Saturday, October 25, 2008

Web Hosting, the Importance of Reliability

By Ricardo d Argence

It is not as easy as you might think to find reliable web hosts. Resellers all promise 99% uptime and there are a number of web hosts competing for customers. The most important thing about a website is to have reliable web hosting. The regularity at which previous customers come back can be determined by it.

The ultra-clever search engines today will impact a sites rating, a low rating will send customers looking for good service elsewhere.

Why is reliable web hosting a requirement? I immediately thought of your peace as a factor. Think of being ready to update your website and not being able to because the server isn't working. Customers expect good service and will not return to a website that does not offer it. Obstacles have to be dealt with as soon they have been identified, to avoid repeating the same mistakes which cause companies to fail.

When is it important to obtain one? It's extremely important, unless you are not concerned with people viewing your website. If the URL is unaccessable many times then with today's seach methods it is reported and this will lead to a drop in rankings after time.

Running a business through your website though makes it critical to have a reliable webhost. You need at least 99 % uptime, this may seem excessive to you, but in today's modern technology it is perfectly possible to find web hosting businesses that can manage and in some cases even exceed this percentage.

Picture this: if you have 20% downtime, this means you are loosing up to 20% of potential customers. This is affecting your earning ability, thus losing you potential revenue. As with any employee, the webhost should not make you lose money!

Can I find information regarding the reliability of my web host? You can't, not at first. There are some ways you can find out if they are reliable. As search engine competitors race for the top, free internet tools which help you monitor up and downtime are growing in popularity.

More and more people are realizing the importance of server uptime, and these tools can become an invaluable resource if your webhost isn't communicating too well with you. If you are with a decent webhost then the likelihood is, you'll either receive an email advising you of planned downtime, or there will be a portal on the webhosts website advising of any problems. Webhosts who hide this sort of information do so for a reason, and that is because they're frightened you'll go elsewhere.

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