How can global businesses get the most out of website hosting, cloud hosting and web domains?
TechCulture 
International businesses that trade in global markets face many unique challenges. These challenges include capturing your target audience’s imagination, standing out from competitors, winning the right clients in the right places, and strategically expanding your reach.
But today’s business landscape is digitizing at a rapid pace – and this means that getting your business’ IT spot-on is absolutely critical. Choosing the right web domain and web hosting or cloud hosting could mean the difference between success and failure.
In this article, we explore how you can leverage website domains, web hosting, and cloud hosting to your business’ best advantage.
Choosing the right web domain
When marketing yourself globally, your business’s domain name – or website address – is synonymous with its digital identity. It is the very first thing that potential clients will see, so getting your web domain right can make or break your international business. Every influential domain name needs to make a good impression and summarize precisely what your business is all about, the industry it’s in, and what it can offer to potential clients. This might mean that a simple “businessname.org” won’t always be the best or most effective option.
When it comes to pricing, web domains are usually priced based on the length of the web address you choose – which means that if you want to really grab peoples’ attention, going for something short and snappy can prove both more impactful and more affordable. However, it is crucial to look out for hidden fees and ensure that you are 100 percent happy with what you are signing up for.
In some instances, it makes good business sense to shell out a little more cash if it will help give your business an air of authenticity. For example, Top Level Domains (TLD) ending in “.com” tend to be a little pricier than country-specific domains such as “.co.uk” – but if you’re trading globally, it often pays to invest in a domain name that delivers a more international look and feel.
Of course, this will always be dependent on your specific business and the industry it operates in. In recent years, non-traditional TLDs, such as “.shop,” “.travel,” “.blog,” and more, have been rising in popularity – and might prove more appropriate for your brand image and target audience. Such names may also give you greater flexibility to include your company’s official brand name as the central part of your domain, e.g., “travellersworld.magazine.”
Selecting a suitable website hosting solution
Choosing a web hosting provider that suits your business’ needs is vital to success in today’s busy online marketplace – particularly if you’re going global.
Website hosting providers will vary significantly when it comes to support levels. So it pays to think carefully about how much tech support you’re likely to need before committing to anything. Keep an eye out for providers that offer a 24-hour service, which includes both telephone and email support, preferably with call centres located in your native country, to help avoid any unnecessary hassle in times of need.
Once you’ve found a web hosting company that’s a good fit, you must carefully select a package that suits your needs. Many providers will offer web and email hosting simultaneously, but does your website require any additional or unusual features? For example, if you’re offering a video blogging or sharing platform, your hosting will need to accommodate for the fact that users will be live-streaming content 24/7 and will need the capability to upload their videos to your site at any given time. You should also take bandwidth limitations into account and avoid locking yourself into a package that offers limited bandwidth for a lower price if you are expecting your website to grow significantly in the near future. You should note that hidden fees for extensions and upgrades later down the line are not uncommon.
With a recent report in Forbes magazine indicating that more than 30,000 websites are hacked every day, you should also think very carefully about server security when exploring your web hosting options. All reputable providers should perform regular backups of data using a secure – and preferably remote – server. However, you might want to consider your personal server requirements and the sensitivity of the data you handle. This will help you to determine whether shared hosting, a Virtual Private Server (VPS) or dedicated hosting is the best fit.
Shared hosting tends to be the standard route many businesses will take and is often the cheapest option. However, this may not be suitable if you are expecting mass traffic to your site. A VPS will offer better speed and performance – and speed should always be an important consideration, particularly if you are expecting a lot of traffic, or if your site will regularly feature videos or hefty content. If scalability is more of a concern, you may wish to look into cloud hosting instead.
Comparing the best options for cloud hosting
Perhaps you’ve secured a solid web domain name and weighed up your options in terms of web hosting, but keep reading about cloud hosting being a better option for the very busiest online businesses? An ever-increasing number of companies are rapidly recognizing the cloud as the future of IT, as it offers a flexible, scalable, and high-performance hosting solution. Cloud hosting typically benefits from higher up-time and availability, as well as speedier set-up processes and arguably more flexible pricing structures for faster-growing firms.
Cloud hosting and web hosting both offer basic web hosting functions at a tiered level – but the processes used differ tremendously between the two. The technical differences might not necessarily be relevant to you, but selecting the right option to suit your business is absolutely critical. While there’s always the possibility to switch later down the line, it is often more cost-effective to select the most suitable solution from day one.
A cloud hosting server can be set-up very rapidly – making such servers ideal for global start-up businesses who wish to set up websites quickly, perhaps on top of an already hectic workload. What’s more, cloud hosting isolates websites from any physical server issues, which can mean a reduced chance of hardware failures, system overloads, and downtime.
These benefits make cloud hosting solutions particularly advantageous for businesses that are reliant on 24/7 website availability and high traffic to keep things ticking over, as well as those with more demanding web needs that require faster speeds and all-around performance. If this sounds like you, be sure to look out for cloud hosting providers that offer significant load balancing benefits, multiple layers of caching, lower-density servers, and high-grade server hardware.
If your business is going global with scalability as a top priority, cloud hosting is likely to offer you better value for money as a hosting solution due to the limitations and upgrade costs associated with other kinds of web hosting.
This is particularly true when it comes to having to scale-up server resources later down the line if, for example, your site goes viral. However, international businesses with less complex or demanding web needs might do better to stick with a more traditional approach.
Cloud hosting also has environmental benefits, as fewer data centres and server resources are used overall. Furthermore, it offers greater flexibility for those who wish to manage their hosting independently, due to simpler dashboards for server management. In many cases, however, it might make more sense to select a package that includes IT support so that experienced teams of cloud professionals will always be on hand to help resolve any issues. This kind of assistance can be agreed upon as part of most packages.
In summary, cloud hosting is an ideal solution for those who want greater control and performance and are expecting to upscale in the short term. However, shared web hosting might be more suitable for smaller businesses who tend to cater to an already-established client base, or are only targeting a select few customers on a tighter strategic basis. Whatever your requirements, including whether you feel you need a mid-range solution to act as a happy medium between the two, Tech ICS is here to help.
Here at Tech ICS, we offer affordable, effective, and reliable web domains, web hosting, and cloud hosting services to businesses in all industries.
If you would like to discuss your requirements with us, email your enquiry to [email protected], and we will get in touch within 24 hours.
Sources used:
- https://www.techics.com/service/10/it-services-web-hosting
- https://www.techics.com/domain-registration
- https://winningwp.com/essential-tips-for-choosing-the-best-domain-name-for-a-website/
- https://www.business.com/articles/10-tips-for-choosing-the-right-web-hosting-company/
- https://www.hostgator.com/blog/benefits-cloud-hosting/
- https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/11057-cloud-hosting-web-hosting-best-business.html
