Choosing a Web Host for Businesses Targeting an Australian Audience

When it comes to choosing a web host for your business, there is no dearth of options.  At first sight, offshore options may be pretty tempting. However, if you own an Australian business and your target market is predominantly local, then you are far better off hosting your e-Commerce store, website or blog on servers which are based in Australia. Your digital assets are precious and protecting these assets is crucial to the success of your business. The following are among the major reasons why Australian businesses would benefit by choosing an Australian Web Hosting service in preference to an off-shore service.

Speed

Undoubtedly the last couple of years has witnessed significant progress in the broadband sector. Yet, a web hosting service distanced by some 3,000 kilometres would mean at least an additional half a second for your downloads. Nope, for instance among the largest blogs on web design anywhere in the globe and it takes a whole 2 seconds before the entire page can be viewed. When one among the largest players can’t compete in terms of speed, we can very well imagine the experience of smaller players.

The SEO factor

When you choose an offshore web hosting service, you are probably getting a US IP address that is shared. In turn, this means that your business is bundled along with other similar US businesses by Google. This is particularly true when you have a .com URL. When the majority of your target audience in Australia, an Australian IP address will always help you stay ahead.

Time Zone issues

With an offshore web hosting service, any issues arising during working hours in Australia may not receive immediate attention due to time zone issues. To add to the agony, when your offshore service provider is ready to take up the issue, you are either closed or have to detain your personnel to interact with the service provider. Any downtime in the digital world can potentially prove very expensive both in the short term as well as the long run.

Legal protection

When your web hosting is provided by an Australian provider, you also benefit from the protection offered by consumer laws in Australia. If you get into a problem with your service provider in extreme situations, you can explore remedies to mitigate your losses. Often times, this is either not available with offshore providers or are ineffective.