make your business grow. Whether your business is service or product related, some extra features and capabilities are offered by the hosting companies at an extra monthly extra fee.

E-commerce enabled features are a real bonus as it enhances the website’s functionality as well as offers an enriching shopping experience. Some e-commerce features available are a database to hold information about products, related services as well as customers. A shopping cart feature is primarily helpful as customers can place their products or purchases in a cart or holding area and continue shopping. The check-out system includes a facility for accepting credit cards (also known as merchant accounts), or some other payment method such as PayPal. If the business involves selling physical products, then shipping is another vital component that is required to complete he entire transaction process. If you have a shipper, your Web hosting services should offer a way for you to integrate that info into your site. Or you can use the hosting service’s shipping service. Once the site is up and running, it is a good decision to have a web site tracking system in order to ascertain how many hits, clicks or visitors your website is receiving on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. Subsequently or as and when required; owners can upgrade to separate analytics software and services for a more sophisticated analysis of website statistics and traffic. If the nature of the online business involves selling a large number of products and services, a database to hold your product lists and feature tables will become an indispensable pre-requisite. Even small businesses, such as retail stores, can have large inventories that get updated frequently, so they are likely to need to pay for database services from the Web host. A visitor or customer registration feature is another significant feature that may need to be incorporated. This allows postal mailing or e-mailing list for marketing featured or hot products, current favorites etc. to current or future customers. Hiring a web hosting service to handle all the technicalities of a business web site is in fact a good step if the business owner is looking towards value added, affordable service for a host of user-friendly and highly utilizable and functional features. It is not necessary to be knowledgeable in web programming, as most of them offer templates and menu-driven selections for every inch of the web site. It takes a fair amount of research, study and of course some technical knowledge to pick a good business web site hosting service. Of course there is no way to gauge precise reliability statistics for the astronomical number of web hosting services, but it is recommended to notice and compare the various packages that are configured to meet various requirements. Alternatively or simultaneously, referrals are a good way to go about narrowing down on a reliable web hosting company. Small-business entrepreneurs who have business web sites and can tell you if they are happy with their hosting service. Industry publications, newsletters, regional or local business associations can also be instrumental in sharing their valuable views on the reliable hosts out there. Another aspect that can be considered is brand reputation. Positive or negative reputation of a particular vendor can help you make a better decision. Reading reviews, making enquiries and various interactive forums can also help alleviate your doubts and concerns.

Price is another aspect that weighs substantially on decision making. Although many companies offer amazing bargains, discounts and unbelievable rates; they’ve either got to be getting revenues from somewhere other than your monthly fees (such as advertising planned for Microsoft’s Office Live service) or you would perhaps have to compromise on support features. (Although this may not always be an issue). The main focal point is what the owner expects out of their business sites. If it is just a basic site that does not require much time and effort like a colorful version of an ad or something, you don’t need to necessarily need to fret upon this issue. However, if you are looking towards extending your reach, enhancing your business profitability and enhancing the website’s functionality, then a fair amount of time and effort need to be invested to find a competent and reliable business web hosting company. It is equally essential to make the most out of the business web site. Most of the web hosts make the entire task of having your web site up and running almost a breeze as all the technicalities are taken care of. The initial impression needs to be looked into carefully for starters. This includes the setup tools that are offered to you- layout, color scheme, fonts, pictures, components, features etc. as these seriously impact on your business. The design tool should be carefully used to make the site look interesting and convey the intended impression. A slogan, motto, or a catchword can seriously impact the business and give you the edge amidst soaring competition. To enhance company credibility, it is advisable to have the contact info, map location, pictures of products and/or services, discounted features or even snapshots of owners and co-workers can help you get that well deserved fillip. Although there a large number of business web hosting providers, choosing the right one can leave you completely perplexed.

Some popular business web site hosts:
According to the All Business survey on Web hosting, the largest number (31%) of you who having a Web site are hosting it at Yahoo! Small Business Web hosting services. The second place is held by the category of “Other” provider (19%), while third place (18%) goes to in-house hosting. “Local” ISP providers ranked fourth (11%), followed by national providers Microsoft’s Small Business Services (8%), AOL (5%), GoDaddy (3%), and 1&1 (3%). Explained below is a brief overview of these business web hosting services and what exactly do they have to offer:
Yahoo! Small Business:
Yahoo! Offers the best attractive packages with value added features and a wide variety of hosting services. From simple basic pages to have your presence on the web to a complete professional package, Yahoo! offers it all. Their value added packages start anywhere between $11.95, to a $39.95 for a simple or professional deal. For more enhanced functionality and robust features like more storage, increased bandwidth and e-commerce empowered sites; the cost can go up to $299.95. This is an ideal option for those looking for broadening their reach plus marketing tools and other add-ons to boost visitorship; thereby enhance their business profitability. Yahoo! Small Business supplies an easy-to-use program called Site Builder for creating your site. They also support Microsoft FrontPage, Adobe GoLive, Macromedia Dreamweaver, and Microsoft Publisher, if you have any of those. They support scripting languages such as PHP and Perl, and the MySQL database is available.
Microsoft Web Hosting for Small Businesses:
Microsoft Web Hosting for small businesses has very interesting, attractive as well as decently priced web hosting packages. Prices start at $12.95 per month; the Professional package is $49.95 per month; basic e-commerce services start at $24.95 per month. Most of the packages comprise of a Web creation program, and also support FrontPage and Microsoft Publisher. The higher-priced packages support Microsoft’s ASP.NET 2.0 platform, for programmers who need that extra feature. Microsoft additionally offers banner advertising packages as well as search engine submission and optimization features. This service is priced at $49 a year. It helps its customers with e-mail marketing which starts at $ 19.95 a month and other marketing services involve generating leads to potential customers. Microsoft has a unique appointment-scheduling product that lets your customers set up appointments; if that’s a valuable feature required for specific businesses. This costs an extra $29.95 per month. “Microsoft Office Live” is yet another service concept introduced and is in its testing phase. This is another version of their web hosting service and its lowest package is offered free of cost. Advertising on your web site is the support web owners will have to compromise on for this free service.
AOL Value Web:
AOL offers some of the very best and comprehensive business hosting plans but compared to others theirs is thus far the most expensive starter kit. Besides the disk space and bandwidth and e-mail, and the Web-site creation software, you get free use of a 25MB MySQL database, and are hosting on an SSL secure server (important for e-commerce sites because it protects customers from certain kinds of hackers while they are buying things from your site). The package also includes, free, the well regarded Urchin Web traffic analysis package, and support for FrontPage and for the ASP, PHP, and Perl scripting languages. There is also an option to add on AOL’s WebStore e-commerce package for $20 extra per month, or upgrade to the Commerce Hosting plan at $49.95 per month, which gets you more capacity and bandwidth. At $99.95 per month the Professional Hosting plan includes all sorts of automation services and credit card services. All their plans include credit toward the purchase of Google AdWords for web site marketing and promotion as well as access to AddWeb Website Promoter, BannerBuilder, Constant Contact, and ValueTraffic at different pricing structures.
GoDaddy:
Godaddy is almost a household term for owners who are looking for a decent bargain in small business web hosting. Their most basic packages are very affordable which is inclusive of disk space, bandwidth, and mailboxes as well as includes support for the MySQL database and for the FrontPage Web site builder, if you have either or both of them. Web owners can also get access to support for the ColdFusion database development system for $1.99 per month, and the package includes controls for so-called hosted applications. If your business needs are more than basic, they offer Deluxe and Premium plans which includes added features, enhanced functionality and support. These plans come with $25 credit towards Google AdWords, and the Premium Plan includes SSL (secure server) services. All GoDaddy plans include blogging and forum support, a photo gallery, firewall protection, and free site statistics.
1&1:
1&1 is a European company which offers two lines of “Microsoft Hosting” services suited to business use. Their business package costs $9.99 per month and includes enough capacity to suit your needs (100GB of data storage and 1,000GB of monthly transfer volume and 2,000 e-mail boxes). Other features include hat channels, Web statistics, a newsletter tool, and a forms tool for marketing and for e-commerce applications. Owners get access to 1&1 photo gallery, a map and directions tool and the Dynamic Content Catalog tool for maintaining a product catalog. It supports Microsoft FrontPage, and includes a library of CGI applications and ASP support for your programmers. Visitors can also be offered with RSS feeds if content is updated on a regular basis. 1&1 has its own database, or you can opt for Microsoft Access or Microsoft SQL Server if you have them. It additionally offers some advanced security features as well as web creation and maintenance tools and offer packages to meet various business requirements.
There are certain guidelines and steps to get your business web site started with a web hosting service. The entire process needs to be tackled carefully coupled with a fair amount of prior research and inquiries. The first step involves signing up with a service. Then toy with the tools that are offered in order to set up your business web site page. Explore your options and make the out of this. Then ideally, you plan it all out on a paper, simultaneously checking with similar or competitive websites to lap up on interesting ideas and tips. Focus on what really is required from the web host and narrow down your options as you focus on two to three most significant requirements and corresponding benefits offered to you. Then design a very uncomplicated, straightforward and simple website with the main focal points that were listed down. Try to keep it as simple as possible by not adding unnecessary features and avoid adding elements that need to be updated on a frequent basis, as this may be too time consuming. Also it is advisable to avoid adding features that require you to learn the technology or something that would require you to hire a programmer. Keep it simple for starters and then keep adding features as you get the hang and feel of being an online business entrepreneur. If for some reason, you wish to cancel the account with the web host, that can be done so. However, this could entail rebuilding the entire site from start to finish. Second factor that needs to be taken into consideration before closing the web hosting business account is that if your web site receives a good amount of traffic, then a new URL will have to be promoted. If the web site does well and generates good profits and attracts a good traffic then, the web hosting can easily be upgraded to enhance profitability and meet other business requirements.
If the business is intended to started on a small scale, it is useless and a waste of money and time to invest on a package that would cost you $50 a month. This of course may be a necessity for some web owners who need this kind of all-inclusive package. It is easier and advisable to start a new business with a basic package till your web site picks up and gains ample momentum. Then as the business picks up, new features can be added that are required and thereby offer the best value for money. However, it is equally important to note that while it easy to upgrade to a higher level package, it is not always possible to downgrade the account. That is, if you pay for an upgrade then your small business website suddenly starts to falter and you get less visitors than before (for example if a powerful new competitor appears on the block) then you generally won’t be able to move back down to the account level you had before.
Many web hosting companies offer their services to get your small online business started free of cost. But with this, the features are limited, thereby substantially reducing its functionality. Firstly, you cannot use your own domain name, which essential to build a professional image for your business. Secondly, your web site is inundated with advertisements like banner ads, pop ups etc, which can rather be an annoying element for the visitors. Even your email addresses can be sold to spammers. Therefore, free hosting in effect is never really “free” per se. It is better to spend a few dollars a month and extract its full worth which over a period of time starts paying off if you maneuver your way correctly.
A very important and vital factor that needs to be considered before opening your small business web hosting account is the operating system that should be used for this purpose. Just like home computers, servers need an operating system to work and furthermore that there are several different systems available. The two main options are Unix/Linux systems or Windows systems. In contrast to home computers it is recommended not to opt for Windows operating system on the web hosting account. This is primarily because most of the function rich and time saving scripts like discussion forums, classified ads, auction scripts, link directories and more are all designed to work with Unix systems rather than Windows. Using Windows will somewhere along the line limit the range of software applications that can otherwise be utilized to potentiate a small business. With a UNIX web hosting account, you get relatively more freedom. When choosing a reputable web hosting company for your small business, it is important not to overlook the support features that are offered. This is essentially vital for those who are just starting out in this arena or those who are unaware of the technicalities involved. The support feature is indispensable, as it offers solutions to any problems or queries with your web hosting account. These may include queries on how to upload files, how to install scripts or problems with certain features or pages not working as they should. An online help desk is very useful as well, as it offers instant solutions to nagging issues etc that perhaps need to be addressed immediately. The kind of customer support offered; instantly spells the level and reputation of the company. If customer is high on their agenda, it would be well worth a try. Very basic and informative questions should not take much time for them to respond to. Also, it is good to exercise prudence and judgment when making a choice. Weigh the ratio of good comments to bad, interact with users on the chat forum and explore respective web hosting websites, simultaneously making notes. With a fair amount of research and exploration; you will in all probability, settle for a competent web hosting company for your small business.
Setting up a small business website may involve taking care of many details like configuring email addresses, set up MySQL databases to run scripts, create auto responders, gather server details to allow you to configure scripts, view your visitor statistics and much more. Although there are various ways to accomplish this, the easiest and most convenient way is through the “Control Panel”. The web hosting control panel makes website administration a fairly easy task. Most of the web hosting companies suitable for small business web sites, provide users with free access to their very own personal control panel when you subscribe to their services. A unique username and password is provided for login and thereafter configuration of the website is fairly simple and straightforward and does not require much technical know-how either. All major elements of the website can easily be modified and set up via a well laid-out set of icons which are meant for specific control areas. The “cpanel-type” control panel is highly recommended for mall business web hosting. This is extremely user friendly and many web hosts offer cpanel.
If your web site receives large amount of traffic, then small web hosting firms may not be an ideal choice or this could pose more problems for the business owner. If you expect the website to get 50,000+ page views each month sooner or later, then it’s a good idea to plan and analyze all the details in advance. The small business web hosting account has a certain bandwidth limit. If this limit is exceeded, then the website shuts down, which is highly undesirable. With most small business web hosting accounts you can check your bandwidth use in comparison to your limit quite easily using your web hosting control panel. If the business owner is putting in a lot of traffic generation efforts which expect to pay off, then it is equally important not to overlook this element. Therefore, the first step is to constantly pay attention to your bandwidth usage. If you feel you may be getting close to the monthly quota or that it may surpass the limit, then find out if your host can provide you with extra bandwidth as an “add-on”. This, in most cases is not very expensive. However, this option is okay just for starters and not a viable long-term solution. This is primarily because the owner would to constantly track his/her bandwidth use and make extra upgrade payments for more. A more practical option is to upgrade your entire account. This next level of account will comprise of a higher bandwidth entailing a small increase in the monthly charges. This is really only feasible however if you are paying for your hosting monthly. However, a smart idea and in fact the best option would be to find a web hosting company which offers unlimited bandwidth. Unlimited bandwidth in essence means- it doesn’t matter how many visitors you get, how many pages they look at and how many files they download; your website will stay live and active and ready to receive even more traffic. Web hosts offering unlimited bandwidth usually offer an affordable pricing structure. The ultra-cheap small business web hosting companies may however impose limitations on your hosting account and may not grant you with flexibility and related features which are required to enhance web site functionality. They may ban you from uploading certain types of files (such as MP3s, PDFs, WAVs etc). They may even disable some basic scripting functions without informing the customer before or after the installation process. Therefore, it is advisable to check the technical requirements of the scripts against what the web host is offering, and then match it up and narrow down on your final choice. So you are planning to settle for a super cheap web hosting company, be ready to face some “hidden issues and problems”, which may not be so apparent before or during the sign-up process. Changing web hosts can be quite a frustrating decision and task, so it’s best to do some homework before hand. Getting personal recommendation is by far the best option and a major key to get the right small business web hosting account.
When buying small business web hosting plans, owners can also opt to buy their domain separately from another company or they can both the web hosting plan as well as the domain name from the same company. Many web hosting companies offer this service. The other thing is consider is the payment plan that works best for your small business web site hosting. Fr starters, lets be clear that small business web site hosting is not something that one buys but rather rents. Different companies offer varying price structure in different formats: monthly, quarterly or yearly. Domains are typically purchased by the year – often with a minimum term of 2 years. If this is for the first time that you are starting your online business and want to test the web hosting company, then it is advisable to opt for the monthly package, especially if you have minimum capital to start with. This way, the business owner will be risking little money and will perhaps get a feel of the entire process as well as test the water. If however you find that the hosting company is not up to your expectations, then you always have the option of canceling your account and start afresh. However, this may entail certain procedural hassles as certain hosting companies may bind you with a minimum contract period (from 6 months to 2 years). Some hosting companies may even offer their clients pricing packages of up to 2 years at a time with marked discounts. This option is only advisable if you are well aware of all related intricacies involved in an online business or if you have already had a good experience with the web hosting company for your online business. So exercise good judgment and weigh all your options – less risk paying for short periods of time for your small business web hosting but higher costs in the long term, or lower long term costs but higher risk if anything happens to your business. It is also a good idea to lap up on the technical jargons so you can make the right decision. This limitation should pose a deterrent in your decision making. The technical phrases used when you are shopping for small business web hosting companies should not leave you confounded. Explained below are a few technical phrases for the untrained ear:
Bandwidth / Data Transfer: This determines how many files can be transferred from your web hosting account to visitor’s computers. It is the data transmission rate; the maximum amount of information (bits/second) that can be transmitted along a channel. In other words it equates to the number of visitors your website can receive on a monthly basis. The other aspect taken into consideration is that different files have different sizes and therefore take up different amounts of bandwidth. For example, a visitor looking at your plain webpage will take up less bandwidth than a person who is actually viewing a video at your web site. In essence, the more basic and multimedia-light your site is; the smaller the amount of bandwidth you need.
Sub-domain: If a domain is assigned a URL like www.abc.com; then the sub-domain changes the www. to something else which can be useful for search engine optimization and keeping your site neatly laid out.
Mail-boxes: This essentially is how many email addresses you can have and for most small businesses 5 or 10 is more than enough.
Web Space: This determines the space on your server for uploading files. Similar to the hard-drive of your computer; the more web space you have the more and/or larger files you can upload. For a basic website, 30-50MB will be more than enough and this is easily available with most web hosting companies. However, if you intend to use multimedia enabled features graphics, audio, video etc then you might want to look for a little more web space.
Auto-responders: Auto-responders are pieces of software that will automatically reply to emails and can be very useful from a customer service point of view.
Uptime: This term refers to the percentage of the time your website will be visible. Sometimes problems occur with a web host or routine maintenance has to be carried out and in these cases your website won’t be shown for a little while.
Front Page Extensions: There are a multitude of web page generators out there and Microsoft’s FrontPage is quite a popular one. So if Front page is used to build your web site, then you need to make certain that your host offers FrontPage extensions for your site to work properly.
Business owners need to look for certain key features when shopping for an affordable and reliable small business web hosting company. These include:

• Bandwidth: The more bandwidth that is offered, the better for you. Better still would be unlimited bandwidth, which serves as a perfect solution.
• Web-Space: 30-50MB should be enough for a decent sized small business site (50 pages or so). If your website requires medium to heavy multimedia features, then of course you would need 500MB+.
• Uptime: Ideally, you should be looking for 99% uptime, so you done end up losing visitors and sales.
• Script Compatibility: If you want to use any scripts on your website check the compatibility to ensure they will work with your web hosting account.
• Reputation: This is by far the hardest thing to ascertain. However, read testimonials, weigh up ideas, analyze and then make your final decision.

Uploading files and images on your website is very easy and can be very interesting too. To protect your web site however, there is one important tip to remember -”How to change file permissions”.
The principle of file permissions – the so-called “CHMOD” function – is to determine who is allowed to do what to the various files on your web hosting account. For example, if a visitor on your website changes the HTML files, then your entire website could change overnight, without you knowing about it and without your authorization. People could edit your content, delete your articles, add their own adverts to your pages and so on; which of course is highly undesirable. On the other hand, if someone is interested in signing up to use your discussion forum but they’re not authorized to modify the file that saves user’s access codes – they’ll never be able to register or log in.
So different script files on your web hosting account will need different permissions (CHMOD commands) to allow them to work correctly but not open up your site to some serious security threats. Each of these scripts will come with detailed instructions on which files need their permissions changed and to what – which is typically a numerical value but may take other forms.
The way you change file permissions is with your FTP software. Firstly upload your files to your hosting account, then locate the files whose permissions you need to change. Highlight each in turn by clicking it once with the left mouse button, and then click the right mouse button to bring up a popup menu. You should find “CHMOD” or “File Permissions” or a similar option so simply select it and change the permissions to exactly what the script installation file specifies.