A business in Malta needs a website, hosting for it and a business email address. Each part is simple on its own.
The problem is that they often come from three different suppliers, so when something stops working each one says the fault belongs to another. This applies to an established shop or office as much as to a new business.
Buy the domain yourself
Register the domain in your company’s name and use your own email address on the account. Some businesses find out years later that their web designer owns the address printed on their vans and invoices.
A .com.mt address shows the business is Maltese. A .com address works better outside Malta.
You can register both and point one at the other.
When to move off shared hosting
A simple website with a few pages, a menu and a contact form will run fine on shared cPanel hosting. There are three reasons to move to a virtual private server.
You need root access, your online shop is taking a lot of orders, or you run software that shared hosting does not allow. In Malta shared hosting starts at about a hundred euro a year.
A virtual private server starts at about a hundred and eighty euro a year.
Ask for a fixed price in writing
Web work is usually quoted in one of two ways. An hourly estimate can change, and the final cost is often higher than the first figure.
A fixed price agreed before the work starts does not change. It also makes both sides write down exactly what is being built.
If a supplier will not put a price in writing, the job has probably not been planned out yet.
Ask what happens after the site goes live. Agree the cost of small changes at the start, because it is harder to agree later.
Networks, phones and cameras
A shop or an office usually needs network cabling, wireless that reaches every room, a phone system and cameras. These are often bought from different suppliers.
That leaves you with several companies to call when something breaks. Buying them from one company usually costs about the same and gives you one number to ring.
Search visibility is a separate job
A new website does not appear in search results straight away. It appears when the pages answer questions people search for, and when other websites link to it.
Budget for this separately from the cost of building the site. No agency can guarantee a position in Google results, so treat that promise as a warning sign.
Moving an existing website
If you already have a website you are not stuck with the company that built it. A site can be moved to a new host without losing your email or your search results, as long as the move is planned.
Ask for the domain login, the hosting login and a copy of the site files before you start. If your current supplier will not hand these over, that is a reason to move rather than a reason to stay.
About AlphaTech Solutions
AlphaTech Solutions has worked in Malta since 2005. The company has five divisions: web design, hosting and domains, IT and networks, design and print, and custom applications.
Between them they cover websites and online shops, cPanel hosting and virtual private servers, network cabling, CCTV, VOIP phone systems and servers. They also do graphic design, printing, 3D printing and laser cutting.
They give a fixed price in writing before work starts and reply to enquiries within one working day. The team that builds a system also supports it afterwards. Their website is alphatech.ws.
