There isn’t a week that goes by that I don’t get a call from a frantic customer that involves their website and loss of control of that site. It always amazes us at Kirk that companies entrust their customer face to an a person who has little vested interest in the success of the company. A website can be a companies most valuable asset. Even if your organization doesn’t sell online, the website is the most visible and public display of your brand. You should protect that brand with your life. When thinking about your website there are a few things you should keep in mind.
Hosting
Hosting is what keeps your site alive. In simple terms, a hosting provider “Hosts” or houses all your digital files so they can be crawled by Google and other search engines. Entrusting your hosting to a small web company is a disaster waiting to happen. First, small web site and design companies don’t have the money or infrastructure to properly host your site. A proper hosting set up should have redundancy across the globe in secure data centers. Don’t entrust the hosting of your site to a company that doesn’t specialize in hosting.
Hosting and Security
Just the other day we had a client call us about a problem with their hosting. When we called the hosting company, the person we got in IT support “didn’t know what hosting was”, they then went on to tell us that any site was accessible by any one of 100 clients! This is a major security breach waiting to happen. Not only could a clients site go down but their email, and internal data files could be lost. It is important to entrust this a company that specializes in secure hosting.
Domains
Domains or your company address are often purchased either by a company founder or IT person. It is important that the user name and passwords for these domains be held by someone that is legally bound to the company. These domains are the keys to your website and your brand. In the wrong hands, the domain could be sold to another party, even a competitor!
