When it comes to web hosting, many SMEs simply leave the choice of hosting company and package to their design company, if they think about it at all. It ends up being one of those aspects of having a web site that easily gets ignored or forgotten about.
This approach works adequately for brochure sites but tends to cause problems if you want your web site to work hard for your business.
Make your site work hard
I bang on about this quite a bit but here are some of the elements that are essential to make your site a vital part of your business:
- You need to know who visits the site
- You need to know where they’re coming from
- You need to know what they do when they visit
- You need to convert visits to leads
- You need to keep the site up to date
- You need to add content regularly
- You need to know your site is secure against malicious attack
- You need to know what changes to the site will reap business benefits
- You need to know who to turn to if your site encounters technical problems
As your site becomes an increasingly important part of your business strategy – and it undoubtedly will in the next year or so, if it has not already become so – you will find yourself frustrated by the lack of information and control at your fingertips.
If you want to add new email addresses, the chances are that you’ll be charged for it.
If you want to load some new content, you’ll probably be charged for it.
Ask for traffic stats and you may recieve a simple total number that gives you no useful data about visitor types and actions.
So, what’s the answer?
If you make the decision that your new web site is to form a core part of your business strategy, the site needs to be treated in the same way any other core part of your business is treated.
You wouldn’t let a vital piece of equipment lie around with little maintenance or care.
You wouldn’t move into a plush new office and leave the windows dirty and use packing crates for desks.
Finding a cheap hosting company is easy: finding a company that will give your site the care and attention it needs to succeed takes a little more effort. But it’s worth it. You suddenly have an outsourced web department for much less than the cost of hiring a dedicated IT person.
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