by Gina Blitstein

Having a web presence for your company is nothing less than an imperative today. Your web site serves as business card, receptionist, sales flyer, sales representative and a customer's first impression of your company all rolled into one. The look, feel and usability of your company's web site can make or break a customer's decision to do business with you. It reflects your degree or dedication, attention to detail and respect for your customers. So it should look sharp - and more importantly - perform well. A site that performs slowly or doesn't work right will leave a bad taste in your customer's mouth before you can do anything about it.

The performance of your web site is largely dependent upon your web host - the company you choose to put your web site on the Internet. Among the myriad of web hosts are companies such as HostGator, A Small Orange and midPhase. When you take your registered domain in search of bandwidth, you'd be wise to look carefully at a variety of companies who host web sites and choose one that best suits your particular needs.

What exactly makes a web site work well - for you and your customers? The answer depends on several factors, including the purpose of your site and what you need it to do for your business. Is your web site merely a static page offering an overview of your business and contact information? Is your business an online store which depends on the site for its very lifeblood? Perhaps it is something in between these two extremes. More isn't always better if it is unreasonably expensive in relation to your actual needs. Rest assured, there is a web host to perfectly fit your needs and budget. It will just take some knowledge and research to find your best choice. Choose a host who can provide what you need for today and into the foreseeable future because your decision isn't carved in stone. Although switching hosts in the future is sometimes a complicated undertaking, it can be done with relatively no interruption to your web site's performance.

Jason Shindler, CEO, of Curvine Web Solutions provides the following tips for choosing a good web host:

• Pick the right type of Web hosting plan. Web hosting can cost anything from $3 to $30,000 a month, it all depends on the type of service involved. The way to tell what you need is simple -- imagine the Web site stops working for 5 minutes. What will your reaction be? If the answer is "The world will come to an end!" then you need "dedicating hosting" which is a more expensive service where the Web hosting company dedicates an entire server just for you. This approach is reliable and comes with service level guarantees. On the other hand, if your reaction to the Web site being down for five minutes is "no big deal," a shared Web hosting plan is just right for you. Some companies provide both types of service, some only provide one.
  
  
•  Try calling Technical Support. Be sure the tech support team is good at what they do. Before you start paying for their service, try calling tech support with a question. How quickly do they answer? Do they seem friendly and easy to understand?
  
  
• Determine the company size. If the same person does support, billing and sales, that could be a problem. A Web hosting company run by one person probably doesn't have enterprise level reliability, security and procedures. On the other hand, a company of a more significant size is less likely to be missing these important features.

Shared hosting is an affordable option for sites that are static, are updated infrequently and receive a relatively small amount of traffic. The dedicated hosting Jason mentions can seem expensive by comparison but is absolutely necessary when your site simply cannot be slow or down - ever. A dedicated server is also a good idea if your site features video, forums or a large database.

By all accounts, technical support is the factor that varies most widely from host to host. Make certain that yours is responsive - instantaniously is not asking too much! After all, it's the image of your business that you've put in their hands - it is reasonable that they provide you the level of service you expect.

Web hosting doesn't need to be a costly part of your web site marketing. Matching the provider's offerings with the necessary functionality of your site is the most important rule of thumb.

Is your web host providing the service you need at a reasonable price?