Web Hosting for Startups

Choosing the right web hosting provider for your startup is one of the most important choices you can make. As your business grows, it will likely become necessary to upgrade your web host so that you can handle more traffic and features.

Starting a business can be a difficult thing, especially if you are a startup. Starting a business requires a lot of work and commitment for a very uncertain result. Web Hosting has become an essential part of every business’ infrastructure. Because of this, we have decided to share our expertise regarding this subject as well as the best web hosting solutions for your business.

Why Startups Need A Website

To help your business stand out from the competition, we’ve put together this list of why having a website is so important:

• Increases brand awareness

A website will tell your customers what products and services you provide and showcase your brand. Instead of people walking to your store, they will instead browse your site, and it is a much less expensive way to promote your company.

• Markets your products

Something that is very important for every business is marketing, and this is especially true for startups. Before you drive potential clients and customers to your website, you must have something that you will market before them.

• Improves sales

The thing that drives the most potential customers does not only have a website but the search engine rankings. Boosting your site ranking in search engine results can result in increased and quick sales and higher profits.

• Accessibility

Having a website lets you offer service 24/7, which can give potential customers peace of mind. Being accessible by phone support and chat support outside of regular business hours, you'll be able to put yourself in your customers' shoes — offering help at any time, not just when the business is open.

• Customer satisfaction

A website will give you the chance to display your products for customers and make it easy for them to reach out if they have a question. By creating a place where customers can easily find out about deals, learn about your most recent offers, or contact your business with questions, you'll make sure that no customer walks away from your site unsatisfied.

• 24/7 customer support

Providing customer support online is a lot more cost-efficient and a lot easier than hiring people that will provide support for your customers.

• Builds trust

Customers expect businesses to have an online presence or a website. When establishing trust with them is the first crucial step. In addition, customers are more likely to trust the business and get its service if the website of the business has great navigation and features.

How to Create A Website for Your Startup

If you’re ready to start a startup, you’ll probably be thinking about how to create a website for your startup. This is a very important step toward getting your idea out there.

Choose a Platform

When it comes to creating a website, the first thing you need to do is choose a platform for your website. You can go with a website builder, such as Weebly, Wix, or Strikingly.

However, website builders come with a few disadvantages:

• Limited e-commerce functionality

• Missing key SEO elements

• Generic template selection

• Limited mobile experience.

Another choice you can opt-out for is a CMS or a content management system, such as WordPress, which is a user-friendly platform that will help you build a website and manage the content on it.

WordPress, for instance, works on tablets and smartphones, it is very beginner-friendly and highly customizable, and you can always get help from the community. Some other content management you can go for is Joomla and Drupal.

Get a Domain Name

For users to be able to access your site, you will need a domain name. In order to look as professional as possible, you need to have your own domain name instead of having a domain that is free and belongs to someone else. Make sure that the domain name you think of is:

• Easy to spell and pronounce

• Brandable and unique

• Short, making it easy to remember.

• Avoid double letters in the domain name and also avoid hyphens.

Choose A Web Hosting Provider

Which hosting is right for you?

Besides needing a domain name, in order to get your site online, you will also need a web hosting provider. In addition to the basic considerations of price and features, a hosting plan should also align with your overall business goals.

For instance, if you plan on growing large enough to need more bandwidth or disk space than what's offered by shared hosting, having managed cloud server might be necessary for your business.

What to look for in a hosting provider?

When you choose the type of hosting you want to go with, you will need to pick a web hosting provider for your site. Some of the things you should keep an eye out for when choosing a web hosting provider are:

• Available Hosting packages

You will need to choose from the variety of plans that are offered by the web hosting provider. What usually differentiates these plans are the resource amount you get. Your site will be able to handle more visitors if it has more resources. When talking about resources on web hosting, we’re usually referring to storage, memory, and processor.

• available storage

• uptime, monthly traffic

• loading speed

• payment methods

• customer support

• data security

• payment methods

• extra benefits

You can feel confident that you’ve chosen the right web hosting provider for you if you’ve kept in mind the things we mentioned.

Customize Your Appearance

If you’ve chosen a content management system like WordPress for your website, the next step you will need to take is to customize the appearance of your website.

WordPress themes change the design and layout of your site and are a great way to make your website stand out. With so many options available, you're bound to find something that fits your taste.

Install Plugins

After you’ve installed a theme for your website, you can access the plugins that WordPress offers. These plugins are both premium and free. You can find a countless number of plugins in the official WordPress plugin directory. What these plugins do is add functionality and new features to your website. Besides the official WordPress directory, you can also find plugins at many third-party marketplaces.

Add Content

When you start out with a brand new domain name and website, you’ll need to add some content to your site before you launch it.

Before going live, start by writing an About page that introduces new visitors to the mission and vision of your organization. You can also create further pages for a Contact Us page or a Services page — just make sure that every new addition is valuable to the first-time visitor.

A step that is optional, but is definitely worth considering, is adding a blog to your website. A blog can be a great way to add some value for your visitors, display your expertise, and publish fresh content on a regular basis.

Types of Hosting for Your Startup

When you’re just starting out, it can be hard to know exactly what kind of hosting infrastructure your business needs. Luckily, we’re here to help.

Summary

If you’re in the process of getting your startup up and running, it’s important to properly choose your hosting provider.

A good web hosting provider will help ensure that your website is a success by ensuring that it has enough bandwidth to handle up-times and traffic volumes. In order to succeed, your site needs to be available all the time: 24/7, 52 weeks a year

Frequently Asked Questions