What do your grandmother’s prize winning tomatoes and ecommerce sites have in common? They both require nurturing (early and often) in order to grow and thrive. The outlook for ecommerce is brighter than ever according to recent numbers released by Jupiter Media.  A look at the research says that online retail spending will increase from $81 billion to in 2005 to $95 billion in 2007. By 2010, the internet will influence nearly half of total retail sales. The amount of benefit you reap from the internet business explosion will be directly related to the quality of the seeds you are sowing today.

To be successful, your web site needs sunshine every bit as much as your grandmother’s tomato garden.  In other words, your web site needs to see the light of day. In order for that to happen you must periodically “weed out” stale copy and graphics.  Keep your information current and easy to find.  Studies show that people do not READ web pages, they SCAN them. Make sure your key messages ring out loud and clear. Often you have only a few seconds to convince the surfer to linger on your site.

Internet marketing and search engine optimization are fundamental components of business marketing. With research confirming that the vast majority of searches end within the first two pages of results, prominent placement on the internet’s major search engines becomes critically important.  The proper use of keywords on your site has much to do with your search engine rankings and the resultant traffic. A key word can be one word or a combination of several words which best describe what your web page is about or has to offer. If you are unsure about how to effectively use keywords, talk to your web host to decide the words and phrases that will maximize visits to your site.

Like your grandmother’s tomatoes, your ecommerce site can be a target for pests, such as  viruses that can cause inconvenience or financial loss for you and for your customers. Talk to  your web host about how to maximize your site’s security so that your customers feel safe doing business with you. Your web host should have systems in place to protect your site from unwelcome viruses and intruders. Additionally, they should have privacy guards that assure your customers that their personal and financial information remains safe.

Your granny’s tomatoes need plenty of room to grow and thrive and so does your web site. You need a web host and server that allow you room for maximum business growth and success. You may want to add pages, graphics, features scripts, databases etc, to your site in the future. Make sure your web host can accommodate your growth.

The best web hosts know that when their servers are filling up, it makes sound business sense to replace them before they are full. Reputable web hosts understand that servers not only need to remain up, they also need to perform well. The best web hosts never test changes and upgrades on production servers. They will explore all of the potential side effects of any upgrade so their customers will know in advance.

Web hosting empowers you and anyone with a computer and internet connection to create your own personal “garden” in cyberspace. In your space, you can have news, bulletins, documents, data, files (your web site) and your own post office (mail server) to accept mail, all in the context of you or your business

Do your research. If your web host is not doing everything they can to help you harvest a healthy crop, then you need to find another person to help you plant and sow. Having the right host can mean the difference between a healthy crop and dying on the vine.