Hi and welcome to the Blog!
When you’re choosing a web host for your next site, what should go into the decision? What factors and features matter when it comes to reaching your intended audience? Or engaging with them?
For this, we’re going to omit super-obvious needs such as uptime. Any host worth their salt is up all the time, or face brief interruptions only in rare circumstances. And so the more prominent focus here is going to be on the specific needs of specific types of sites. I’ll pick some of the most common ones.
Blogs!
Of course Blogs just like this are among the most popular kinds of sites. A blog can be as simple or complex as you like, and, can cover a seeminly unlimited range of subject matter. Our blog talks about different aspects of the web hosting industry.
What a blog needs in terms of the user-experience are two key things: ease-of-use, and flexibility. Ease, because many new bloggers won’t be tech-savvy. Instead, they’re often just regular folk wanting to express their views/findings/etc. The less time needed to learn the craft, the better. Flexibility then, because new bloggers are also just figuring out how they want to do that expressing. Odds are good that at least some percentage of new bloggers want to ‘change it up’ as they hone their blog. In our support experience, PHP and memory(RAM) on the server are the most important resources. Latest PHP gives you the best security for your scripts like WordPress, and having available RAM on the server is critical for serving posts without interruption.
ECommerce.
Buying and selling online? If that sounds like the goal of your website, then ease-of-use is probably something that carries over from Blogs. Considering that many online sellers are also artisans who craft their wares, that demographic is often too busy to learn a more complex system.
With ECommerce, though, our focus is more on the server specs than it might be with a Blog. That’s because an ECommerce store is definitely intended for making you money. And how your host can help will matter a great deal. Performance(processing power/uptime), security and access to support are all part of what you’ll need to keep your shop online.
Finally, it’s recommended to avoid ‘shared’ hosting for your online shop. Dedicated Server and VPS options will provide resources to only you, which offers a greater standard for uptime since you’re never relying on other users of your hosting space to follow the rules or not hog resources.
Business websites.
One could argue that business sites could be either of the above options. And while that’s true, what we’re talking about are websites that businesses use as a digital version of their physical operation. In our case, it’s a site that blends portions of blogging and ecommerce with company information.
You can look above for what a Business site needs, then – because in truth we do mean that you need ease + performance + security. Beyond it’s external needs (what your host can give you), your website is going to need clear descriptions and a name that’s not hard to remember.
So, what matters the most?
It’s a complicated world out there. We have this internet and we can search it for anything – even answers to questions like the one I’m posing today. What matters the most when it comes to building our websites? It’s all the things I touched on, for sure. Resources. Ease-of-use. Uptime. Security.
But that doesn’t speak of your own determination. Before you even get started with looking for a host, make sure you have a clear idea of what you want to accomplish. If you can do that, it won’t matter if you make a mistake here and there as you go. Stick to the plan, and you’re all set.