#11 Hosting Website Support Section
Matt 
UK Web Hosting, Web Development, Web Hosting 
hosting help, hosting support, web hosting supportYour customers will no doubt need some support at some time or another. Check that they know how to contact you easily & include your e-mail address. You should also invest in a support system.
Tip: It is important to note that support systems should be well linked to from the blog, forum and contact page at a minimum.
FAQ / Knowledgebase
As stated earlier you could setup a secondary blog and use it to post general questions and answers. You could obtain a knowledgebase script or use one that is built into a support or billing system.
If you create a secondary blog and call it your knowledgebase this will be ideal for hosting lots of questions and answers about servers, setting up accounts, questions about your company etc. By doing this you get many more pages indexed in search engines. This results in there being more chance of a user finding your website.
Hosting Wesbite Quick Summary Points
- Make it easily accessible.
- Use the 3 click rule where users should only have to click three links maximum to find the content that they are looking for. Good navigation on each page helps to achieve this.
- List pricing and package details.
- Ensure customers have your details.
#10 Hosting Company Website Features
Matt UK Web Hosting, Web Development, Web Host Marketing, Web Hosting hosting forum, hostinh communityBackground Information
Include some information about yourself & do not pretend to be someone you are not. If you are the only person running the company then share this information. If you are asked about this then let the customer know, do not lie as you will be found out.
Tip: If a customer wants to be hosted by a larger company then you can explain that:
1. Firstly you have more time for your customers and will get to know them on a more personal level understanding personal needs.
2. Secondly you can provide one on one support.
Company Details
Ensure the customer has your company details. This should include your name, address, phone number or e-mail and your company registration number. VAT Number if applicable.
Ordering system
There should be a link on your website that clients can click to login and check their invoices and packages.
#9 Hosting Website – Contact Information
Your hosting company website should have all the information a visitor needs to contact you. Create an e-mail account that is related to the website, NO free e-mail accounts. For example:
- your.name@yourdomain.com
- support@yourdomain.com
- sales@yourdomain.com
- billing@yourdomain.com
Remember the more accounts you make the more you have to check and this can be time consuming. Separate accounts are good for keeping your e-mails organised. You know that support e-mails will be at the support address and your invoices at billing for example.
If you want to offer phone support then include the relevant numbers for visitors.
Include your business information and address.
If you want to offer live chat services then include these on the contact page too. Chat systems can range from using Windows Live Messenger, Skype and AIM. There are also live chat programs that can be installed on your web space or run from a third party server. This will enable you to login online and talk to customers who visit your website. No matter how you go about this the most important thing is to appear professional.
#8 Hosting Website – Pricing Details
When creating your hosting website you should include some hosting package specifications on your home page and create links to a page where they can be compared. If a customer is coming to your site for hosting, the information they want needs to be available without them having to look for it.
Look at other hosting sites to get ideas as there is a variety of ways to display this type of information. List any information regarding the server that is relevant to the package. This can be anything from the version of PHP running to the number of MySQL databases each package has.
Tip: Clients will be looking for information about space and bandwidth allowances. I recommend you place these at the top along with the price and an order button.
Ensure the customer has a good idea of your pricing; visitors do not want to go through half of your website just to try and find the price. It needs to be accessible as your site will not be the only one that they will be looking at. Make it easy for them to compare each of your packages and more importantly ensure that access to your order form is obvious to the visitor.