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6 signs your web host is hurting your business

If your business website isn’t doing well, suffers from customer complaints, or doesn’t work the way you envisioned, you shouldn’t blame your design or even your web masters. It’s possible that your web host is responsible for all your woes. Not all web hosts are equal, and yours could cost you business, money, and valuable time.

Zero reliability

Every good business site needs a reliable web host. You’ll know your web host is unreliable if you often suffer from downtime. If your site is constantly down for maintenance, low-bandwidth, or general unreliability, your host is definitely hurting your business. It’s frustrating enough when this happens on a personal site, but when you’re running a business, it’s a death knell.

Your incoming customers will get fed up with constant refreshing. If they see your site down all the time, they’re going to go to a competitor. You’ll lose money and business when your site isn’t reliable. Make sure, instead, that you look for web hosts with bandwidth to spare, who minimize their downtime.

Shoddy customer service

When your site is down or not working properly, you need access to polite, knowledgeable customer service representatives. You may have someone on staff who knows about web design and repair, but when you have a hosting problem, you need an expert. Make sure that your host offers help anytime you need it, through email, phone support, and live support. Beware of hosts with a reputation for rude or unhelpful support. You don’t want to waste your time and money, because dealing with a bad support team can keep your site down for far longer.

No support for your site

Every site has a different design. You need to make sure that the host you choose can accommodate your site. If you find that links don’t work, there’s not enough space, memory, or bandwidth to support your design, or it simply doesn’t mesh with your platform, you’re going to have problems.

This is another instance where reading user reviews is enormously helpful. You can check out reviews of Go Daddy hosting, for example, to see how users and business owners with your platform feel about it. Always check to see what others think about a particular host. That’s a great way to get an idea about benefits and disadvantages before you commit.

Lack of security

If the host you choose doesn’t have ironclad security, you’re toast. You’re putting yourself, your business, and your customers at risk. It’s hard for some businesses to come back from this. Target had an infamous security breach, and some customers still don’t feel comfortable using the retailer’s website now. Don’t let that happen to you, especially since it’s so easily preventable.

For security, don’t rely solely on reviews. Although you should definitely read them, you should also research everything you can find about the hosts you’re considering. Ask questions about their security certifications and what they have in place to keep your information safe. Make sure they also have measures that will keep the personal and financial information of your customers safe.

Seriously slow loads

Slow loading pages are dangerous for your business as well. The fact is, visitors want the pages they visit to load in just a few seconds—seriously, they want two-second load times. If your site takes longer than that, they lose interest and you lose money. Studies show that if your business makes $100,000 each day, then a delay of just one second could cost you millions of dollars each year. Are you willing to risk that?

No defining features

You also need to see what features your host offers. If you get the bare minimum for what you’re paying, it’s simply not worth it. You need to make your business page stand out, and your web host should help you do that—even if it means paying a little more for necessary bells and whistles.

Your host can make or break your e-commerce site. Making sure you have the best host takes little effort, but makes a monumental difference.

Joseph Stark
Joseph Stark
Joseph Stark Jr. is a freelance writer and blogger by day, focusing on technology and business. By night he is a tech junkie, gym member, and avid writer. He currently resides in Santiago, Chile where he continues to write and contribute to a number of high-profile blogs.

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Jim Love, Chief Content Officer, IT World Canada

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