Getting a hosting service for your small business is a lot like picking a date online. Asking the right questions can help you find the perfect match to meet your business’s needs and avoid potential pitfalls. You cannot just go for the first person you meet on the platform.
Maintaining high standards is the foundation of a good partnership; however, you do not have to choose the most costly hosting solution available. It implies being constant and not compromising for a provider who falls short of your requirements.
You should ask hosting companies these questions to see whether they will be suitable for your small business by 2025.
A small business with basic internet needs can generally operate well with 100 Mbps bandwidth. This will cover the use of Salesforce, some light cloud activity (Google Suite with Google Docs), or simple emails and some VoIP calls. If more than a few calls are taking place at the same time, your bandwidth will need to increase.
When choosing a hosting provider, uptime is critical to ensure your website remains accessible to customers at all times. An uptime guarantee reflects the provider's commitment to keeping your website operational without unexpected interruptions. Do not settle for anything less than 99.9% from a web hosting provider.
Any uptime of less than 99.9% can hurt your company. It will make your site inaccessible to consumers, resulting in lost sales, diminished confidence, and a damaged reputation.
High uptime guaranteed by a hosting provider shows dependability and robust infrastructure—qualities essential for a company's success. For example, a small e-commerce store once faced a 98% uptime rate instead of the promised 99.9%, leading to several hours of downtime during a major holiday sale. This caused significant revenue loss and harmed their customer trust. Situations like this emphasize why uptime guarantees are critical.
Always verify the details of their uptime policy and whether they provide service credits or compensation for downtime over the specified level.
Even with the best hosting companies, outages and downtime are unavoidable; thus, it is imperative to know how a provider manages these events.
Avoid misleading or overly optimistic answers like "Outages never happen to our clients" or "We do what needs to be done." These comments are often vague and do not provide enough information about how they work.
Rather, search for thorough analyses of their outage monitoring systems, reaction timelines, and communication procedures.
A dependable supplier should keep you informed all through the process, aggressively spot and fix problems, and present clear deadlines for resolution. Knowing you have a well-organized strategy in place will help reduce interruptions to your company and provide you peace of mind.
Ideally, your small business will grow – that's why most people start a business. However, scaling is far from straightforward.
Fewer than a quarter (25%) of businesses launched in the past decade have managed to scale successfully. This is a significant issue as two-thirds of the value businesses create arises at the scaling stage.
One prevalent problem for small businesses is slow website speed due to heavy images, excessive plugins, and, regrettably, inadequate hosting. Other problems include hosting providers that neglect updates and a lack of responsive design for mobile devices. Website visitors may leave as a result, reducing conversions.
Complicated content management systems can make updating content challenging, so you could ask if the hosting service supports simple systems like WordPress.
Ask about firewalls, DDoS protection, and SSL support. Small businesses are especially vulnerable to cyber breaches: 46% impact businesses with fewer than 1,000 employees. For example, a small retail business in 2022 suffered a ransomware attack due to weak security measures, which led to a week-long shutdown and significant financial losses. Incidents like this highlight the critical need for robust cybersecurity measures.
Small business staff experience 350% more social engineering attacks than corporations' employees. In 2021, 61% of SMBs were targeted in a cyberattack.
Ask about setup fees, renewal rates, and hidden fees (for migrations, additional storage, etc.) Initial prices can be discounted, sometimes significantly, and renewal rates can be substantially higher. A plan advertised at $5/month may renew at $12 after the first year.
Inquire whether they include free SSL certificates and domain registration. Many hosting providers offer free domain registration for the first year but charge a high renewal fee afterwards.
Automated backups might not be included in the base plan, and restoring your website can incur additional costs.
This would be an obvious question to ask, but you risk not being taken seriously. Instead:
If your business grows or your website needs to change, you may be stuck with a plan that doesn't meet your new requirements. If your traffic increases, you're likely to outgrow any shared hosting plan, but upgrading can be difficult or costly mid-contract. Breaking a long-term contract may involve significant cancellation fees or forfeiting prepaid amounts.
Small businesses, especially ones that don't have their own IT staff, need to always make backups. Losing important data can cause problems with operations and damage your reputation, so it is essential to know whether a hosting company has backup and restore powers.
These are the questions you should be asking:
Search for hosting companies that feature automatic backups in their package and make clear whether restoring data costs extra. Including this mechanism in your hosting strategy will save time and guard your company from unplanned downtime.
The tools offered by the hosting provider determine how easily you can manage your website and hosting features.
Look for straightforward options like cPanel or Plesk, which are user-friendly and help with tasks like tracking website stats, managing domains, and setting up email accounts.
Enquiring about popular choices like cPanel, Plesk, or a custom-built dashboard helps you to better understand the service.
These tools should help with basic chores, including tracking website statistics, domain management, and email account setup.
Ensure the interface satisfies your company's needs and is user-friendly since a badly built management system might unnecessarily complicate daily chores.
Cover Photo by John Schnobrich on Unsplash
* This post is a sponsored article written in collaboration with our guest contributor, who has financially supported its publication.
Alex Quin is a full-stack marketing expert and global keynote speaker. Founder and Chief Marketing Officer of UADV Marketing - a member of the Forbes Agency Council.
