Why do I need a website for my small business?
If you own a small business, then having a good informative website is very essential in today's
digital world. A website is your business's face in the web. Make sure you create a nice website that represents your business well and at same time make it easy for your customers to reach you. You can post news updates about your business as well as setup an eCommerce website, if you have items to sell online. Plus your website is active 24/7. All these facts underline the need for a business website.
How do I choose a Small business web host?
Let us go through a checklist that you can use to select a small business web host.
- Reliable partner
- Affordable hosting plans
- User friendly Control Panel
- Emails accounts are critical for business
- Important Hosting features
1. Reliable Hosting partner
A reliable business web hosting partner is very essential to host your website. You need to make sure that your website is available 24/7 and most important is that, when you need customer support or technical support, you get friendly support with a quick resolution.
2. Affordable hosting plans
Cost is also an important factor and hence you need to find an affordable business web hosting plan that fits your needs. Good news to you is that most of business hosting plans from reliable hosting companies are affordable and are feature rich. Since these hosting accounts are hosted in a shared web server, most of administrative tasks of maintaining servers etc are taken care by web hosting company itself, thus adding to your savings.
3. User friendly Control Panel
Okay, How do I control my business website?
All web hosting plans come with a control panel, which is basically a web based software that lets you control your site, that enables you create email accounts etc.
4. Emails accounts are critical for business
Emails accounts: Well, you know how important is email accounts to your business. As said above, you can create, delete and access your email accounts via control panel.
5. Important Hosting features
A small business hosting plan is ideal for static websites,
content management systems or custom web applications. Let us go through some of the very important hosting features a small business website owner should look for. You may need these as part of your small business web hosting plan.
- SSL(Secure Web Pages): SSL is short term for Secure Sockets Layer. SSL can make your website secure. I am positive you have noticed some websites have that "https:" in the website address. Most of good web hosts provide shared Security SSL. This way you can setup secure pages. Example: Secure shopping carts that will be part of your an eCommerce system.
- Programming features: Some small business website owners may need a custom web application and in that case, you should know if your web hosting plan includes support for languages like PHP, Ruby, Perl, and Python. Also check if your hosting plan lists popular databases like MySQL, PostgreSQL.
- One Click Wordpress and other Content Management systems: WordPress and Joomla are very popular Content Management systems. Wordpress is mostly used for blogging and will be quite useful. You can add a blog to your website so that you can blog about your business. You can setup wordpress easily from your web hosting control panel.
- Premium WebSite Builders:
Best web hosts now provide Premium DIY Website builders so that a small business owner can create a website, without knowing any complex coding or html. For example, BlueHost provides a premium Site Builder Weebly for free as part of its hosting plan to entice small business
- ECommerce and DIY Store builders:
If you want to start a small online store, but have no budget to hire a programmer? Thanks to DIY store builders like PrestaShop, now you can setup a small online store within your website. You can setup a product catalogue with shipping options and pricing etc.
Summary
Explained above are the features that you should be looking in a small business web hosting plan. Our list above, all, are best candidates for small business website hosting.
Small Business Hosting FAQ
What is Business Web Hosting?
Business Hosting is a type of hosting plan that is more powerful than a typical shared hosting plan. You get more power and resources in a Business hosting plan and you get a control panel to control/manage your site and resources..
What's the difference between Shared & Business Hosting?
Shared Hosting is a regular affordable web hosting solution suitable for the vast majority of personal web sites and startups.Customers looking to host a web site with faster speeds, Business Hosting is recommended. Business hosting plans are also recommended for e-commerce stores and high traffic sites..
Does Business hosting come with a control panel?
Yes, all hosting companies offer a user friendly control panel for their business hosting customers. Most pupular control panel is cPanel. .
How do I transfer my site to a new web host?
Popular websites like SiteGround will do a free Website Transfer from old host to Siteground without any downtime..
What are One Click Installers?
One Click Installers makes it easy to install popular content management systems like Wordpress and other popular web applications like shopping cart systems, with just one click. This is done from your control panel. Simple Scripts and Fantastico are two popular one click installers. .
Which Web hosting is best for small businesses?
Inmotion is a reliable web host. Fast and Secure hosting plans specifically meant for SMB makes inmotion a very good choice for small business web hosting.
Does Bluehost host email? Is Bluehost email free?
Yes. BlueHost business hosting plans include email accounts.It offers webmail access as well.
Is Bluehost a good small business web host?
BlueHost is also a reliable web host. Secure hosting with email and ecommerce features, BlueHost has plans to fit any SMB.
What is the best email host for small business?
GoDaddy has hosted exchange plans that is ideal for small business.
What are the best web servers for a business?
Good ones like SiteGround, InMotion, BlueHost have best web servers for a small business.
How much does it cost to build a website for a small business?
You can create a small business website using a site builder or wordpress, for free, which is included in most business hosting plans. Or you can hore a web designer who can create a custom web design for your website, which can cost anywhere from $300 to $1200.
Is Bluehost good for small business?
With a good uptime record, email acccounts, free backups plans, and site builders and one-click WordPress installation, Bluehost has all the tools you need to setup a small business website.
Is Bluehost good for blogging?
Over More than 2 million people use Bluehost hosting plans to host their wordpress blogs and other websites. Also Bluehost is one of the most recommended hosts by WordPress.org.
What should a small business website include?
A few important things that matters most to a business website are: a simple, memorable Web address (aka domain name), a clear description of your business, an easy to navigate website design and Contact information
What is the best free website builder for small business?
We recommend Weebly. This is included for free as part of business hosting plans of popular web hosts like Siteground and BlueHost.
What should I charge to build a website?
There are freelance web designers as well as dedicated web design companies. You can get charged hourly or by project. Hourly charges for good designers can range from $50 – $80 per hour. And per project cost can range from $300 and above. Usually the design package may include a set of 3 pages, and additional pages may cost extra. Logo design may also cost extra, anywhere from $100 and above.
Can you help or guide me?
Yes. Contact us with details and your budget and we can provide details. But please remember, you can do by yourself for free, if you use a site builder or wordpress. In either case, contact us and we can help/guide you.
Our Recommendation
A reliable small business web host like
BlueHost makes an excellent choice. With best US based support and high server availability and best overall service record, we can confidently recommend
BlueHost.
BlueHost offers a
Premium Website Builder, Weebly, which is already included in your monthly cost of just $3.95 and is an easy and affordable way to launch your small business website. Simply choose a theme, edit your website's content and then publish it for the world to see.
And if you want ecommerce web hosting or want to build an online store, you can use PrestaShop that is available within BlueHost control Panel and is easy to setup.
Sign up for BlueHost small business plan
How to Make a Business Website (Easy To follow Steps)
It is not difficult to create an affordable website that lets you communicate with customers and sell your services or products(e-commerce store). Business websites are highly essential to remaining competitive in today’s market.
Basically, to create an effective and functional great business website:/
- Purchase your domain name
- Purchase Web Hosting
- Install Wordpress(Easy one click install)
- Create Pages/Content
So how to get started quick?
Bluehost is a reliable business web host that offers all the tools you need to build your website.
Why BlueHost? Highlights
- It's small business hosting plan start at $3.95/month
- Has plenty of space for website storage
- Sufficient professional email addresses
- You get a free domain name
- You get SSL certificate to make your website secure
- One-click WordPress installations
Click here to get started with Bluehost
How to Make a Business Website: Steps Explained
Step 1: Purchase your domain name
Note: In case you have already purchased your desired domain name elsewhere, then you can click here and then continue to step 2
A domain name is the web address of your website, for example www.mybusiness.com. To check (and then register) if your desired business name is available, enter it into the domain lookup tool below. If your desired name is available, then you will be directed to the domain registration page. If your desired name is NOT available, you can try alternatives that come close to your desired name.
Note: Bluehost offers one FREE domain name registration, for new customers($15 value)
After you have found your desired domain name, you can continue to next step, ie: Sign up for hosting.
Step 2: Purchase Web Hosting
Once you have decided your domain, the next step is to decide where to host your website. Web Hosting is basically a service that stores your website content and makes it available to Internet/online visitors.
If you completed step 1, then you should be see signup screen. Enter accounting details and click submit button. This will complete domain name registration as well as create a new web hosting account for your business website.
Step 3: Install Wordpress (easy one click install)
Once you complete signup and your account is approved, you should get your hosting account login details via email. Login to your control panel and then click Wordpress. Watch this wonderful video to get started:
Step 4: Create Pages/Content(blog posts as well)
Login to wordpress: Watch following video for all the details:
Now, start creating your pages. Home Page, Contact us, About Us - A few important pages to keep in mind.
You may also setup a blog and create blog posts. Watch:
Now, you have a skeleton website setup.
We strongly recommend that you watch following videos as well.
WordPress Categories and Tags
WordPress Plugins
Wordpress Themes and custom design
Menu & Widgets
Creating & Managing Users
Get started!
Now that you know the steps, get started!. You can always come back to this article to revisit the steps again.
Click here to get started with Bluehost
