Whether your business is large or small, if you’re doing business online, then having a reliable site is vital. Choosing the right host is key to ensuring that, but how do you ensure you pick the right one?

Before you select a company to host your website, there are some key points that you need to consider. If you’re planning to sell products directly from the site, then a reliable payments system is vital. It’s important that you understand how this will work. Some hosting companies will force you to use the system that’s already on their server, others will let you run your own preferred payment solution. If you’re transferring an existing site from another host, you need to be sure that it will operate on the new host with minimal changes; you don’t want to have to switch to a different shopping cart.

You also need to look at the host’s reliability record. Your website is your shop window and you want to be sure it’s available at all times. Online shoppers don’t have a great deal of patience and if your site is down, they’ll quickly decamp to one of your competitors rather than wait around for your eCommerce hosting to come back. For this reason, it’s vital to check the host’s up-time  Some interruptions are inevitable, but these should be scheduled for when they’ll cause minimum disruption to the service. You should look at what support is available too. Are technicians available 24/7 if there’s a problem, for example?

Bandwidth is another important issue. If you’re expecting your site to get a lot of traffic, then you need to be sure that the host is going to be able to cope. Web traffic is generally measured in terms of bandwidth   that is the amount of data that’s transferred. Companies offering hosting services usually impose some restrictions on the amount of bandwidth you can use. If you exceed your limit you’ll be hit with extra charges, so make sure you understand exactly what you’re paying for.

What to Look For
In selecting a host, then, you need to look at their track record and understand exactly what service you’re paying for. Having looked at all of the details, you need to get a feel for how easy the company will be to work with.

Talk to other users of the company if you can and check online review sites as well, to discover whether other people are satisfied with the host’s service. If you can find other sites that are on the same host, try them out and see how well they respond.

Your website is an important element in the success of your business, so it’s vital that you select your eCommerce e hosting provider carefully. Shop around and look at the services on offer from a few different companies. A good hosting package will contribute a great deal to the success of your online shopping site and that in turn will make a difference to the success of your business.

AUTHOR BIO
Bob Collins is a freelance writer specialising in technology matters. He knows that it’s important to take your time when selecting eCommerce hosting and make sure you find a company that meets your requirements.