Regardless of the line of work, your business is into, your online presence can be a very important part of it. Every business website needs to focus on four key pillars – design, content, performance and security. It is crucial to address each of these aspects individually in order to have a good online presence. Each of the four pillars has a make-or-break nature. Design and content are the creative part, and performance and security are the more technical part of the same story.
With the first two pillars depending on the creativity of designers and content writers, technical aspect requires a bit more smart decisions and planning. While performance enables a great user experience and a better search ranking, security is the inseparable part of every business. And the Internet is no different. The same way you need to secure your physical store, your virtual shop needs to be safe. With a lot of data flow in and out of your website, there are a lot of possible weak points that can become a security issue.
When we talk about website security, there are some key things we want to achieve, and there are a couple of ways to achieve them. The easiest way is to choose a good hosting company that covers most of your security needs. This way you will have everything in one place, and experts taking care of important things for you.
Website uptime
Regular data backup, enhanced server monitoring, and good support are the things that can help you keep your website up, even in case something unexpected happens. Most of the hosting providers have an automated data backup included in their plans, so you should take advantage of that. Combine that with server monitoring, keeping your website working the way it should, and good support when something goes sideways, and you won’t have to worry about unpredictable situations.
Look for a hosting provider that has an uptime guarantee in its plans. This means a lot of good servers, strategically deployed, regular backup, and good monitoring, enabling high uptime values guaranteed by one of their plans.
https is a must
A secure connection has become a standard, and something every renowned website should have. With end-to-end encryption, SSL offers one more layer of data security, ensuring that any communication between users and your website can’t be compromised. Keep in mind that SSL is one of the factors that participate in Google’s complex ranking algorithm. In simple terms, websites with https:// will be better ranked than those without S.
As mentioned, you should favor hosting providers that provide Secure Socket Layer (SSL) in their standard plans. This way you are helping your visitors feel safe and secure your communication at the same time.
Additional protection
With a growing number of users, Internet became a fruitful ground for malicious activities. There are people that want your data, and those that just want to break your website down for fun. Either way, additional security like CloudFlare and anti-DDoS traffic analysers can be very helpful. Every good hosting company has an additional set of protection tools that can help you defend your website from malicious intents.
This additional protection layer can be helpful and keep your uptime high, safe from different kinds of attacks that can bring your website down or overload your servers.
Good infrastructure
There is not a better way of keeping your data safe like a good, fast and secure infrastructure. When picking up a hosting provider for your business website, make sure to check the quality of their servers. Redundant RAID arrays, boosted with SSDs will keep your data safe and fast at the same time, and strategically located servers around the globe can significantly boost your performance.
In case of unexpected natural disasters, you’ll want your data to be safe and sound. Make sure you find out more about data centers and places where your data is stored. Secure facilities, additional power sources, couple data links from different ISPs… These are just some of the measures that can help you and your website maintain good uptime and keep your data safe.
Upgradeability
If your business is going well, this will inevitably reflect your website visitors count. At some point, there is a chance that you will outgrow your available resources, and that you’ll need an upgrade. Therefore, you should always keep your options open and leave some headroom for growth. The worst-case scenario is that your hosting provider does not have a good upgradeability and that you are stuck with a bad performance until you find a new solution. And these things are almost always happening at the worst possible moment.
To prevent this from happening, look for a good hosting provider that has flexible upgrade options, and that can be there for you when you grow.
Tips and tricks
Before choosing your hosting provider and putting your performance and security aspects on the side to start tackling design and content, spend some time and make a good choice. A good hosting provider can boost or take down your business. First and foremost, read reviews for hosting providers that you find appealing. Forums and specialized websites are a great place to start your search and find some real feedback.
Make a list of everything that you want from your hosting provider and make it a guideline when you start searching. The more things that the next hosting provider crosses of your list, the less time you’ll spend on them in the future.
