Once you have your website created, it needs to be “hosted” on a webserver for it to be visible to the world.
You will pay an ongoing charge for hosting. Depending on your needs and your hosting company, this charge could be anywhere from a few dollars per month, to hundreds of dollars. Why the big difference, and how can a business owner understand this??
First and foremost, in the case of hosting, you do get what you pay for. If you as a business owner want to be in charge of your hosting, you can contract with the least expensive option you can find. Your web developer will install your site on that webserver (computer) and then you part ways. You’re on your own.
If you are technically inclined and want to spend time and potentially more money tending to your site, then this method can work for you. But do keep in mind that there are a number of bears in this forest:
- Page load speed matters to Google. Low-cost hosts load up their servers with 10s of thousands (or more) websites, which will ultimately slow down your page loads.
- “Bad guys” are out there, trying to gain access to your site every day. A recent study showed as many as 7% of your traffic comes from entities that want to hack into your site – regardless of how “small” or “inconsequential” you might think your website is to these people. Are you prepared to defend your site against these attacks?
- The tools/platform your website was built on will be updated periodically. It is in your best interest to keep it up-to-date. Are you ready to do that?
- What will you do if there is a problem with your hosting?
Hosting is necessary for your website. We are happy to set you up either way, but reading between the lines, we feel that it’s beneficial for you to have us handle it for you.