Website hosting in Australia: what small businesses should look for
How to choose website hosting in Australia: speed, location, security, support and the hidden costs of cheap hosting.
What hosting actually does
Your hosting stores your website and serves it to visitors. Its quality affects speed, uptime and security, which all affect enquiries.
What to look for
- Servers or edge locations close to Australian customers
- A content delivery network for images and files
- Free SSL certificates
- Automatic backups you can restore
- Security monitoring and protection from attacks
- Support that answers in hours, not days
Types of hosting
Shared hosting puts many sites on one server. It’s cheap, and performance suffers when neighbours get busy.
Managed hosting includes updates, backups and support for a specific platform.
Edge or serverless hosting serves your site from many locations worldwide, close to each visitor. It’s fast and scales easily, and it’s what we use for client sites.
The hidden cost of cheap hosting
Saving a few dollars a month means little if your pages load slowly or your site goes down during a campaign. Price hosting against the value of the enquiries it supports.
Frequently asked questions
Does hosting location matter for SEO?
Speed for your visitors matters more than server location itself. A good CDN or edge network solves most location issues.
How much should business website hosting cost?
It varies widely. Managed and edge hosting usually costs more than basic shared hosting but saves time and lost enquiries.
Should my web designer host my website?
It can be convenient, as long as you own your domain and can move your site if you need to.
