3 Steps to Choose a Host for Your eCommerce Website
As a business held in the palm of your customers’ hands, an eCommerce website supported by a reliable and affordable host is essential to your client’s good experience and your business’s success.
A good hosting service is fast, performs smoothly, is secure, ranks high in search engines, and ultimately is a joy to use.
But there are thousands of hosting sites out there. So, how do you choose?
Here are the top 3 steps to getting started with a golden hosting service for your eCommerce domain.
1. Understand What You’re Looking For
An eCommerce website needs several platform functions to give users a good experience and successfully make sales.
Here are the essential characteristics to look for when choosing a reliable and affordable hosting service for your eCommerce website.
SSL Certificate
An SSL certificate allows online payments on your website. This is important for eCommerce websites, especially if using a coupon website template for affiliate sales.
Managed Platform
Hosting services typically focus on a certain web platform. Choose a service that supports your website’s platform to ensure the best user experience.
For example, Hostinger is made to support WordPress websites to ensure your user experience is super smooth.
Affordable Price
The market average for hosting plans is $15 to $20. However, some plans are cheaper, at as low as $2 per month for the most basic plan.
International Hosting
Look for international hosting capabilities if you’re interested in marketing to an international audience. International host support allows audiences in other countries to have good page-load time and website speed.
100 GB of SSD Storage
The gigabytes of SSD storage offered by the host helps to determine how fast the website will run. 100 Gb of SSD storage, for example, makes the website around 30 to 40 times faster than other hosts.
Free Domain Name
Many hosts offer at least one domain name free of charge with the service.
Platform Acceleration
Hosts offer acceleration specified to certain website platforms.
For example, if a hosting plan offers WordPress Acceleration, that means that the host uses an inbuilt cache and a lightspeed web server specifically to speed up WordPress sites.
2. Find a Billing Plan That Suits Your Budget
Hosting services offer several billing cycle options to support the chosen plan. Billing options typically include one month, 12 months, 24 months, and 48 months.
Longer periods typically cost less and can save you money.
For example, let’s say a 1-month plan costs $14.99 per month. That’s $179.88 after one year of service.
However, a 12-month plan for $78.00 would a better choice if you plan to use the service for one year because paying for the 12 months upfront saves around $101.88 — that’s $6.50 per month by paying ahead versus $14.99 for paying month-by-month.
The example continues, with hosting sites offering around a 63% discount for 24 months and a 75% discount for a 48-month plan.
A 24-month plan is recommended for beginners to get a decent discount without a long commitment.
3. Connect or Transfer Your Nameserver
If you choose to connect an existing domain to your new hosting service, go to your current host service and select Edit Nameservers. Select the nameserver you wish to change, copy and paste it into the Connect Your Domain field in your new hosting service dashboard, then save.
Nameserver changes typically take a few hours to complete. The maximum wait is 24 hours, but you may see your change within 5 minutes to an hour — it depends!
Conclusion
Give your customers an easy, speedy shopping experience by connecting your eCommerce website to a reliable hosting service, and you’ll never regret the rewards.
