If you haven't launched a website for your business you're already falling behind your competition. Today's patients look to the Internet first for information about their medical care providers, and if you're not there it's entirely possible you're going to be left behind. It's not enough to just build a website though. It's not even enough to have a properly optimized website with cool features, vital information and attention getting applications.
Before you get any of that, you have to choose a good web hosting service.
Your website is completely useless if the server is constantly down for maintenance, so it's important to make sure you've got a web host with verifiable reliability. If they're down more than 2-3% of the time your patients are going to come looking for you and you're not going to be there. Accidents happen, server maintenance needs to be done, but a good web hosting service will have you online and going strong 98-99% of the time.
Be sure to ask about your ISP's (Internet Service Provider's) connection to the Internet. Ideally you're looking for a T3 connection, and you want to make sure you have plenty of space on the server. 5MB without mail is usually plenty; if your mail, system programs and log files are included in your space you should look for a host that offers a 15MB minimum. The last thing you want to do is miss an important email because you managed to completely fill your storage space with graphics.
You laugh, but it's been done.
Ask about domains and emails. Many ISP providers allow you to purchase a domain (i.e. http://www.yourbusiness.com/) with the email address to match .This is good if you want your customers to know who they're talking to and remember the name and URL of your company for repeat visits. It's much harder to remember http://lycos.com/amazon/79098789087CH than it is to just remember http://www.amazon.com/. (This isn't a valid URL, by the way, just an example I dreamed up.)
Most hosting services are going to have comparable pricing, so that shouldn't be a huge concern. The best way I've found to measure the success of a web hosting service is to speak with their current customers. If most of their clientele is happy with what they have to offer you're probably in pretty good hands. If they're not, you might want to start exploring other options-no matter how good a deal they're trying to push your way.
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