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Company Web Site Hosting Decision

Company web site hosting decision: It’s more important than you think. 

Your company web site hosting decision is much more important than you may even realize at the present time.  Once you have built your site, you will then need to find a place for your company web site hosting. Web sites are not located in virtual places but actually run on computers located somewhere in the real world.  When you visit a web site on the Internet, your browser software (Netscape Communicator or Microsoft's Internet Explorer) communicates directly with that web site, which is on a computer running web server software and a variety of applications such as e-mail servers, security, and content. It is on that computer running the various applications, in which your company web site hosting actually takes place.

Company web site hosting: Two basic decisions 

Your company web site hosting decision will actually present two options: You can host it yourself or pay a company that specializes in web site hosting to do it for you. In most cases, this is the most popular option for small businesses in need of company web site hosting. It really doesn't matter where you physically host your website as you can access it from anywhere for its maintenance. 

If you decide to do your own company web site hosting, you will need to purchase the hardware and connections required to run a server, plus a server itself, and you would probably need to hire a full-time employee to upgrade, maintain and work on the equipment and the web site. This option is simply prohibitive for most small to medium-size businesses. 

There are several benefits to having your company web site hosting provided by a hosting company. If a problem were to arise or crash occur, hosting providers have a battery of staff members to fix the problem and get your web site up and going as soon as possible.  Many times they will even have it back up before you even realize there is a problem. Your web site is your 24 hour presence in the business world, and your customers will expect to be able to access it at any time, seven days a week, 24 hours a day.  If you decide to provide your own company web site hosting, who will be there at 4 a.m. on a Sunday morning to fix it if it should go down?

Company web site hosting summary:

In most cases you will want to pay a company for your company web site hosting. By the time you invest enough money to provide your own company web site hosting reliably and efficiently, you'll probably need to start your own web site hosting service just to recoup some of the costs. Also, the expertise needed to maintain a high quality web server and high-speed connectivity to the Internet is very expensive.  In summary, in 999 out of 1000 cases, there is absolutely no question that the best route to take is to have your company web site hosting done by a web site hosting provider. 

Some information from The Everything Online Business Book by Rob Liflander  

Additional information and web page by Paul Susic M.A. Licensed Psychologist Ph.D. Candidate CEO/President Susic Psychological Consulting P.C.