If your business is not yet leveraging the internet market, then you are losing out big. The internet platform provides a level playing ground for both big and small businesses to compete. However, your website can only be as good as the web hosting service you have chosen.
There are different web hosting solutions in the market including shared and dedicated hosting. These are offered by different entities and the fact that there are thousands of such hosts can be confusing to website owners. Most business owners just want to see their site online and they choose the cheapest hosting service to achieve this. Such action can prove to be detrimental to your business goals.
At the start, you might not realize the impact a wrong choice of the web host can have on your business. However, with time the repercussions highlighted below will gradually come to light and some of them can devastate your
business venture:
1. Loss of Customers
A 2015 study by Forrester Research shows over 76rn% of internet users turn away from a website if it is not loading fast. A Kissmetric Report shows that internet users on average wait for only 6 seconds for a page to load before closing it. If your web host is not reliable in terms of speed, you are bound to suffer. To avoid this, verify the promised speeds by trying the host’s website and reading reviews from other users. Las Vegas Web Design Co provides reliable hosting to guarantee high ROI.
2. Security Threats
Your web host has a responsibility to ensure all data is safe and no malware attacks can affect your website. As an eCommerce business the last thing you want is a breach where customer data is accessed by unauthorized people. This can lead to loss of business and costly legal suits as has been witnessed from breaches including that of Anthem Hospital and Ashley Madison among others.
3. Penalties from Search Engines
Every website owner understands the importance of high ranking on search engine result pages (SERPs). If your website is not ranking on the first page of SERPs for a specific keyword, then it is simply not existent and target audiences will not find it. Poor ranking can be as a result of poor user experience especially downtime. A poor web host can thus cost you high ranking on SERPs and repairing the damage is costly and time consuming.
4. Downtime During Traffic Spikesrn rnAny web host might seem okay for a startup but this is until you start serious marketing through social media and other
digital tools such as video. This can create traffic spikes and because your web host has no capacity, your marketing blitz will in effect be in vain. Those customers you have been targeting will not even access your site.
5. Poor Customer Support
If your web host is not providing reliable customer support, then you are in for a rough time. Whatever aspect of your site is not working, there should be someone on the other end to help lest your brand’s reputation takes a beating together with a dip in search engine ranking.