Choosing a Good Web Hosting Service for Your Online Boutique

Are you thinking of starting an online boutique and looking for a good web hosting space to rent?

But first, I need you to provide a little more details on these:

1. Which country are you residing in?

2. Who is your target audience?

I'm asking you these questions because if you're targeting local audience so that you can deliver the apparel locally and cheaply, then it matters where you live.

Let's say you live in UK, then signing up with a local web host will help run your site faster due to proximity. Besides that, getting a domain name that ends with a country code will enhance your business' local presence. For example, Your-Online-Boutique.co.uk.

If you're more ambitious and want to target other countries as well, then no matter where you live, a US-based web host should overall help your online boutique business perform better. In that case, choosing a.com or.net domain extension will suit your boutique business better.

On top of that, price should not be the chief concern for your choice of a web hosting service. You can't easily tell which web hosting companies are good and reliable based on price alone since many of them are charging around the same price.

What's worse is that some crappy companies are charging few bucks higher per month to give the impression that more expensive means more reliable. I fell into that trap years back, so I strongly recommend that you focus on the reliability of the web host instead.

Other important factors you should consider are:

1. Server speed - If the hosting server loads your site slowly, lots of visitors will run away.

2. Bandwidth - If your bandwidth is small, that means you will not be able to drive more traffic to your website.

3. Control panel - If the web host doesn't offer you a user-friendly control panel, you'll get frustrated setting up a website.

4. Customer support - As just mentioned, this is the most important of all because your website will not always be up and running all the time, even if you're using the most powerful server in the world. So, if you do not have a good customer support stand by you 24/7 around the clockwork, you'll be like ants on a hot pan when your site screws up.

Last but not least, avoid companies that offer free hosting service because they have very limited resources in providing a robust server and technical support. Your online boutique business will thrive and grow only when you choose a good hosting service.