As a business owner, you need a web host to get your website onto the internet. If you have been thinking of switching your web hosting provider or are looking for one, there are some considerations that you might want to take into account when choosing the best hosting plan for you.
Top 10 Factors to Consider for Website Hosting Services
Web hosting plans cater to all types of businesses from successful and growing e-commerce websites to a small side hustle. To choose between them, you need to know what factors will contribute to your Australian business success online and the demands of your target audience.
1. Uptime
Your website is your online shopfront. To compete with your competitors’ your website needs to be available 24/7. Look out for web hosting services offering at least 99.9% uptime so you know your website is guaranteed to load whenever your customers come knocking on your virtual door.
2. VPS VS Shared Hosting
Servers are where your website data will be stored. While one server can run numerous websites, its performance may not always be guaranteed. Shared hosting is where multiple websites are sharing the resources on one server. Should there be a lot of traffic on one of these websites, other websites may not load as fast as they usually would due to the lack of resources to go around. On the other hand, virtual private servers (VPS) hosting is where you have pre-allocated resources dedicated to your websites and you need not worry about lower site performance. If you foresee the need for more bandwidth and value the need for top performance for your websites, VPS hosting will suit your situation best.
3. Non-Managed VS Managed
The best thing about having a managed web hosting plan is that you can focus on running your online business instead of spending time and effort managing the technologies that support your business. Managed hosting includes performance monitoring, malware scanning, software updates and even scheduling of automated backup so you can have peace of mind while running your online business. If you have the expertise to control the types of software you want, customise backup and security settings, you might choose unmanaged hosting instead.
4. Your CMS of Choice
Your content management system (CMS) is an integral part of your overall decision. Managing your website involves making layouts, designs, content upload, backups, security and software updates on a regular basis. They contribute to both your ease of site maintenance and the web experience of your customers. 
There are plenty of CMS to choose from: popular ones include Drupal, WordPress and Joomla. When it comes to web hosting, WordPress hosting will complement your WordPress CMS perfectly, including additional plugins and themes to help optimise your WordPress CMS user experience.
5. Security
With security breaches and malware on the rise, security should be at the forefront of your decision. A decent web hosting provider ensures your website backup is regularly scheduled so you can get your online business back up and running faster in case of an emergency. It will also be able to get SSL certification for your site so Google can better recommend your page to anyone searching.
6. Server Location
The closer your website data is to your target audience, the faster your website loads for them. As such, you will ideally want your web hosting provider to be using data centres close to your customers. As an Australian business targeting local customers, choosing to store your site data in a data centre located within the country will improve the web experience for your Australian audience. 
7. Storage
You want to make sure your web hosting plan has sufficient storage space for all your current as well as future web files. Additionally, knowing which type of storage the data centre uses may alter your web hosting selection. Australian data centres which store data using solid-state drives will run smoother and offer more reliability than hard disk drives. This is because solid-state drives have fewer moving parts compared to hard disk drives, increasing efficiency and reducing the power required.
8. Load Speed
Other factors influencing website load times are bandwidth and RAM. The more resources your server has, the more resources your website can tap into. It is important to be realistic about how much your website is projected to use so you can choose the right web hosting plan for your online needs.
9. Your Domain Name
Without a domain name, your target audience cannot find you online easily. A web hosting provider can save you effort by offering you your preferred domain name together with your hosting plan. Better yet, a good one will send you a reminder before your domain name expires so you can get it renewed in advance. This will help keep your domain name active so your website never goes offline.
10. Customer Support
When you are facing some issues with your web host, you want your issues fixed quickly. Here at Webcentral, our customer care teams have increased to provide speedy, professional assistance to help you get your website back online. We understand the importance of staying available for your online customers, just as we strive to do for you.
Webcentral Offers Some of the Best Web Hosting Plans
While these are our top tips for choosing a web hosting plan that suits your online business best, you will also need to take into account your website needs and your budget. At Webcentral, we offer various plans for cPanel hosting, WordPress hosting as well as managed VPS hosting so you can select the one that fits the needs of your Australian business. Register with us for a free web hosting trial now or get in touch with our team to learn more about our different hosting plans.
