Cheap website hosting:What does it really cost you?

Great blog short blog article here from Fitzy at The Frontier Group about the value of a good website hosting provider and plan

This is a really important area of your online marketing strategy that is largely neglected and just an after-thought for most people. A lot of small business owners shop around hard when paying for their website hosting. Just today, an accounting firm I work with was having a whinge about paying $30/month for website hosting.

The false economy trap

First off, it’s going to take hours and hours of consulting work to move your website at several hundred dollars per hour, to save what $10, maybe $15 a month? In my mind, I’d be expecting my accountant to have a better grasp of the TRUE cost of an action like this.

Second of all, you get what you pay for. Paying $3/month for website hosting, is going to get you zero customer service and access to a hosting platform that you share with a gazillion other websites. Happy with having your site down for days or even lose your site because one of the other billion websites got hacked through some flaky code? Then go with the $3/month option.

If you want to speak to a real person about your hosting and have a website that performs well (ie loads quickly) then be prepared to pay $20-50/month as a minimum.

How long does your site take to load?

The speed of your website pays an important part in your online marketing strategy. If your site takes too long to load, Google may penalise your search rankings or may have a hard time indexing your site. If your visitor has to wait an extra 30 seconds for your site to load up because you’ve bought the tight-ass hosting option, you can almost be sure that they’re going to click onto the next website (yes, your competitor’s website).

Stop looking at marketing as an expense

Online marketing shouldn’t be seen as an expense in your business. Marketing MAKES money, minimising your spend on any effective marketing strategies in your business is a proven way to make LESS money.

Where are you skimping on your marketing?

Are your cost saving efforts hurting your bottom line and you don’t even know it?

Should you be hiring professionals who can do the job 4x faster & more effectively?

Don’t you have more important areas in your business to focus on other than saving $10 a month?