You’ve probably figured out by now that deciding on a web hosting Services is one of your most important business decisions.
Consider this: Your website’s performance, loading speed, and security will all be affected by the hosting provider you choose, so don’t just go with the cheapest option.
You’ve got the gist.
As a result of the abundance of choices, here are a few things and features to keep in mind when looking for a web host.
How might hosting affect your company?
A successful website usually has three components:
- Speed of page loading (not just the 3-second rule for your homepage)
- Clear navigation on your website improves the user experience (think about how you want users to engage with your website)
- Engagement with content and visual identity (the way your work and your website design make a visitor feel)
In addition to the three points above, lead and traffic generation to your website are critical for increasing inquiries and brand engagement.
On a more productive level, poor hosting often necessitates more time and effort to fix.
Even if it appears that a theme or plugin is to blame, it is more likely that your hosting does not support the new features introduced with each new version of your website.
If you want to make significant updates, you’ll have to ask your host for permission each time.
Consider the following stats as a starting point:
Speed: 53 percent of mobile site visitors leave a page that takes longer than three seconds to load, according to a recent Google study.
If a visitor can’t find their way around the site, they’ll likely leave and never return because first impressions do matter.
Sales: For the sake of argument, let’s pretend that your website is a worker.
Having a successful website is great, but are you giving your salesperson all the resources they need to sell your work?
Because of poor hosting, your website is likely to be slow and buggy as well, especially if you do not maintain and test it on a regular basis.
Ultimately, this results in lost leads, which is the primary goal of having a website in the first place.”
In our experience, it’s more likely that your website has usability issues if most of your inquiries come from social media platforms rather than your own website.
There are a number of reasons why your website may not be receiving as many leads as it should, including a slow web hosting provider or a lack of qualified leads (or at least it should be).
Websites that are down or don’t work properly can cost businesses thousands of dollars in lost leads and sales.
Moreover, this is a factual claim.
You may be missing out on sales opportunities if your website is slow to load or otherwise unreliable.
Security: It’s a question of prevention versus reaction when it comes to security.
As a general rule, it is better to prevent a disaster than to respond to it after the fact.
An SSL certificate is the simplest way to ensure that your website is safe for visitors and clients to use.
Free SSL certificates are available from a plethora of web hosts.
In addition to anti-spam solutions, they also offer backup and restore options.
Keeping this in mind will help you narrow down your options when it comes to web hosting companies.
SEO: Search engine optimization (SEO) is essential if you want your website to be found by people using Google’s search engine.
Speed and security have become important ranking factors for Google searches.
Both of these requirements rely heavily on your web hosting.
Another reason to invest wisely is when selecting a service provider.
What to look for in a hosting company:
Within the five areas listed below, you should be on the lookout for some obvious features as well as some less obvious ones:
1. Speed
You need to be able to optimize your site for speed in order to reap the benefits of fast hosting.
If you’ve spent weeks or months trying to improve your site’s speed, you may find that you can’t do much more because your hosting is weak.
That is why it’s critical that your website loads quickly on all devices, especially mobile ones, when making your selection of a service provider, as Google factors site speed into organic search results.
2. Server Location
The closest server options to your location and the locations of your users should be considered when selecting a hosting provider.
Visitors to your site will notice a significant difference in how quickly your site loads as a result of this.
If you live in Paris and need to connect to a server in Amsterdam, the Netherlands is the closest option.
A CDN (content delivery network) will help speed up your site’s loading time for visitors from around the world, so if you get a lot of traffic from around the world, make sure your hosting provider includes one in your chosen package.
3. Price
Even though it’s simple to compare prices, web hosting is an investment that shouldn’t be made solely on the basis of cost.
Think of hosting like a hard drive.
How much would you be willing to pay for an older SATA hard drive (disc drive) or an SSD drive?
The following hosting features are essential for 90% of photo-based websites and blogs:
- WordPress has a one-click installation feature (which makes installing WordPress much easier)
- On average, you’ll need about 20GB of web space to store your image media.
- Solid-state drives (faster site loading)
- Options for making a copy of your data and restoring it
- Options for enhancing security (preventing malware or hacks is a major point)
- An encryption key (SSL) is required (https instead of http which is important for Google and your visitors)
- The CDN (content delivery network for faster image loading time)
- Alternatives for Moving a Web Site (a benefit if you plan to move from one host to another)
4. Customer Support
In terms of customer service, it’s important to note that sales and technical support are usually handled by separate departments and respond to customers in different ways.
While we have live chat sales at Flothemes because we can respond quickly, response times for technical support are dependent on both the volume of tickets and the length of time it takes to resolve issues that customers encounter.
There are some issues that can be resolved in a matter of minutes, while others can take hours to investigate and find a solution to, which most clients are unaware of.
We recommend that you put your hosting finalists to the test in the following manner:
- See how quickly they respond to your live chats or Facebook messages, and if they’re available during the hours you need them to be.
See how quickly they respond and what types of support they offer, such as email, chat, a ticketing system, and so on.
- Inquire about other people’s experiences with the company’s technical support if you seek advice online.
Customer service or user error may be the cause of negative feedback, so inquire to find out.
- Are they for-profit or non-profit companies?
Is there any information about their past?
Smaller independent private hosting companies have better offerings and faster support within the time frames they offer – which may not be 24/7 – while it is profitable to jump on major brand names.
5. Site Traffic
Is your website receiving a tonne of traffic?
Is this your first time out, or are you just getting started?
Consider this when making a decision about your web host.
For the first six to twelve months of your business, a shared hosting plan will suffice for your needs.
It’s not going to work if you have a well-established blog or website that receives a lot of traffic on a regular basis.
Google Analytics is a great tool for keeping tabs on the growth of your website and the number of monthly visitors.
To help you decide whether or not you should change hosting providers, you can use this information.
Conclusion
It’s best to speak with one of our recommended hosting providers if you’re looking to switch providers.
To ensure that your data is moved correctly, see what options they provide. Many of them offer free or paid switching services.
Free domains, one-click WordPress installation, and excellent site backup options are also offered by some other web hosting providers.
It’s better to think of getting a good hosting service as an investment in your business rather than a cost to be avoided at all costs.
Don’t settle for the first service provider you find, and don’t base your decision solely on price.
You get a lot of bang for your buck when you host with us.
Decisions you make now will have a direct impact on your site’s performance and customer experience.