Boston Web Consulting
Search Engine Optimization and Adwords Reporting

So you are looking to build a site or you have site but are unhappy with your current website host. So what is a small business owner suppose to do? Here are some very simple tips to make sure you end up with a host that you can rely on:

• Ask for Client References and Call Them.
• Don’t Always Go for the Lowest Price! You are projecting an image here with your core audience and you don’t want your site down every few hours.
• If they are local, ask for a face-to-face meeting where possible or at least a phone call. You want to make sure that you will be comfortable giving your business to the right website hosting company.
• While speaking with the web hosting company see if they can help you meet your goals. For example, if you are selling goods do they support e-commerce sites. Again ask for references.
• Don’t worry too much about the details but ask what you will getting:
  • Will your site be on a shared server with many other sites?
  • How much space will be allocated to your site?
  • How much bandwidth?
  • What are the charges if you go over your space or bandwidth allocations?

Remember you are looking for a company where you can feel comfortable and trust since it will be hard for you to learn all the particulars of how to maintain and work with a web server.

One of the hardest aspect of web marketing for small business owners to figure out is what is their goals for their website.  Many put a website up just to be online, or some are sold an package to build a template website.  None of these are bad reasons but they will most likely be wasting your hard earn money and in business terms is a ”lost opportunity cost”.  Why?  Those few visitors that come to you site are lost to you in terms of generating you potential revenue. 

I would recommend that your site be aimed to capture the contact information of the visitor.  Why?  Studies show it takes over 6 contacts points for a online visitor to be converted to a buyer.  You need to capture their contact information so you can have a continued conversation with the visitor whether through email, your blog, forum or newsletter.

Unless your site is an e-commerce site selling goods directly (and even then), I would suggest always trying to capture the visitor someway - somehow.