If you are getting ready to put together your first website for your small business, there are a number of things you will need to know before you get started. From managed web hosting versus shared hosting, and web design software versus hiring a real web designer, there are many decisions to be made as you are setting your website up. This list will help you make the decisions that are best for your unique situation.

Is this type of hosting right for you? There are two basic kinds of web hosting for small businesses: managed, also known as dedicated hosting, and shared hosting. Dedicated hosting is more expensive, as you are getting a server all to yourself, which means you alone bear the brunt of the cost of the purchasing, maintaining, and running the equipment. With shared hosting, you share the server with many other clients, with partitions so they can't access your section of the server, which reduces the cost quite a bit.

In general, most small businesses who only want a website for advertising purposes shouldn't need managed web hosting. The limited space and bandwidth, traffic, available with a shared hosting plan should be plenty for these types of small websites. However, as always there are exceptions to the rule.

For instance, if you happen to be launching an ecommerce website, you will probably want to have more storage space and bandwidth than a shared hosting plan can provide. Also, shared hosting tends to mean slower page loading times, since you are sharing the server with so many other websites. As a result, if you want or need your website to load as fast as possible, managed web hosting is probably the better choice for you.

Should you hire a designer? Hiring a web designer to build your website can cost a pretty penny, but if you get a good designer, you will probably be glad you did. A professionally designed website is usually much more attractive, and much more unique, than the cookie cutter designs website building software can offer.

Again, most small businesses will not have the budget or the need for expensive web designers. A website that is simply there to give your store's hours and driving directions likely does not need to have a fancy design. Also, oftentimes a web designer doesn't give you the files to your website, but uploads them to the server themselves; so if you want to be able to access and update your website whenever you want, without having to pay your designer every time, web design software has its advantages.

Once again, however, there are exceptions to the rule. For instance, if you plan to do more with your website than simply give your business's hours and location, a nicer website design can often encourage people to spend their money with you. If your website needs to offer more complicated features such as a shopping cart and checkout system, you will save yourself a lot of headache and hassle by hiring a designer.

Should you pay extra for an email plan? With many web hosting companies, you will have to pay extra, or at least upgrade to a more business friendly hosting plan, if you want email addresses with your domain name. Regardless of whether you expect your business to be big or small, slow or lucrative, if you plan on doing any business online it is highly recommended to pay the extra. Having an email address with your domain name gives you a more professional image when dealing with clients online, and may inspire greater trust in new clients as well.

There are a lot of tough decisions to make when setting up your first website for your business, and these are only a few of the things you will need to think about. However, choosing between managed web hosting and shared hosting, deciding whether or not to hire a web designer, and choosing your email addresses are also some of the most important choices you must make.