In the age of the internet, if you don’t have a website, you are behind the times! Having a website is a professional way to present your products and services to your customers. The first place I turn when I need a new product or service is the internet (either to buy the product/service or research it.) Whether you are a restaurant who posts their menus, daily specials, and driving directions or a beauty shop who offers virtual makeover software to help your clients choose their new hairdo, the World Wide Web can be applied to any business to increase its profitability.

To begin your website, you will need make a few decisions and understand a few things to get it going:

First, you will need to choose your domain name. You may choose to purchase your domain name through your web hosting company or directly from an ICANN accredited registrar (see also “Pros and Cons of Free Domain Names.”) If it is available, we recommend using your business name in your domain name. This won’t be an option for everyone because if you have thought of it, someone else probably thought of it before you and bought the domain name. Do keep your name choice relevant to your product/service or business name while still keeping it as short and simple as possible. You don’t want to lose your clients to your competitor because you were trying to be clever with your spelling (or misspelling!) Definitely double-check your spelling! Following these pointers will help your customers find you without much thought.

Next, you will need to choose a web hosting company. A web host provides a server that runs constantly to “serve” your site to the internet. To put it simply, it is a place to “park” your site so others on the internet can see it. This server will have a constant connection to the internet with enough bandwidth to handle the traffic you get from people surfing your site. If you have DSL or other broadband service, you may be asking why you couldn’t host your own website on the internet. Although high-speed internet is fast for you to surf the internet with, it is not fast for sending outbound information which is what you would need to upload your information to the web. Broadband internet service is simply not designed to support this type of use. In addition to not being able to send the information out at a quick enough rate, there would also be a significant investment required just to be able to do it all yourself. You would need a server (separate dedicated computer) of your own to hold all of your site’s information and multiple broadband connections to ensure that if one connection goes down, you have a back-up for your site to stay online at all times. The cost of being your own host far outweighs any benefits. A web hosting company provides a much better service, and because they do this in bulk, they are able to offer the service at very reasonable rates.

Now that you know what web hosting is and why you need it, you will need to choose the best web hosting company for your service (see also “What to look for in a web hosting company.”) A few factors may sway your decision since you are a new site with special needs. You will need a website designed for your business. You may choose to have an independent contractor build a site for you or build a site yourself. If you choose to build your own, multiple web hosts offer free site builder programs in their service. These applications are an excellent alternative if you are not willing to invest in a unique site from a designer. If you plan on running any type of billing system or shopping cart on your site, you will need a web host that offers an SQL database system. MySQL is the most popular database application used on web hosting accounts. For taking payments, you will also want to make sure to protect your customers by choosing a host that offers SSL capabilities for security. Last, make sure that your web hosting company offers e-mail accounts. An e-mail address with your company’s name shows your customers you are a legitimate business and provides a professional means of contact.

In closing, this article is not the only information you will need to start your own site, but it will give you a great head start! Choose your web hosting company wisely, and ask them questions. They want your business, so they will be more than happy to answer your questions and walk you through the process. Good luck!

Some people allow themselves to be cost driven when choosing their web hosting service, but low cost alone is simply not enough in today’s competitive market. Price is certainly important, but value, quality, and reliability are much more desirable traits in a web hosting company than cheap service. A good web hosting company should have rates that are reasonable and consistent with the value of their services. Sometimes this still means a very inexpensive rate since web hosting is in high demand, but always do your homework to ensure you are making the smart choice.

If not price, then what are the most important qualities to look for in a web hosting company? Reliable service is the number one most important detail in a web hosting service because if your web hosting service is down, NO ONE is seeing your website! If you are also a web hosting reseller, then no one is seeing your customer’s websites either, and we all know that’s bad for business! As a reseller, downtime also brings your dependability into question, so for the sake of everyone’s reputation, choose a dependable source!


Now we all know things happen from time to time, and you will never see 100% guaranteed uptime from anyone. You will find in your search many 99.9% uptime guarantees. If there’s no guarantee directly advertised, don’t shy away - just ask.

When downtimes do occur, technical support MUST be superb. Knowledge bases are excellent resources for quick answers to questions and common problems, but when real technical issues occur, I want immediate help. Support tickets are great as an organized way of getting your problem reported. The most important factor of a support ticket is the response time. Make sure your web hosting company has a good track record for response and resolution to their support ticket submissions. Initial responses should be less than one hour. The parameter of the problem will dictate the resolution time, but you need to know they are working on it. I also love to see a technical support phone number or live chat 24/7, but excellent response time on trouble tickets eases my mind when these are not available.

Last but not least, let’s talk features. Determine what you need to support your site, which features are important, and what can be compromised if necessary. Many web hosts today offer unlimited disk space / data storage and unlimited bandwidth a.k.a. website traffic / data transfer. About 5% of all web hosting customers need a remarkable amount of disk space and bandwidth, but for the rest of us, take no less than 1GB of disk space and 20GB of bandwidth in this competitive web hosting market. If the company you are looking at offers unlimited on these features for a good price, why not! So compare and choose what you like to narrow it down to your perfect web host.

Posted by Debbie at WebHostingDoc.com