Choosing the right web hosting company can have a significant impact on the success of your online presence. When determining which web host is right for you, look at these 6 tips to ensure your WordPress website is fast and secure.
If you intend to use WordPress, small business owners have many different options when looking for a web hosting service. Take some time to consider all of your options carefully so that you can make an informed decision.
What exactly is a web host and what does it do?
Every website needs a place to live on the Internet. This place is called hosting. Hosting means storing files and providing a way for people around the world to access those files at all times via their computers or smartphones.
If you’re serious about your business and want your site available at all times, never missing an opportunity, then you need a web host that offers 24/7 support, a 99.9% uptime guarantee, and one that can handle rapid spikes in traffic without affecting the site performance.
The right web host can help you avoid outages during high-traffic periods, which is essential if you have customers who are paying by credit card or who have already committed to buying from you in some way.
They should be able to provide better service with fewer problems than their competitors, so the quality of service is extremely important. Also critical is speed, as customers expect websites to load fast.
What are different types of web hosting?
To truly compare web hosting, you must first understand what your various options have to offer. In summary, there are three types of web hosting packages: shared hosting, virtual private servers, and dedicated servers.
Each of these options provides varying levels of security and server performance, so it’s important to familiarise yourself with them all before deciding which is best for your company.
Here are the 6 tips to choose the right web hosting
1. Reliability
Speed is important, but reliability is critical. If your website crashes, you could lose hundreds or thousands of dollars. You’ll want a web host that has multiple servers, load-balancing technology, and other ways to make sure your website stays up and running as much as possible.
A quick check on uptime ratings at sites like Site Uptime or Uptime Robot can give you an idea of how reliable a host is. It’s also helpful to read reviews from real customers before signing up with any host; there are often complaints about downtime in user reviews that you can use as clues. A good rule of thumb: Look for hosts with averages of at least 95 percent uptime.
2. Security
Security is a must when it comes to web hosting. Without security, your site could be compromised by hackers and your valuable data could be stolen.
Avoid using hosts that don’t offer two-factor authentication, secure servers, and SSL certificates. Ideally, they should also have their own firewalls in place to prevent potential threats from entering their servers.
Test out any host you are considering before deciding on one with multiple tools such as Pingdom, Security Headers, Sucuri Site Check, and others. If a host fails a single security test, it may not be worth your time or money.
3. Server Performance
The hosting company you choose should have servers that are fast and have low-latency connections. If they don’t, your website is likely to appear slow and visitors will leave quickly.
You may think high numbers of concurrent users isn’t a big deal but it can have a significant impact on server performance. More visitors hitting your site at once means more stress on your servers which means slower load times, increased latency, and potential downtime.
Make sure any web host you choose can handle increased traffic when it comes up—and has plans in place if things get really busy. As an added bonus, you won’t need as much server power so you won’t end up overpaying for services you don’t need.
4. Support Options
Make sure your chosen host offers 24/7 support. If you’re a small business owner, you need reliable hosting that you can depend on, especially if there are any problems with your website.
The best web hosts offer around-the-clock support through live chat or email tickets. Keep in mind that most businesses will provide tech support during regular business hours (typically 9 am–5 pm), so it’s worth double-checking what time zone they operate in and their typical response times.
You might also want to make sure that any technical issues will be solved by phone, as those issues often require more interaction than an email ticket does.
5. Uptime Guarantee
This should be a no-brainer. One thing shared web hosting companies are very clear about is their uptime guarantee, which ranges from 99.9% up to a little more than 100%.
This means your site is guaranteed to be online and accessible at least 99.9% of each month. When you have an online business, even one day of downtime can cause serious problems with conversions and customer satisfaction. Be sure you know what kind of uptime comes with each plan before you sign up.
6. Value Per Dollar
When it comes to finding a web host, there are many aspects of price and value that need to be considered. If you choose a shared hosting plan that provides more than your business actually needs, you could be paying for services you aren’t utilizing.
The data transfer should reflect how much traffic your website receives; if it doesn’t, you’re most likely overpaying. For example, if your site receives an average of 500 visitors a day, but is allowed 2 GB of data transfer per month without being penalized or throttled by your service provider (which happens with many shared hosting providers), then your host is inflating their pricing structure in order to make more money off of you. Don’t fall into these traps!
Conclusion
There are many options when it comes to choosing a web host. You will want to choose a company that offers speed, security, and reliability if you want your website or e-commerce store to be successful. Look for these must-haves to ensure your WordPress website is fast and secure.
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