As a designer, one task that is usually given to you is to find the right
hosting company and plan for your clients. Making the wrong decision could
end up giving them a very horrible experience with their site, lowering their
overall impression about how reliable your skills and services are. This might
lead them to other webmasters
for their projects in the future and could also
hurt your reputation if they decide to write a review about the bad experience.
So, to ensure that something as simple as a hosting provider doesn't ruin your
client's loyalty, let's review 7 things you should always look into before
setting up the hosting plan.
Understand the Potential Traffic of the Site
When you are looking for the right hosting company,
understanding how much
traffic
is expected can give you a better idea of what kind of plans, servers, and
other aspects of hosting will be needed. Until you are aware of the traffic,
you never know exactly which plan will be the best to host the newly designed
site. If you are unaware of any details, you can usually get all the
information from the client. If they plan to market, they probably already have
marketingcampaigns ready to go, so you will be able to get an approximate amount of traffic
those campaigns might be able to bring in.
Ensure Superior Support
If your client was tech savvy, they probably wouldn't have
you choosing their hosting company. So it is safe to assume that they might
need some type of technical support in the future. Whether it is just to make
some changes or if they run into a situation where their whole website goes
down, the support team should be able to help within 24-48 hours. Some
companies will let their clients go days without responding or bringing their
servers back up, so ensure that the company you choose for your client can
assist anytime of the day.
Get a List
of Extra Features Your Client Wants
Every hosting company has different plans that all come with
different features and benefits. It is important to have a list of everything
they would want to choose the right plan. Some example of some benefits are
free email,
dedicatedIP addresses, toll free numbers, and plenty more. The last thing you want
is to choose a plan, only to have the client change it because you forgot to
get one that included all of the key features they were looking for.
Keep to Reputable Companies
A marketing tactic that smaller or new hosting companies use
is to contact designers so that when the designer has a client that needs
hosting, they go to the new company. This should usually be avoided because
smaller hosting companies tend to be much less quality. They might not have enough
servers, making their servers overloaded. They are usually slow with support.
They can just give an overall bad experience to your client, so you should
always try and
picka company that is reputable and reliable.
Choosing the Right Plan
So now you have most of the information you need for your
client, so which plan should you choose? All of these aspects should be a
factor in which plan you actually sign them up for. Usually, a good rule is to
sign them up for a plan that is a little more than they need, so just incase
they see high amounts of unexpected traffic or need a benefit they didn't think
they needed, it isn't a problem. You just have to make sure they are willing to
pay the monthly fee for that plan.
Dedicated Servers
Another thing to consider is offering them a
dedicated server.
If they are willing to spend a lot of money designing their site, they might
not mind spending a little more for a dedicated server. They will get
fasterload times, more control, less security risks, and will have a less chance
of the server going down.
Shop Around
And lastly, always shop around for the best value. You can
usually find multiple companies that have the same plans but with different
prices. So try and combine the best quality service for the cheapest prices. If
you can save your client a little money, they will be grateful.
Labels: Articles, Hosting
