Let me guess, your days are crazy busy. So, say your website goes down, and you rifle through various contacts to find assistance – costing valuable time.
There are so many services tied to a website and potentially a long list of contacts for you to manage. All of the following are website services:
- Web hosting
- Domain registration
- Website maintenance
- SEO
- Digital marketing services
- Pay per Click advertising services
It may sound like a long list, but there are many web developers and design studios that handle all of these aspects. The primary advantage to the business owner is you have a single contact to address all of items listed above.
For the purpose of this blog, we are going to expand on web hosting services for the small business owner. First, let’s define web hosting. Wikipedia’s definition is: “web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that allows individuals and organizations to make their website accessible via the World Wide Web. Web hosts are companies that provide space on a server owned or leased for use by clients, as well as providing Internet connectivity, typically in a data center.” — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_hosting_service
In more layman terms, think of your website as online real estate. That online property needs to reside in a place that can be accessed by the visitors on the internet.
Your domain name or URL is the address that visitors find you, and your online acreage or space you rent on a server is your web hosting. Both of these are needed to be located on the internet.
Where Should I Host my Website?
It is perfectly acceptable to arrange your own website hosting. This gives you control picking the web hosting provider of your choice. Many web developers and design studios work with their clients this way.
So why host with your web developer or design studio? As previously stated, you have a single point of contact if something needs to be fixed (i.e. your website goes down). You will receive personalized service from a reputable web developer to get you back up and running, as they have a vested partnership in your success and growth to keep the door open for future business opportunities.
If having an optimized website that performs well is important, you should consider hosting with your web developer. In basic terms, there is programming that needs to be done on the server to accomplish this.
Challenges Not Hosting with Your Web Developer
Some of the web hosting providers, even some of the large well-known companies allow limited or no access to the server side. Speaking from personal experience, we had clients that needed a redesign on their website, and they had to change their hosting service, so that we could accommodate the changes that needed to be made.
The vast majority of all hosting is in a “shared server” environment. Let’s say 1 server has enough storage space to host 10 different businesses. When you arrange your own hosting with a large hosting company, you become a number in a long customer list.
As previously stated, a reputable web developer has a vested interest in your success and growth. They should monitor the bandwidth requirements for each of their clients.
This helps to ensure they are on the best hosting solution. As your business needs grow and change, your web developer can offer scalable solutions to match your business needs.
Lastly, if you decide to go through your web developer or design studio for website hosting, be sure ask them if you own the account. A reputable web developer will setup the hosting account with you as the owner and provide you with the ability to login to the account.
