As a business owner you are focussed on many things: ordering stock, fulfilment, customer service and support, staffing – the list goes on. If you are like most business owners, your website plays a central role in bringing customers to you and keeping them engaged. But keeping your website online, running fast and in 100% working order is not one of your key skills.

You might be the boss of your business – but are you the boss of your website?

If you’re feeling a little confused or befuddled about how to keep your website working properly, read on, we have some great tips!

What is this thing called web hosting? It’s simply the provision of a little corner of the web where your website can live. It’s the service of storing your site, allowing you to easily update it, and keeping it online and running fast.

It’s not that complicated really. Let’s not overthink it.

Over the years we’ve noticed some things that small business owners really need from their hosting:

1. Jargon-free. Owners don’t want the technical gobbledegook and the jargon that comes with owning a website. They just want their site to be online and ready for action.
2. Great design at a low cost. Web design used to be the preserve of an elite group of nerdy types who can bamboozle the site owner into handing over thousands of pounds for a site that probably didn’t even work that well. Those days are gone. Now, you expect to be able to build your own site as easily as sending an email. You don’t want to pay thousands of pounds for it either. You might be prepared to shell out a few hundred.
3. Take the problems away. You don’t want to be responsible for things like bringing your website back online when it’s gone down, fixing broken links and broken forms, uploading images etc. You just want your site to work so you can forget about it and get on with your day-to-day business.

Fortunaetly today there’s a range of services that are built to meet the needs of folk like you who just want to get on with your business.

Firstly there are the website builders. We don’t mean web designers or web developers. We mean web-based software that can take your basic information such as name, address, and description of your services, and turn this into incredible-looking website. There are plenty of website builders out there to choose from, but the most obvious choice hands-down is WordPress.

This system allows you to create a website in a weekend that will look amazing. You can easily bolt on functions such as an e-commerce store, contact forms, forums, maps, videos – the list goes on. All of these functions have free versions that allow you to build something that really works with costing the earth.

If you are ambitious and have some free time, you can do all of this yourself. If you have no time but a small amount of money then you can engage the services of a WordPress specialist to help you get to where you need to be quickly. Either way, it’s a great choice for the beginner to web hosting.

Do I need to be designer?

To use WordPress you need no design skills and no technical skills at all. You can choose from thousands of pre-designed themes, the majority of which are completely free, and install these into your website in the click of a button. You can literally change the entire look and feel of your website with one mouse click!

How much does it cost?

As with any form of web hosting, there are some costs to cover. Our WordPress web hosting costs from £4.99 per month. Then you’ll need to add the cost of your domain name registration onto that. Think in terms about £20 – £30 to get you started, with ongoing costs of about a fiver a month. If your business is important to you then these costs should not be too onerous.

What about support?

The key question is what happens when you need some help. Do you want to be routed to an expensive offshore call centre? Do you want to wait days for reply to an email query? Of course you don’t! You want to speak to somebody competent and understanding in the UK – someone who speaks plain English and not jargon! So the best web hosting for beginners will come with excellent backup telephone support.

If you are excited about getting your website online, check out our beginners’ web hosting package.