Getting that Extra Edge: Business Web Hosting Plans

Your business website needs to be more than a source of information. If that's what you have now, you're missing the competitive edge that specific website features provide. When you review the business web hosting options available to you, whether it's Verio, Yahoo webhosting, Interland (now web.com) Hosting.com, WebHosting or a myriad of other providers, make sure you get the features you need.

If your business is doing direct selling or marketing, or offering free services such as downloads, and you don't have interactive features for your site visitors you are losing business. You need a service that gives you free website statistics to capture contact information for those visiting your site. Once you start adding features to your site and traffic increases, you will need more bandwidth and your monthly costs will increase. However, if you're generating a lot more traffic and sales, the cost of more bandwidth will be of no concern.

Get a Listserver ProgramYou will want a mailing list management program, known as a list server. The list server software will maintain a database of your subscribers and distribute messages on your command to those addresses captured in the database. Automated mailing lists are a good marketing tool that can add to your bottom line.

Another feature you want is statistical data that shows who your site visitors are. You may have a count feature now that tells you how many visitors you have per day, per month and to date. You need more than that. You need reports that tell you what search engine or website link brought them to your site, what part of the country they are in, and more.

You will also want an autoresponder email service feature that provides a form letter response automatically to an email inquiry. It captures the contact information of visitors seeking information and automatically enters it into your prospect database. Once you have captured contact information you have what you need to send newsletters, do surveys or contact clients and possible clients for any other reason.

Encryption Features a Must

If you want to start accepting payment online you need an encryption feature that protects financial information. Ask your potential web host about SSL (Secure Socket Layer) Security.

Anonymous FTP is another feature you may want. Most web hosts offer File Transfer Protocol (FTP) to enable site visitors to download files from your server. If a feature of your site is offering free downloads without a password or other identification procedures, you want Anonymous FTP. The advantage of the anonymous feature is that it creates fewer steps for those downloading files, making your site user-friendlier. However, if you want to capture their identities, don't go this route.

Continue to: Different Options Available with Business Web Hosting