For the small business owner, one of the most cost effective ways to increase the exposure of their business is to take it online. The modern business environment requires even small businesses to expand their reach into markets around the world in order to remain competitive. By using the Internet, this task is made much easier. Small business web site hosting is your key to getting your small business "on the map" in today's online marketplace.

There are several web site hosting providers that cater to small business customers. They typically offer several packages to choose from in order to accommodate any budget. This includes low-cost, entry-level packages with basic features that allow you to get your feet wet as well as more expensive, high-end custom packages that are geared towards the serious business owner looking to truly stake their virtual claim online.

Regardless of the type of package you choose, the amount you are charged will be determined based on the amount of service offered by the hosting company as well as the disk space and bandwidth you have available for your account. It will also depend on the type of hosting you choose so it's a good idea to know the difference between the various options.

You will also have several types of hosting to choose from to power your small business web site. The cheapest web hosting will be a shared hosting environment where you and several other customers all share resources on the same server. Since multiple customers are placed on the same server, the hosting company can offer services at a reduced cost (in essence, allowing several customers to share the total cost). However, those customers all share the server's system resources too, including memory, disk space and other resources. This can become problematic if one customer is doing something that causes the system to get "bogged down" since doing so will have an impact on your site as well.

Shared hosting can be okay just starting out, but if your online presence becomes more critical for your business, a dedicated hosting account might be a better option. With dedicated hosting, you are the only customer on a particular server and are in full control. Dedicated hosting may or may not be managed by the hosting provider. If it is, then they take care of all the day-to-day maintenance of the server, security updates, software updates, and other routine tasks. If it's not managed, then you either have to take care of those tasks yourself or hire someone to do it for you. If you're unfamiliar with server administration, it's best to find someone that is or choose a hosting provider that includes management with the overall hosting plan. This can be one of the drawbacks to dedicated hosting and might keep some customers from choosing this option, at least in the beginning.

Another drawback of dedicated hosting is that it's much more expensive than a shared hosting account. Therefore, a middle-of-the-road solution might be choosing a Virtual Private Server (VPS). This type of setup offers most of the benefits found in a dedicated server but at a reduced cost (though still more expensive than shared hosting). On a VPS, each server still hosts multiple customers but because of the way they're setup, it's less likely that one customer's actions will have ill effects on other people sharing the same server. VPS hosting can also be managed or unmanaged so the same recommendations made regarding dedicated hosting apply here too...if you're unfamiliar with server management, either hire it out or choose your hosting provider that can do this for you.

If you're ready to get started getting your business a foothold online, the best thing you can do is start researching your options. A simple search online can put you a few clicks away from some of the top hosting providers available. The good news is that there are several high-quality companies to choose from which should allow you to make a smooth transition as you bring your offline business onto the global marketplace of the Internet.