Now don’t blow it by using a cheap hosting service!
We could end this blog post right here because that’s the bottom line, but give us just a few more paragraphs and we’ll make our case.
It’s really easy to get sucked in with low, or even free, monthly hosting rates but, just like cheap shoes, you’re gonna get what you pay for: Low quality and no support.
Don’t Make it a Great Day for Hackers!
Worst of all, your website will not be secure. Everything you just did (and paid for) to upgrade your virtual space is at risk of security breaches. Trust us when we say that you don’t want to wake up to the nightmare that your site has been hacked by hackers who do nothing but sit around and hack websites that are easy to hack. Those haters love sites that make their “jobs” easy and you don’t want to be on their list of favorites.
Downtime = Lost Money
Though it goes without saying, we’re gonna say it… You have better things to do than try to get your website back up after a takedown. Not only is this a waste of your time and energy, you are losing money every single minute that your prospects and customers can’t find you or do business with you online.
Then there’s this: If, and only if, your cheap-o hosting company provides great customer support AND they do very frequent backups of your site AND restoring everything is part of your monthly plan, getting you up and running may only take a few hours… or days. Could be longer. Maybe not ever.
Need a couple of aspirin yet?
The Weakest Link
Hosting can come cheap because the hosting company crams as many websites as possible on one server. You’re in shared space. Your website might be the biggest, baddest, deluxe model on the server, but if there’s even one econo-site on that same server that doesn’t employ good security tactics, everyone else is at risk.
Your site is only as secure as the weakest site on the server. You have no control.
Let’s face it, you’re just another customer to that hosting company. They didn’t invest their time and talent in you and your business by designing, building, and implementing your new website. And you’re only paying them a teeny-weenie amount of money each month so why in the world would they go out of their way to make sure your site is secure and that your business keeps running smoothly? (We’ll stop beating around the bush… they don’t care!)
Want a little
one-on-one?
Struggling with how to stand out and market your business to crush your competition? Let’s make a plan.
That’s Where We Come In
See, when you become (or became!) a client of Fingerprint Marketing, we invest in you just like you invest in us. We get to know you and will work with you to build and launch a website and marketing plan that will help your business grow to be profitable and sustainable.
Our bottom line: We care.
We care about you, we care about your business, and we care about the safety and security of your website because, really, they’re all kind of wrapped up in one another, aren’t they?
When we partner with companies like yours to take your online presence up a few (hundred) notches, we’ll ask you to commit to a minimum of 12 months of web maintenance that includes hosting with a premium hosting company. We know that 12 months may be a longer-term relationship than you’re used to but it’s how we roll. (Hey, it’s not like we’re asking for a big, fat diamond ring on the first date!)
Remember, you make an investment when you hire us, so part of your return on that investment is allowing us to ensure your site is always secure, updated, and isn’t getting hacked by those bleepin’ hackers!
Picture This…
You’re sound asleep and, when you wake up, you’re leaving on that well-deserved vacation you’ve been planning for months.
Oh, but no… you wake up to a hacked website. You can’t go on vacation now because you’re in recovery and restoration mode. You call your cheap-o hosting company only to find out that your cheap-o package doesn’t include restoring your site… that’s a separate fee and you haven’t been paying it. But wait… for today only, they’ll see what they can do for the low price of just $(insert the price of your vacation here)!
We don’t say this to scare you (okay, we wanna scare you just a little), but the extra few bucks you’ll spend on quality hosting each month is a nothing compared to the headache of trying to get your low-cost hosting company to get your site back up, running, and safely secured after a hack. There is no dollar amount that can be attached to the stress, strain, and a missed vacation!
Take Our Advice
If you’re going to subscribe to a hosting service, find out everything you can and don’t just look at the monthly price:
- Exactly what’s included in the monthly fee?
- Backups: How often are they done? How quickly can your site be recovered and restored?
- How will you be notified if there is a security breach?
- Do they have 24-hour live customer service?
- Can other websites on the shared server drag your website’s performance down? (You know how we all detest slow load times!)
We get it, you have to save a little dough wherever you can, but website hosting is NOT the place to cut corners.
Our advice? Don’t go cheap on hosting services.
And don’t tolerate cheap shoes, you’re worth so much more than that!
Chat with us — we’d love to talk more about your website security… Really. We love this stuff.