Searching for the best Web Hosting Provider in Australia?

Having trouble deciphering between a massive pool of endless offers and promises.

Bottom Line:

We all know that the value of having a website in the digital age we now live in. The opportunities to engage a larger audience are much larger when you have a website and a domain name that is appealing and easy to remember. The problem is that some people don’t take any considerations when they choose their hosting provider, this can lead to a number of issues.

Today, we are going to talk about what you should be looking for and what you should avoid when searching for a hosting company for your website.

What to look for

A secure server

Security is a major problem that many website owners face due to bad server configurations that are not properly protected. This is one of the main reasons why it is so important to make sure that you can use a secure server in order to avoid any attacks. Compromised data can be a devastating problem for a business.

Security has turned into one of the biggest issues and concerns for a large number of companies all over the world. This is definitely not a problem that anyone should be taking lightly. Cyber-attacks are responsible for ruining many business ventures.

A reliable server

The server is also going to need to be reliable and not just safe. A safe server is great to avoid attacks, but if the configurations for performance are bad, you are going to be facing slowdown issues and even downtime for your website. The last thing you want is to have downtime that could translate to the loss of sales.

Downtime can cost a business hundreds and even thousands of dollars even if it just happens for an hour. The stability of your server is also going to have a serious influence on the loading speed of the site. Considering that many website visitors don’t wait for more than 3 to 5 seconds for a page to load, this is something you want to consider.

Efficient customer service

You also need to make sure that you can find a company that is going to provide an efficient level of customer service when you need their assistance. There are thousands of website hosts out there, but finding one with a truly efficient team of people is going to be extremely difficult. When a hosting provider has great customer service, you feel like you have a team that supports you when you need help.

Unlimited emails

You should make sure that your host allows you to have an unlimited number of emails for your site. This is going to be extremely important if you have a large number of employees that need their own emails assigned to them in the business.

Email accounts for business are very important because this gives you an extra layer of professionalism when dealing with clients. You don’t want to be using free email accounts with your business name upfront.

E-commerce solutions

Your host should have a great number of applications that can help you make the process of starting an e-commerce business easy. This is extremely important because it will give you the opportunity to sell your products or services online without having to invest in any expensive e-commerce solutions that might not be ideal for your needs and way above your budget.

Being able to sell products online is very important and it gives any business an extra layer of profitability to be able to find customer son the web.

Content Management Options

There are several CMS option available, but the one that we consider essential is WordPress without a doubt. Make sure that your host has a simple one-click installation solution for your WordPress needs. This is extremely essential for any host to have, so if you find one without this feature, you should avoid using this kind of host at all. Even if you don’t plan to use WordPress, this is too basic for any business not to have it available on their options.

Automatic backups

You should be able to gain access to automatic backups of your website at least on a weekly basis. Some hosts will make thee backups for you on a daily basis if you request this service. In some cases, there will be a cost to this, but it is worth having this sort of backup if you are dealing with a large website that has too much valuable information.

Domain parking abilities

You should be able to park any extra domains you purchase on your hosting plan. This is always useful when you want to buy more names and extensions for your business. You should also be able to create subdomains for any kind of practical use you might have for them.

Analytics

There should be some kind of analytics software available on your hosting control panel. This is always important when you are looking to monitor your activity. While there are external options that can be useful such as Google analytics. You want to be sure that you are getting a competent analytics option that is included in your hosting plan.

Don’t forget that tracking your progress with your website is going to be essential once you start your digital marketing campaigns. Being able to know how your visitors are behaving is crucial in order to tweak your efforts for better engagement and conversions.

The option to upgrade to a dedicated server

Most people start their web hosting journey with a shared server for their website. This is not an issue in most cases, but once your business starts becoming popular, you might want to avoid using a shared server. Investing in a dedicated server guarantees that your website is the only site that is going to be using that particular server. This makes it much more secure because you are in complete control of everything that is happening within the server.

Be aware of the price difference between shared and dedicated because it will be quite different. When you switch to dedicated server options, you will be paying a much higher monthly or yearly price, but it’s an essential step for extra security.

What to avoid

Confusing terms of service

Some companies have very unreliable and mixed up terms of service that seem to be more trouble than they are worth. It’s important for you to read the terms of service in order to see if you should be asking any questions or you should avoid the company altogether. We know it can be a pain to have to read every line of terms of service, but it’s always important when you are paying money for this purpose.

Hosts with many negative reviews

They might look good on paper, but their customer feedback could be quite bad. If you find a host that has a lot of complaints from customers, this could be a red flag that is going to serve as a warning for you to avoid this particular host and look for something else.

Reviews are becoming a major influence in the decision making the process for any service available online. This makes sense because customers are the ones that will usually have a more honest opinion of the service they received.

Lack of phone support

When a company is only reachable via email, you might have to wait 24 to 48 hours in most cases to get any kind of reply from them. This is not good at all, and you always have to be very careful when you hire any hosting service provider. You don’t want to be dealing with an emergency that needs urgent help, only to have to wait one or two days to get a reply.

Consider the fact that email inquiries don’t force the customer service departments to be active. They can decide not to reply until the stipulated timeframe has passed and this is bad for your business when you have any kind of emergency.

Always take your time

Even if you feel like you need to get your website up and running as soon as possible it’s always better to take your time and ensure that you can get the best results for your needs. This is going to allow you to start your journey into digital marketing with a solid foundation. Some website hosts are just not good enough to meet your needs, while others could end up being a little too expensive and featuring advantages that you might not need.

This is the main reason why it’s so important to be able to keep things in balance. Do not spend more than you should, but do not spend less than you should either.

Final thoughts

Deciding what kind of hosting plan you want for your business website is not something that you should ever be taking lightly. This decision is going to play a major role in the performance your site offers to your visitors and this is crucial for a successful business. Just remember Pages that load within two seconds have an average bounce rate of 9%, while pages that take five seconds to load have a bounce rate of 38%” web hosting plays the largest role in page speed. (Unbounce) So, make sure you choose wisely.

If you need any help deciding which company to go with feel free to reach out.