If you own a small, large business or are considering starting up your own web business, you are going to need a site on the web in order to build a presence for your company brand. This site serves as your virtual store front for the services that your company offers. In many cases, your company site is going to cost considerably less when compared to opening up a regular brick and mortar store. There is far less overhead to pay for each month which makes starting an online business very easy for many people. Even for those that lack all the technical knowledge it takes to begin a website. The main question that you need to ask yourself before you begin your site is whether or not you will host your site on a free web host or will you pay someone else to host your site?
Free Web Hosting
A main advantage to going the free route is that you won’t have to pay a monthly or yearly fee to host your site. This will save you a fair amount of money each year that you can put towards other business expenses. Another advantage is that your site is hosted on someone else’s servers, so all the maintenance and servicing is taken care of. There is little for you to worry about, all technical aspects of hosting are handled by the company that your with.
Now, one huge disadvantage to signing up with a free host is that you are essentially at the mercy of your web host. The content of your site will be subject to the terms and conditions of your web host and more importantly, the amount of flexibility that is available with hosting your own site is non existent.
Another possible problem that you will run in to with free hosting is that many won’t allow you to use your own domain name. This is really a problem from an SEO stand point. When choosing your site name, you are going to want to try and place your main keyword in the domain name. This will help you better rank for that term in the organic search results.
Managed Dedicated Server Hosting
The better alternative to free web hosting is to pay a company to host your site for you. This allows you the maximum amount of flexibility when it comes to what your content is and what you can do with your website.
A big advantage to paid hosting is that your site is 100% managed and you have a dedicated server that strictly hosts your site. You definitely don’t want a shared server. A shared host means that your site and the sites of hundreds of other people will be placed on the same server. The disadvantage to this form of hosting is that if another site is engaging in dirty or blackhat tactics your site could get penalized also for sharing the same IP.
Another advantage to managed dedicated server hosting is that you are eligible for customer support if you have any problems. I have found this to be a life saver. A paid webhost is very good at providing support when you are in need.
You also have the power to set up your site with a unique domain name that you choose. Often when you set up a new hosting account, you are given the first domain name for free. You also have the ability to host multiple domains. So there is no need to set up a new hosting account when you want to start a new site.
Another really cool feature of paid hosting is that you can set up whatever kind of site you want to. You can set up a blog for your business and also set up an e-commerce site to sell your product. You can also set up a forum for customers to interact and for you to interact with your customers.
When it comes to setting up a site for your business, you can’t beat the advantages and features of managed dedicated server hosting.
