Happy Friday everyone,
After nearly 30 years running a web business, I thought it might be worth telling you about the most boring part of what we do. ;0)
The funny thing is, the least glamorous part of the internet is often the most critical.
Everyone loves talking to me about websites. Their branding, the site design, marketing, SEO, AI, social media, whatever the hot topic of the day is.
Very few want to talk about the most basic but most important service we provide, Website Hosting. I get it. It’s boring. It’s just a piece of real estate online. You can’t see it and therefore, to most of my clients, it’s not really a topic they want to discuss.
Yet hosting is the foundation that your website, databases and online enquiries all sit on.
It’s a bit like the wiring in a building. No one sees it and therefore few care about it. But without the wiring, nothing works. In the 80s I worked for a while as an electrician’s mate. Job description: knock holes in walls and ceilings, crawl under floors and up lofts doing all the dirty work pulling cables through while getting covered in cobwebs and dodging rodent traps. All good fun. Those were the days ;0)
Anyway, back to hosting. Behind every website there are things that have to be looked after constantly. Software updates. Security checks. Backups. Performance monitoring. Protection of the data that passes through the site such as names, enquiries, orders and addresses.
It’s not glamorous work, but it is the day to day monitoring and protection that matters.
Over the years I’ve seen plenty of businesses put a website online and assume that’s the job done. Sometimes their site is built by a friend, a relative, or someone who “knows computers.” It sits on cheap hosting somewhere and no one looks at it again.
Until something goes wrong.
The site slows down.
It gets hacked.
It starts serving spam pages.
The SSL Certificate (padlock) is down showing site as insecure. (This is often the moment they call us).
At Toltech we manage hundreds of websites for Scottish businesses, monitoring them, updating them, backing them up and protecting them so our clients don’t have to worry.
Our aim is simple. If something goes wrong with your website, you should be able to speak to a real person who understands your site and can actually help. Whether it’s support, updates, or advice about making changes, we’re there.
We’re based here in the Glasgow area, not hidden behind a faceless organisation running ticketing systems and automated responses. Our clients deal with real people who know their business and their website.
In terms of pricing, we aren’t much different from the bigger providers. The difference is simply that you know who you’re dealing with.
As I said at the beginning, hosting is not the most exciting part of the web.
But it’s the work that keeps your digital world running.
And after nearly three decades doing this, I can tell you that peace of mind is worth having.
Grahame 😊
