A website is the heart—and face—of your business. Keeping it running uninterrupted is indispensable. Your online presence can be a make or break for your business: most customers visit the business’ website before making a purchase.
Deciding where
to host your website is therefore no small business. Much depends on choosing
the right WordPress hosting provider (assuming you are or want to be a member
of the sixty-three-percent club that uses
WordPress as their content management system). The number
of options and the implications of the choice demand careful consideration. The
right host can provide the environment and impetus needed for your site to
flourish and grow.
Understand your hosting needs
There are a
number of WordPress hosting types: shared, dedicated, managed, cloud, and
virtual private server.
- Shared hosting: Multiple
websites are hosted on the same server. Performance is low since resources are
shared. The price is low, too. This gives a good balance between cost and
performance, and is a good option if you are operating on a small scale.
- Dedicated
hosting: An entire server is dedicated exclusively to a website. The result is
high performance, security and stability, and greater customization. With this
comes costs—maintenance, manpower, etc.
- Virtual
private server (VPS) hosting: In this, a portion of the physical
server is dedicated solely to a website, with dedicated resources. This allows
for greater control and flexibility with reasonable performance.
- Cloud hosting: Here, the
website data are spread over multiple servers and data centers. This makes it
easy to scale and personalized. Downtime also tends to be low.
- Managed
hosting: The hosting and tasks—some or all—that come with it are managed by a
provider. The upkeep of the site is done by technical experts who ensure that
it performs optimally and without hiccups.
The
suitability will depend on your priorities, cost considerations, and goals. And
so making the right choice is predicated on knowing what you need and want.
However, if
you are just launching a new site, this can be difficult. And with copious
options and features on the table—not all of which you do need right away—it’s
important to focus on a few key factors or features that are critical. Making a
checklist of what you need, or don’t need, and segregating them into, for
example, “must-haves” and “nice-to-haves”, can be helpful. It may be sensible
to hire
WordPress developers or seek the assistance of a specialized
WordPress development company to set up the site for you. This way you can have
a solid foundation and also reduce overhead costs.
Key factors to consider while choosing a WordPress hosting provider
Whilst there
is no objective right WordPress hosting provider, there are certain features or
factors that all good providers have and which you would do well to consider.
These contribute to the functionality, performance, reliability, and overall
success of your business’ website.
Pricing plan
and policies, though not a feature, is a factor that needs to be considered.
This includes billing cycle, cancellation charges, if any, and other hidden
fees. You need to take into account not just direct costs but the overhead
costs, such as expenses that would be incurred on plugins, domain name
registration, and subscription fees for eCommerce services. If you are on a
shoestring, then shared hosting may seem the obvious choice. But sharing a
server has several downsides, not least the susceptibility to what is called
the “bad neighbor effect”: you shoulder the bane of sites you co-habit but not
share their boon. So, while pricing is important, it must not take precedence
over other more critical factors.
The following
are some other crucial factors to consider while WordPress hosting for your
business.
Server type and performance
Of the many
important factors, performance is one of the most critical. It affects your
website’s visibility; page speed directly influences its ranking on the search
engine results page. It’s also crucial if you want your visitors to stick
around. 53 percent of visitors leave a site if it takes more than three seconds
to load, according to Google
Consumer Insights, and 46 percent do not return
to a website that takes too long to load, as a 2020 survey shows. Both these
numbers likely have increased as users expect more and now have more choices.
Opt for a
provider with high-performance servers and enough bandwidth to support sudden
spikes in traffic. Aim for a server load speed under 300ms. Choose a host that
uses a content delivery network and that has servers close to your area of
operations. This will reduce the load time for visitors from that region.
Reliability and security
Downtimes are
a nuisance for you, the website owner, and an annoyance for visitors. You
potentially lose reputation and customers. It also negatively impacts your
site’s visibility. Choose a host that ensures an uptime of not less than
99.97%. This is not so high a bar; it still leaves room for about 150 minutes
of downtime in a year.
Choose a
WordPress hosting with adequate security systems in place. Some security
measures to check include SSL certificates, firewalls, malware scanning, DDoS
protection, brute force defense, and server hardening. Do not overlook regular
backups, too. No site is immune from cyber attacks or malware. Indeed, malware
is rampant. According to a report by
Patchstack, 42 percent of WordPress websites have on
average at least one vulnerable software installed. Choosing a host that
provides malware removal service is thus important.
It is also
important to understand how much and which aspects of the site’s security are
handled by the hosting provider. This will give a clearer idea of measures you
have to take and what you should do to pre-empt attacks and in the case of an
attack or infection, how to deal with it. This may require having on-board
WordPress developers and experts who know the ins and outs.
Ease of use
An easy-to-use
control panel and user-friendly interface are essential for efficiently and
effectively managing and maintaining your website. It should be simple but not
so much as to be devoid of features and functions. Ideally, it should enable
users of varying technical skills to navigate the hosting environment
effectively.
Look for
hosting providers that offer a user-friendly control panel—cPanel and Plesk,
for example—and intuitive interfaces. A friendly and simple control panel makes
it easier to manage various aspects of your website, such as configuring
settings, managing files, monitoring performance and security, and
troubleshooting issues.
Customer support
We are all
customers in one way or another, and we have all been at the receiving end of
customer service. Nobody hardly needs a reminder of how important it is and how
annoying poor customer support can be. You need to establish that a host has
good customer support before you make a decision.
Test their
responsiveness and competence by getting in touch with customer support. Assess
how they provide support and the method of communication. You should be able to
contact them via a medium that is convenient for you—phone, email, or live
chat.
And with
AI-enabled chatbots being incorporated into every support system, humans have
been distanced or detached. Ensure that the support staff is easily accessible.
Scalability
Whether you
are just launching a site or migrating to a new host, you don’t want your
potential to be capped by the server. Whether, or more positively, how quickly,
you expect your website to grow, choosing a scalable hosting solution provides
you the flexibility and resources needed to handle increased traffic without
experiencing performance issues or facing downtime.
Consider the
ease with which the provider allows you to scale up or down. It should give you
the option to do so quickly and seamlessly.
Choosing a
WordPress hosting provider with easy scaling options will put you in a better
position to handle future growth and spikes in traffic. This will ensure that
you do not need sudden, reactive upgrades as your site grows.
Special features and extras
Most hosting
providers provide the basic necessary features as standard. But you may need
more than the basic; specific features and functionalities to take your site
above and beyond. Say your website is primarily an online store, what special
eCommerce features does the host provide? Does it provide specific tools that
cater to your unique needs or industry requirements?
Among other
things, you may want to look for SEO-focused features like sitemap generation
and meta tag management; features like server-level optimization for
performance enhancement; and analytics and marketing tools to track your
website performance, gather user data, and implement marketing campaigns.
Consider also
if the host is developer-friendly. Development features like staging
environments, Git integration, and access to advanced server configurations can
be useful. These give you greater control over your site and let you tweak as
you think necessary. Even if you do not have a development team, these features
may come in handy should you get a WordPress
development company to inspect and improve your site.
Conclusion
Choosing the
right hosting provider is a critical step. It directly impacts your business's
online presence, which can in turn affect other areas of your business such as
reputation and customer experience. It is not something that can be overlooked
or taken lightly.
Though there
are numerous hosting providers, migrating from one to another is a hassle.
Choosing the right WordPress hosting for your business can spare you this
trouble and plenty of others. And it will provide the right environment,
nurture your site, and help it grow.
Author Bio : Amelia Swank is
a senior web and app developer with over 8 years of experience. Currently with
SunTec India, she specializes in the domain of digital solutions, specifically WordPress development, Web App Development, Shopify development, Magento development. Her
passion for technology fuels her writing, aimed at spreading insights to all.
Amelia closely follows the latest IT advances to share her expertise with those
interested in the field.