Why use a UK Web Hosting Company?

Although the world wide web and the internet is a global community, there are benefits to listing your site  within a specific geographic area, in this case the UK, rather than an international one. So, why should you use a UK based web hosting company?

Local customer service and support

International web hosting companies may be offering cheaper prices, but occasionally you may have that insatiable urge to actually talk to someone.  So if a problem arises, you may find that many US based companies only offer free (1 800 numbers) phone support to customers based in the US, overseas customers will have to call a separate number and incur an international call charge

Currency risk

As we have all learnt over the last few months, currency rates fluctuate all the time, and the hosting company will be billing you in there local currency, and you will find that the price will vary from month to month.

If your hosting provider is in the US, over the last few months you would have found that your hosting bill would have shot up by between 30 to 50%!

Finally, you may remember from all your travels that credit card companies charge a different exchange than what you can get at the high street, and charge you a handling fee for international transactions. So all in all you may find that you are paying about 10% more than what is shown on the site, and what you thought you were paying.

Search engine visibility

If your site is similar to most websites you will find that the majority of website visitors will come from search engines. Hosting your website with a UK hosting provider will allow your site to come up when those people are searching for ‘UK Only’ results on their search engine. As there are fewer sites listed in the UK, you will have a higher chance of ranking closer to the top, and increase your chances of securing that new customer.

Quicker page loading times

Well, this may seem like stating the obvious, but having a UK based server hosting your site, will naturally have a faster ping rate and a faster load time for your website than a server hosting your site out of New York or Los Angles. So if you are aiming your site at the UK market your visitors will thank you for that faster page load times. So, if you are running a UK e-commerce site, you may find that the slower load time may be the difference between a sale on your site, or that person going to your competitor

What does your site say about you?

Your website says a lot about you and your company, a poor or slow loading can loose you that potential new customer.

Not everyone needs or should base their site out of the UK, but if any of the issues are important to you, and price is not your single determinant you may want to think about hosting your site out of the UK.