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In today’s world, your business’s website is often the first impression for a potential customer.

Those customers, as internet users, have expectations. They expect that your website will provide them with the information, services or products that they are looking for. If not, they are going to look elsewhere for what they need.

Hopefully, you have worked hard to ensure that your website has the content that will meet the needs of your target customers – as well as current customers who may be seeking helpful resources and more information.

But in addition to these users’ information needs, they expect a website that is going to load quickly and smoothly without issues. This is why you need to carefully choose the best web host for your business.

Why a faster page load speed matters

Internet users expect websites to simply work. In their minds – and let’s be honest, in our own minds, too – there is nothing more frustrating than a website that will not load or just takes too long to load entirely.

As it turns out, long load times is a recipe for losing customers. Not only does page speed matter to users. It also matters to Google, meaning that your search engine optimization is going to suffer if page load speeds lage behind the industry standard.

As for what that standard is, exactly, most websites should aim to load completely in three seconds at an absolute maximum. For ecommerce websites, that preferred load time decreases to two seconds.

By choosing the right web host, you can ensure that your business’s website loads reliably and does not alienate potential users or customers with long load times.

Choose the right web hosting provider for your business’s website

Excellent web hosting services mean page load speed won’t be something you ever need to worry about, let alone anything like website downtime and outages. But if either of those things do happen, a trusted reliable web hosting provider will be on top of the problem before you ever notice it – and hopefully have a solution ready in a short period of time, too.

Good hosting means that fast and reliable servers are available, in addition to high speed connections. This is what allows your website to load quickly for users and keeps it live 24/7 with no issues.

However, many web hosting companies make these promises, but it’s hard to pin down how many can actually deliver those results. Let’s take a look at what, exactly, a business like yours should keep an eye out for and how to choose the best web host for your business’s website.

Look for reliability

The number one factor that any excellent web hosting service should tout is reliability. Server and website uptime – as well as security – should not be something your business needs to worry about.

If a hosting provider has weak servers and a network that isn’t stable, your website is going to experience downtime, sometimes in significant amounts. In today’s connected world, customers expect to be able to pull up your website in a moment’s notice, which is why outages are often lost opportunities and, in some cases, lost customers.

The ideal uptime for a hosting provider? 99.5 percent. Any uptime rating below that points to a company or service provider that does not have their system optimized to help your business in a way that it needs.

Support should be available

If problems do ever arise, a hosting provider that can be trusted should have a support team available at a moment’s notice that you are able to contact immediately.

Some problems you might encounter may not be the provider’s fault, such as an attempted security breach, but they will still be involved in the solution. Be sure to find a host that is available around the clock to answer your questions and provide assistance whenever needed.

It’s not all about the price

Some web hosts out there offer very cheap services that may seem like a good solution for your business, especially if you are just starting out or have a limited budget for web services.

However, be wary of a company that offers the lowest price. As with much in life, you get what you pay for with web hosts.

Low cost web hosting services are known for extensive downtime and will often have your website on the same server as an unknown number of other websites, which can cause many problems.

Scalable hosting

Good website hosting should be able to scale up alongside your business rather than hold it back.

This is one of the advantages that cloud web hosting services offer over other solutions. With cloud-based hosting, your website can increase in size and offer more features very quickly.

All the website often needs are a few additional resources and you are good to go.

Get the features you need

Some companies promise all the bells and whistles a website owner will ever need, while others stick primarily to hosting. Some businesses may prefer an all-in-one option, while others may be looking simply for hosting.

Either way, it’s a good idea to make sure the hosting provider you select has at least some of the following options, as recommended by Google:

1. Easy to find and understand pricing and renewal rates
2. Technical abilities to handle the scope of your website
3. Easy to use settings that allow for simple content updates and other website management features
4. Easy initial setup that gets your site online fast
5. Simple cancellation that isn’t buried in fine print

Contact ANP for website hosting options

No matter the size and scope of your website, and no matter whether it’s a complete website build or you are just looking to transfer to a more reliable host, Advanced Network Professionals has the web hosting capabilities that will meet your needs.

At ANP, we have multiple options that will allow you to customize your website performance at any time. Our partners at Emagine are available to provide custom plans and to give you the design and enhanced content your business needs to attract new website visitors and retain customers. Between ANP and Emagine, our capabilities allow us to guarantee an uptime of 99.9%.

Ready to switch to a better web hosting service for your business? Let’s talk more today.

Request a quote quickly and easily online.