Why Owning Your Website is Better than Renting
Posted By Industrial Web Solutions Marketing Team on September 30, 2010
I wanted to share with you a typical story we hear from clients whose foray into the internet began with a cheap website application solution hosted by a major domain registration company.
For some small businesses, such affordable solutions, if managed properly, are a good fit. Generally speaking, however, they are neither the right long-term nor short-term solution for small manufacturers or industrial suppliers because they are not flexible solutions. As a renter and not the owner of the solution, there are great consequences to needing to make changes, such as wanting to switch hosting companies, for example, or wanting to expand to offer online sales, or worse yet, wanting to move your website from a secure server to a non-secure server.
Here’s a true story. A client was a renter of a hosted website solution on a secure server, meaning he had an SSL certificate that cost him an additional $50 a year. Since no sensitive data was ever processed at his website he felt he really didn’t need the certificate so he cancelled it. Sounds simple enough, right? Well, internally at the hosting company that meant his website had to be moved from the secure server to the “non-secure server.” Here’s where the problem began. Since the client had his site for two years on the secure server, the search engines had indexed his site with a particular web address that begins with https and not http. Doesn’t sound too serious, does it? Well, when the web address changed to http his website was no longer searchable. If someone typed in the company name the web address on the former server came up because that was how the search engines indexed it. If someone clicked that link it would say the address could not be found. So to his potential and existing customers, he looked as though he were out of business!
To make matters worse, the hosting company was not willing to place a 301 re-direct page on the secure server to point to the new address; even when the client offered to pay extra, the hosting company refused. The hosting company told him he had to pay the $50 to have the site moved back to the secure server or wait until the search engines had indexed his new web address. “ARE YOU KIDDING ME?” I thought to myself. But this is a true story! And the moral of the story: you will save yourself a lot of headaches by working with a reputable web development and marketing firm that will create for you a flexible solution that is able to grow with your changing business needs, that represents your professional image, AND that you own!
It is so critically important to create a two year, five year, and even ten year plan for your business online. Your website is your business too. When you are the owner of your website, you can move it and change it to adapt to the needs of your business at any given time. A website development firm that understands how to help you plan for your future is “worth its weight in gold.” A client said that about our team! And it’s true. If you are thinking about getting a website for the first time, or are looking for a new solution, sit down with your team and plan out what it will be expected to do, who it will be expected to serve, and how you expect it will need to grow. In order to manage costs effectively and ensure immediate needs are met, at Industrial Web Solutions we like to create a plan that is able to roll out in phases. This helps you to meet your business goals and strategically manage your budgets without having to wait for the perfect scenario. While business is slower, it is actually an optimal time to begin development work. You have more time to concentrate on the only sales tool you have that has the potential to work effectively for you 24/7 – your website.
If you’re a renter of a website solution and you’re looking to own, or you just need your website to perform better, contact us at (800) 399-9859. We’ll make sure you get a flexible solution that grows with your changing needs, works well to meet your business goals, accurately represents your professional image, and most importantly, that you own!
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