Here are some important first thoughts:
Dedicated or shared – the first type is usually more costly than a shared server.
What about the IP address that the hosting company uses to host the website – if your website is hosted with an IP address that has been previously banned, you risk you own site suffering Google penalties and other disadvantages
Website platform – are all ways to create a website equal? No they are definitely not.
At one time web design was a completely different area of IT than SEO. But now, no contemporary designer would create a website without thinking about the impact of the design on the chances of the website being ‘read’ by the search engines.
People read the front end of a website – images, text, contact forms etc., but search engines read the back end of a website. The back end consists of the meta tags and alt tags etc., If these sections are not completed the search engines haven’t got a clue about the content or purpose of your website.
I am sure you will appreciate what that would mean if getting traffic to your website is the primary purpose of its creation.
This is why it is so important that you choose the right type of website in the first place.
We, and many other design companies use Content Management Systems to design their clients’ websites. We primarily use WordPress as we believe they are the best websites. One other point is that there are 2 types of WordPress – WordPress.com and WordPress.org.
We use and recommend WordPress.org. These should be hosted on a server with a company that will also support you throughout the process.
Back to the WordPress websites. What have these to offer over and above others? – optimisability and adaptability – making them readable by the search engines and adaptable to all the latest design and functions that the ever changing digital and SEO industry can throw at us.