The need for business owners to place their businesses online cannot be overstated.
With advancements in technology and the world seemingly becoming a global village, many small business owners are latching on the opportunity to place their business at the doorstep of every household irrespective of the geographical location.
How can businesses attain an online presence? Which is the recommended web hosting platform that can ensure that businesses tap into the limitless potentials of the online market? We shall give answers to these questions, but first, why do you need to put your business online?
5 Reasons why you need to place your business online
The following are reasons why you may want to consider placing your business online:
1. It improves your company or brand’s image
Having a website projects your brand or company as one that is ready for business. The first thing that most prospective clients do before agreeing to do business with you is to search for your business website. It boosts your company image and portrays you as one who is ready to do business.
2. It gives your business a 24/7 availability
Without the internet, it may be difficult for most businesses to have a 24/7 process. However, with an online presence, people can read about your company at any time of the day and even place orders or contact you whenever they want to.
You can also have a customized and automatic response message that your potential clients receive whenever they contact you. Which makes it possible for your customers to feel your presence even when you are not physically available online.
3. You have an efficient customer support
With just the click of a button, you can reply to enquiries, solve customer issues, give out information, provide sales webinars. You can even provide a FAQ page where you can direct your customers to get answers to frequently asked questions.
You can also include a live chat feature where customers can chat directly with you. You may also choose to create a form that your customers can fill out and also state their requests. The submitted form can be sent directly to your email address.
4. Placing your business online is cheap
Unlike other traditional means of advertising, using the internet as an advertising medium is cheaper and more effective. All you need is a domain name and hosting, both are affordable especially if you choose cheap VPS hosting.
We shall give you a step by step guide on how you can place your business online, using a highly recommend hosting service.
5. An online presence gives your business a wider reach
Having an online presence gives your business a much wider market than when your business is only offline. The internet provides your brand with access to the global market, which increases sales and brand awareness.
Recommended web hosting service to help you place your business online
There are several ways you can give your business an online presence. Having a blog or website is definitely one of them.
Business owners can also make use of different social media platforms to ensure that their business has a place in the online market space. We shall look at how you can ensure that your business gets the required exposure by creating a website or blog for your business.
Having understood the importance of placing your business online, it is critical to find a website hosting service that can help you achieve this.
Several web hosting services are available for business owners to host their website, but the question is which web hosting service is best for you. There are certain criteria used in selecting a good web hosting service, among which include reliability, price, space, efficiency, uptime, speed, etc.
One web hosting service stands out from others when it comes to providing a cost-effective and highly efficient web hosting plan for business owners. Bluehost is an effective and recommended hosting plan for anyone who is seeking a fast, cheap, and secure platform to host their website.
A general overview of BlueHost hosting service
Bluehost provides a 24 hours customer support via a live chat to help customers deal with issues or enquiries. They also provide uses with five email accounts as well as an unmetered bandwidth. One primary feature of the Bluehost hosting service is that new users are offered a free domain for one year.
Their hosting plans are cheap and start from $2.75 per month. Users have access to an enhanced data security feature, free SSL certificate, and improved backup system.
All these features are designed to provide you with high performance and secure website. The Bluehost hosting service is designed to operate at a 405 ms Speed and a 99.99 per cent uptime.
It also supports several apps and website builders such as WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, etc. Hosting plans include VPS, Cloud, Shared, and other Dedicated Servers.
Benefits of using BlueHost Hosting Service
The benefits of using Bluehost to give your business an online presence are numerous and outstanding. They include the following:
1. The best up-time
For every business owner seeking to have an online business presence, up-time is one critical factor that should be considered before selecting a hosting web service.
Uptime refers to the running time of the hosting servers, which determines the availability of your website on a 24/7 basis. Bluehost boasts a 99.99% up-time, thus ensuring that your business stays online at all times.
2. Very fast load speed
With a load speed of about 405ms, Bluehost stands as one of the top 5 hosting services that have the fastest load speed. Having a faster website may translate into increased user engagement and more sales.
3. Low pricing
When compared with other hosting services, Bluehost offers cheaper introductory plans.
For as low as $3.95 per month, you can have access to all that is needed to host a single website, which includes a free SSL certificate, 50GB of SSD storage, unmetered bandwidth, and much more.
4. Guaranteed money back within 30 days
Bluehost ensures that her users get good value for money, hence a 30 days period where you are guaranteed to have your money back if you experience less than what they promise to offer.
This singular act ensures that Bluehost stays top among other hosting service providers.
Other outstanding features of Bluehost Hosting Service include:
- Safe and improved security feature
- Integration of other apps and web builders
- Official web host recommended by WordPress.
- Easy to use platform
- Excellent customer support
How you can sign up with BlueHost
Signing up with Bluehost is easy and involves the following simple steps
1. Visit the Bluehost website
To get started with Bluehost, simply visit Bluehost.com and click on the button that prompts you to get started. You can find this button on the website’s homepage.
2. Choose a plan that suits your needs
After clicking the get started button, a list of four hosting plans is available to you. These plans include Business pro, plus, Basic and prime.
The difference between each of these plans is their prices, number of emails, number of websites, and storage space.
If you are running a blog or a small business, it may be economical to go for the basic plan that offers a single website and five email accounts. However, if you have multiple business websites, it is recommended to go for the Choice Plus with more features. This will save you more money in the long term.
3. Select your domain name
After choosing your preferred web plan, you are then prompted to write down your domain name.
In choosing your domain name, you have two alternatives to either register an existing domain name or select a new domain name, which is free for a period of one year as a new user.
Pick your domain name and chose a relevant domain extension.
4. Provide your personal details
Creating your Bluehost account is the next step after choosing a domain name. When signing up, you are to provide your first and last name, country, password, phone number, email, etc.
You would also have to pick a payment method. You have two payment options available to you on Bluehost, and they include PayPal or credit card.
5. Select add-ons (optional)
You can select the duration of your plan. Whether it is a yearly or three years plan, the choice is yours to make.
You can also choose to download and install different add-ons like WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, and other web builders to enable you to start the process of building your website.
We have seen that placing your business online is the right step to take if you want your business to grow. Having an online business also gives you an edge over other competitors. It is a far-reaching and effective medium of advertising.
With just a simple process, you can take your business from a local to a global status. Bluehost hosting service is an easy to use service. With the above simple steps, you can get started and enjoy the enormous benefits that come with hosting your website on Bluehost.
Building your website becomes much easier because, with the different web builders available, you can start and complete the website building process within minutes.
So if you are looking for ways to place your business online, then you may want to consider a hosting plan that is cheap, dependable, and reliable to meet your business needs.
I am Adeyemi Adetilewa, the Editor of IdeasPlusBusiness.com. I help brands share unique and impactful stories through the use of online marketing. My work has been featured in the Huffington Post, Thrive Global, Addicted2Success, Hackernoon, The Good Men Project, and other publications.