What You Should Know About Hosting Security

True or False: If I host my website with a nationally recognized brand, it is safe.

FALSE.  There are many top brand names that are popular choices for website hosting.  The little known fact is, you can never be too careful.  Low budget hosting packages always come with a catch:  your website sits in a shared environment.  What does that mean for your website?

Shared Hosting = No Guaranteed Security
In all reality, in a shared hosting environment, you are entrusting your website’s security to the toss of a coin.  Hosting companies have little to no control over what people upload in a shared hosting environment.  They simply hand over the keys and let you do as you will.  So if your website sits in the same shared server as someone who uploads a virus, well, your website is in jeopardy. 

A large and very recent example of this is Godaddy.  Thousands of websites were compromised when injectable viruses were uploaded into a large percentage of their shared servers.  Sites from coast to coast were infected with malware, meaning their visitors were infected upon arrival.  Visitors complained, sites got reported, and then you started seeing this terrible message from Google and other search engines warning your visitors NOT to go to your website!

So What Should You Do?
Dedicated server environments eliminate the risk that shared hosting presents.  The problem is, not everyone can afford to pay the $100-$300 per month it takes to setup their own dedicated server.  The solution?  Find a local web company that leases a dedicated server.  They will be glad to share the cost with dozens of other small business owners, like you, who just want their website to work as intended.