As the digital connectivity increases in leaps and bounds and the world continues to grow smaller because of it, businesses have started to realize their marketplace has become a tougher playground. As a website owner, you too may have noticed that making it on the internet has become a constant struggle. But, what if you could learn some lessons from your competitors and use that to beat them at their own game?

Let’s start by looking at some web hosting lessons you can glean from your competitors and then adapt to your business process for enhanced performance.

Relax – it’s free available information!

This information can be gathered with simple searches and research. You’d be surprised at how much information you can gather about your competitors by doing a Google query or using some free tools. You don’t need to be a hacker or a corporate spy to gather useful information about them, so you can put your mind at ease!

1. Who is their hosting provider?

The first thing you’ll want to know about a major competitor’s online presence is where their website has been hosted.

Use tools like HostAdvice or WhoIsHostingThis? to find out. Once you type in your competitor’s URL and hit the search button, you’ll see which web hosting provider they use. You’ll also be shown some additional information about the providers, like what sorts of packages they have to offer, the prices they go for and the locations of their servers.

Some of these tools even throw in customer reviews to give you a better idea of how the web hosting company treats its other customers.

2. How good is their host’s uptime record?

Once you have the name of the web hosting company your competitor is using, you’ll need to find out how good they really are. A good indication that a hosting provider knows what they’re doing is if they have a good uptime track record.

The worst thing that could happen to a business’ website is to be hosted on a server that’s frequently down. Your competitors could steal your potential clients if your website is down too often. No client wants to do business with you if they see your website isn’t online when they need you.

While you can find online tools to tell you how good a hosting company’s uptime record is, you can also sign up for notifications directly from companies whose job it is to know. Unless you know enough about technology to assess response times, it would be best to let ranking websites do all the work for you.

3. What operating systems do they use?

The argument about whether Linux or Windows hosting is best will likely be around for a few more years. Both operating systems have businesses and individuals who swear by them.

No matter which you’re using, it would be a good idea to also know what your competitors are using. Perhaps their choice supports features you aren’t aware of or there’s a significant difference between the loading speeds of your respective pages. Whatever the reason may be, you can use these tools to find out what OS your competition prefers and see if you too can enhance your website’s performance.

4. See if their hosting provider offers more features

Once you’ve gathered this information, you can browse the hosting provider’s website and see what they have to offer. Detailed research might uncover a package your own hosting provider doesn’t offer.

Study these packages to see if you can’t offer better services to your clients and consumers. While you’re at it, you can also compare prices to see if you really are getting your money’s worth from your own hosting provider.

What to do with web hosting information

Now you’re armed with a ton of information that should help you:

• Compare the uptimes of your and your competitor’s hosting provider
• See if your competitor has a more efficient OS working in their favor
• Find out if there are any features you’re missing
• Confirm you’re actually getting the most bang for your buck

Once you have this information, you can decide whether or not to jump ship and join your competitor’s hosting provider. There is no shame in that. After all, you’re in business to offer the best service possible, whatever the cost maybe – your pride included.