1. Reliability and Uptime Guarantee

Reliability is crucial when it comes to web hosting. You need a hosting provider that can guarantee that your website will be available online 24/7. The uptime guarantee is the percentage of time that your website will be available and accessible online. Look for a provider that offers at least a 99.9% uptime guarantee. Anything below this can be considered unreliable.

2. Server Speed and Performance

The speed of your website is also essential. It affects the user experience and can impact your search engine rankings. When choosing a hosting provider, look for one with fast servers and performance. You can test the server speed by running speed tests on their website. A good provider should also offer caching and Content Delivery Network (CDN) services to improve website speed and performance.

3. Scalability and Room for Growth

As a small business, you may not need many resources to start. However, as your business grows, you may need more resources to handle increased traffic and demands. Therefore, consider their scalability and room for growth when choosing a hosting provider. Choose a provider that offers flexible hosting plans to accommodate your growing needs. You should be able to upgrade your hosting plan easily without experiencing any downtime.

4. Security Features

Website security is essential for every business. You need a hosting provider with robust security features to protect your website and data from cyber threats. Look for a provider that offers SSL certificates, firewalls, malware scanning, and regular backups. Also, check if they offer DDoS protection to prevent your website from crashing due to a sudden surge in traffic.

5. Customer Support

When it comes to web hosting, technical issues can arise anytime. Therefore, it’s essential to choose a hosting provider that offers reliable and efficient customer support. Look for a provider that offers 24/7 support through various channels such as email, live chat, and phone. Test their support system by contacting them before signing up for their service. A good provider should be responsive and knowledgeable in resolving your issues.

6. Control Panel and User Interface

The control panel and user interface of your hosting provider can significantly impact your experience as a user. You need a provider that offers a user-friendly interface that is easy to navigate. Also, ensure that the provider offers a control panel that allows you to manage your website, files, and databases efficiently. A good provider should offer cPanel, which is the most popular and user-friendly control panel in the market.

7. Pricing and Billing

Pricing is another crucial factor to consider when choosing a hosting provider. However, don’t make the mistake of choosing the cheapest provider without considering other features. Compare the prices of different providers and check what features they offer in each plan. Also, consider the billing cycle, payment methods, and refund policies. Choose a provider that offers a transparent pricing model and flexible billing options.

8. Reputation and Reviews

Lastly, consider the reputation and reviews of the hosting provider. Look for providers with a good reputation in the market and positive reviews from their customers. Check out their social media pages, online forums, and review websites to see what people say about their services. A good provider should have a solid reputation and positive customer reviews.

Do your research and find the right fit for your website needs. A reminder that the cheapest option is usually not the most reliable when something goes off-plan.

So how do we look for efficiencies at budget time, when we don’t know how much our website costs us?

Direct costs are pretty easy to tabulate, but indirect and ‘time-spent’ costs are a little trickier to nail down during budget times.

Working with some of our small org clients, we’ve put the work in to demystify this elusive cost and present it so that you can adjust the figures for your team.

Annual Cost analysis

Direct costs

Time-spent costs for your team to manage the website

On average, a proper website can cost organizations like yours $8,525 in time spent and direct costs.

I have two additional notes to add to this quick analysis:

1. The average figures above are assuming normal website operating conditions are maintained for the length of the timeframe, which in this case is five years. They do not include any remediation fees for hacked websites, downtime due to backup restoration, or major platform technical issues. It’s assuming all goes as planned, which, in our 20+ years of experience, rarely is that case, and we wanted to present a “base case scenario.”
2. Our time estimate assumes that the people in the roles have an average level of proficiency with the tasks they are responsible for (i.e. branding, communications, website server maintenance, etc.). The time-spent estimates will need to be adjusted based on your organization’s team’s proficiency in completing their assigned tasks.

To be more realistic with these numbers, we should assume that $8,500 is the minimum annual cost for your organization’s website and will increase depending on your team’s capabilities and your forecasting approach (cautious vs. aggressive).

With WaaS, managers and teams do not need to have any technical knowledge or experience in website development or management. The WaaS provider offers a simple, user-friendly platform that manages every element of your website – design to development, to integrations. The platform also includes hosting, security, backups, and updates, ensuring that your website is secure, up-to-date, and available 24/7.

The features and functionalities included in WaaS packages may vary from provider to provider. However, in general, WaaS offerings include:

1. Website design and development: WaaS providers offer templates that can be customized to suit your specific needs. Whether pre-built or custom template, your WaaS provider is your one-stop-shop for all things website design and development related.
2. Website hosting: WaaS providers offer website hosting as part of their service. This means that your website is hosted on the provider’s servers, and your team does not need to worry about server maintenance, bandwidth, or other technical issues.
3. Website maintenance: WaaS providers offer regular maintenance and updates to ensure that your website is secure, up-to-date, and running smoothly. This includes security updates, software updates, backups, and other technical maintenance tasks.
4. Domain registration: WaaS providers often offer domain registration as part of their service. This means that you can choose a custom domain name for your website, and the provider will handle the registration and DNS settings.
5. Support: WaaS providers offer customer support to help you with any technical issues or questions related to your website. Support is typically offered via email, phone, or chat.

WaaS is a cost-effective and convenient option for organisations, small businesses, and startups who want to have an online presence without the hassle of designing, hosting, and maintaining a website themselves. WaaS eliminates the need for businesses to hire a web development team or invest in expensive web development software.

One of the benefits of WaaS is that you can focus on your core organizational activities, rather than spending time and resources on website development and management. With WaaS, organizations can launch their website quickly and efficiently, allowing them to focus on their offerings and delivering their services.

Another benefit of WaaS is the scalability it offers. As your organization grows and your website needs change, you can easily upgrade your WaaS package to include additional features and functionality. This means that organizations can easily add new pages, features, or integrations to your website as your needs evolve.

WaaS also offers a higher level of security and reliability than traditional website hosting solutions. WaaS providers use industry-standard security protocols, and regularly update their software and infrastructure to ensure that their websites are secure and up-to-date. This eliminates the need for teams to worry about security issues or website downtime, as the provider takes care of these issues on their behalf.

Website-as-a-Service is not for all organizations, but it can play an important role in elevating your communications, streamline your budgets, and remove barriers in adopting web technologies in your organization. And keep your website from looking stale and dated.

The analogy of your website being like a storefront or a home really applies here so I going to use it to illustrate why website maintenance is good business.

Just like your storefront, you’ve invested your hard-earned money to build a place to gather your potential customers and promote your products or services, in the digital space.

One forever truth about both the online and offline world is that it’s constantly changing.

And just like your home or commercial space, regular maintenance keeps the the building safe, healthy and can prolong the lifespan before needing major renovations or repairs.

The web is always changing

In contrast to the offline world, the web is evolving and changing at a much faster rate. 

It changes daily.

And the internet that you’ve connected your new website to is constantly changing around it.

Which makes the web a more precarious environment to build something and maintain it for prolonged use.

Flexibility is key in your website

We preach about flexibility in your website technology for exactly this reason. Because it needs to withstand the constantly changing environment that it’s meant to perform in.

Ok, so we get that the web is always changing, so how does that affect a website?

The internet is literally a series of connections–millions and millions of connections– that link urls with web server files and everything in between.

Each of those connections are managed by technology that is continuously being updated for improved usability, better security, and all around faster performance.

When your website was built, it was designed to be used with the technology that was current at that time. Good developers would keep abreast of the changes to the internet and build products that can adjust to future tech updates.

But even the best of us can’t predict every evolution or new security threat.

Furthermore, your website, although seemingly simple on the frontend, is made up of layers that add more complexity to the equation.

How complex?

What needs regular attention on your website?

Here are some of the items that need to be monitored and maintained regularly on your website:

• Core platform such as WordPress
• Plugins
• Web server
• Database
• 3rd party integrations
• Code-to-browser compatibility
• Media 
• Backups
• SSL certification

With all these moving parts and the very shifting nature of the internet, it’s clear that your website needs regular attention to continue to perform so you’re not wasting your original investment of building and launching your website.

Not ‘IF’ but ‘WHO’

It’s not a question of IF your website needs maintenance, but a question of who is going to perform the maintenance that we now understand is very much needed?

With over 25 years of hosting, managing and supporting websites, we can confidently state that it’s a better use of your time to hire professionals. But we’ll never discourage a business owner from diving in and trying it on their own.  

Even if it is just for a short while.

Want to find out more about our website maintenance plan? Click the link for more: https://webtechagency.ca/wordpress-support-maintenance/

In that vein, we asked our support team to share some of the most common requests we receive from our clients over the last quarter.

Here are the top three most common request types we receive through our direct support channel included in all our plans.

Starting us out at number three, it’s ‘email account’ changes.

Typically, we see requests come through to remove, forward, or add a new mailboxes to our client’s accounts. And given the range of services available for email, it’s a good thing we have a solid skillset so we can best advise our clients on how to handle different situations that come up.

For example, what should you do if a client-facing team member suddenly leaves the company? Or should you provide a branded email address for outside contractors working closely with your company?

Number two is ‘Technical support’ for Domain, DNS or redirect requests.

These requests are a bit more tricky and that’s when we lean in to our 10 years of experience in web and WordPress tech to guide use through what needs to be done. We also work directly with other partners to resolve issues like updating or adding authentication DNS records for self-hosted email services. 

And coming in the top spot for last quarter was ‘Content updates’.

It’s no surprise that this consistently comes in as the most frequent support request category and it’s primarily because this is the most common issue prior to our clients signing up with our service–lack of access to make quick updates to the content of their website.

Any of this sound familiar? Are you struggling with a couple of these in your team?

We can help

Check out our support page for more info on how we can help.

Along with our team, we’ve been busy in the past 12 months reshaping our project workflows and internal processes to create more value through our services to you, our clients. More on that later.

Even before the sale, Webtech has been on a growth path for the past few years, and 2022 has been more of the same.

One of the key areas of growth is the range of services we offer. 

Long gone are the days of Webtech offering simple websites and web hosting.

Webtech of today

Today, we’re providing a wide range of web design solutions, complete website support services, brand design, SEO, advisory services and helping clients with social media.

Keeping in step with our growth, we’re updating our name and branding to Webtech Agency. 

Along with a name change, you’ll notice an updated logo, a new website and more ways for us to help you get more value from the web.

The good news is that your current services remain intact and as they were.

The better news is that we’re working on a few new projects aimed at helping you get more value from our team.

New projects

A few of the upcoming projects are:

• Newsletter with insight and advice
• More tailored solutions for you
• New services packed with value
• Better reporting to keep you current

We also want to take a moment to thank you for your positive reviews and referrals. It means the world to us knowing our clients continue to support us since the company’s start in 1997.

We’re continuing to build, and you’ll hear from us again soon with more updates and news.

Cheers,

Melissa & Joey.