If you are a business based in Australia, then the best hosting option for you is with an Australian company. Here is a list of 5 reasons why you should choose an Australian web host as opposed to hosting overseas.
- Support – There could possibly be a huge time difference when dealing with an overseas company, which makes you wonder what you will do when/if problems arise. When your company in Australia is awake and processing during business hours, the web hosting company could potentially be off-shift, meaning very limited support. Who wants to be caught at a very important time with no support? More importantly, if you do manage to catch them on working hours, it is being done with a very long-distance phone call.
- Updates – In the same sense as above, working hours can greatly vary between your Australian business and the web hosting company. Because of this, updates to your hosting account, which run at the best time for the company overseas and the majority of their customers, can actually be run at peak times for you. That means there is a high potential for website downtime when it would otherwise be helping to make you money.
- Speed – Consider the distance information must travel to get from your web host to you if starting from overseas. The transfer of data could come at a delayed speed, thus slowing down the processing of your website, as well as server uploads and downloads. Who wants to have a slow website, let alone visit one?
- SEO – This is a debatable point, but still one worth making. By not choosing an Australian web host when marketing towards an Australian audience, Google, for example, may not rank your site as highly as it should. It is said that the IP address for your host can determine your website’s location, meaning it might not process properly in the Australian search engine if it is hosted in the US or UK.
- Currency – Sometimes, choosing to buy products and services in another currency can have a very pleasing and positive outcome. This generally occurs when the currency of an overseas company gets you more for your money. The problem with choosing web hosting with this idea in mind, however, is that currency fluctuates and what is a cheap plan for you now could take a wrong turn and actually double in price in the future. Because of this, hosting packages purchased in your own currency can help provide stability for you and your website during shaky economic times.
As an Australian business or individual looking for the best way to market a website online to an Australian audience, it is wise to consider the above points when choosing a web host. With these five reasons in mind, it is truly hard to imagine choosing anything other than an Australian based provider.
