Benefits of Offshore Web Hosting

Every website must be hosted. And there are a myriad of ways to do this. There is cloud hosting services and virtual private servers and dedicated hosting services and on and on. The choices for how an individual or organization wants their website hosted are nearly endless. And it is because of all of these options that many get lost in the differences. To begin to get a comprehensive understanding of all the options, it is good to start with just one: Offshore web hosting. This type of hosting allows individuals and organizations to host their site in a different country than they or their business are in. There are several reasons that this type of hosting can be advantageous:

1. Cost

Offshore web hosting can save companies money for various reasons. One of the big ones is that some countries have more motivating taxation policies than others. While this is not always the case, depending on what country the company is in and what country they want to host in, often times there are several offshore web hosts that can provide some sort of financial break when it comes to taxes.

Additionally, many times offshore web hosting costs less. This is especially true for companies that are in the United States. Many European web hosts charge less for space in their server than their American counterparts. One of the reasons that offshore web hosting in places like Iceland can cost less is because they will not charge extra for any desired customization. In other words, companies will have a wider range of hardware selections with offshore hosting providers and, while they do provide the equivalent basic hosting packages that companies will find in their own countries, they are often happy to customize a hardware configuration that best suits a business’ needs. In the end, this means that companies get a lower price yet better quality.

2. Anonymity

Not every organization or individual feels that they need this, but in a time where invasive surveillance is more prevalent than ever, a little anonymity can not be a bad thing. And this is what offshore web hosting provides. Data is both more confidential and generally safer. Offshore web hosting is known to help prevent identity theft, as well as provide a layer of identity protection. Not only is this important for every single individual and organization, in an effort to protect against financial damage, but for those who would like to share information with the world that could upset a government, a company, or a powerful individual, this type of protection is a necessity.

3. Freedom

Not only does increased anonymity through offshore web hosting allow individuals and organizations to feel more free to share what they need and want to share, but there is generally more tangible freedom with offshore web hosting. Local web hosting providers can block a website if the content is not seen as acceptable by the government—there is also the potential that power or money could come into play with blocking a website. This can all be avoided by simply opting for offshore web hosting, where the company’s or individual’s home country has no say in the content that is hosted on foreign soil.

4. Reliability

Another consideration that should go into choosing a web hosting provider is where the server is located. It may be best for organizations to stay away from deals with web hosting providers that are stationed in areas with high rates of natural disasters. Floods, tornadoes, earthquakes and other similar forces of nature have the potential to bring servers down and a total loss of data can occur. And when it comes to organizations that are located in these areas themselves, they may want to consider going with an offshore web hosting provider in a safe area who could be a reliable backup in case important material is lost.

6. Load Time And Customer Preferences

Another important consideration is what your customers or website visitors would prefer. It is essential for companies to consider what location they are trying to reach. If they are located in the United States but have a large customer base in Europe—or vice versa—they may want to consider relying on an offshore web hosting provider somewhere in between, such as Iceland. This will allow the company to seem closer to where they are trying to sell to. Not only will the load time be faster, but people tend to prefer making purchases closer to where they are getting their items shipped—there is a sense that the shipping process will be safer, faster and more secure.

And back to website load time, this is important. The most obvious reason for its importance is that customers get annoyed when they have to wait too long for a website to load what they are looking for. If it takes too long, they will just move on to another site. But there is also the weight that a website’s load time has on Google’s algorithm. The search engine’s algorithm is beginning to have a better and better understanding of how to create the most relevant and useful results and because it knows that users care about how well a website functions, load time effects Google rankings. The faster your website loads, the higher it will be ranked on people’s queries and searches. Therefore, being a little bit closer to your target market can only help this ranking.

For more information about how offshore web hosting works, please contact us.