How to Choose an E-commerce Hosting Package for your Business
Know the Needs of Your Business
It is important that you select the perfect hosting plan that can adequately support your E-commerce business. The right selection will guard against line failure and the loss of investment. If you are new to this form of business, there are pitfalls you need to be aware of, as these could prove detrimental to your online success.
Knowing the needs of your internet line is a fundamental step in the process of selecting the perfect hosting plan. A lack of this knowledge could see you selecting a hosting package that can fail your line or prove too expensive for you to maintain. Here are a few basic features your host package should contain.
1. Speed and Uptime Reliability
The speed at which your site will operate is very important to your customers and ultimately your business. Your E-commerce website should respond very quickly to your customers’ online transaction activities. The success rate of your business will be determined by the speed at which a customer is able to look over your product catalog and complete a transaction. The ability of your customers to speedily complete a transaction through the payment gateway will boost customer satisfaction.
Your site must not suffer from downtimes. Being up and running at all times is very important to you, your customers and your success. Uptime and speed are basic needs of any website, and your host provider must be able to guarantee these at all times even when there is high traffic.
2. Security
People are generally concerned about security when conducting business online. Your website should offer your customers sufficient security so that they know their transactions are being done in a safe environment. Ensure that your hosting package includes a safe and secure digital Server Certificate (SSL). This certificate will assist in the securing of encryption of sensitive data on the host server. It also serves to protect and secure transactions that take place on your website by helping you to safely process all credit card payments. SSL certificates serve to protect you and your customers from hackers and identity thieves.
3. SEO Friendliness
A website that is not SEO friendly is one that customers will never find. Your host package should include an SEO feature which should guarantee your website will be among the first sites the search engine will present to web users in response to their search query. SEO friendly navigation allows search engine spiders to quickly find and crawl your website, and this is especially important for E-commerce sites as they carry numerous links and products.
4. Scalability
Your host must make it possible for you to scale your business according to how it is performing. As your customer base increases, your business will need to expand to accommodate them and meet their needs.
Although you may be excited about getting your business online, a hasty and uninformed approach can be quite costly. You could end up paying much more than you should, and your business could end up suffering. Take the time needed to identify the needs of your E-commerce website, and purchase a hosting package that will cater to those needs.
