How Discount Web Hosting Can Hurt Sales
When business owners don’t see a value in something, they tend to avoid investing money in it. It’s just how we are. We have to protect the business, and that means spending our money wisely. Sometimes it can be to our detriment though. Especially when something has a value to our business and we fail to see it. Web hosting definitely falls into that category. Here’s why:
Hosting Versus Domain Name Registration
First, I should probably start by explaining exactly what hosting is. I run into business owners all the time that confuse hosting with domain registration. “Our site’s hosted through GoDaddy” – I hear that all the time, when in fact they don’t have hosting setup at all once you log into their account. Domain registration simply reserves your name. Don’t confuse it with hosting. It doesn’t give you a space on a server somewhere to load your site files. That is what hosting is and GoDaddy does both. Hosting is just a space on a computer server (host) that stores your site files and displays your site to visitors by serving up HTML code. So, name registration reserves your website address, and hosting gives you a place to store your site files and serve them up to visitors. There’s an ongoing charge for both services if you want to keep a website live on the Internet.
What Are My Web Hosting Options?
- Shared Hosting – It’s just that, shared. Your site sits on a server with several others. This is the cheapest option, and something any serious business should avoid like the plague. You could be on the same server with a hacked site selling discount pharmaceuticals from overseas to middle-age+ men. When that site gets taken down, yours does too until the security problems are fixed. This can take hours or days! On the opposite end of the spectrum, you might be sharing a server with a high-traffic site that’s completely fine from a security standpoint, but a resource hog. Your page load times will suffer, and your Google ranking will drop.
- VPS Hosting – This stands for Virtual Private Server, and it gets rid of the security concerns I mentioned with shared hosting. What it doesn’t get rid of is the possible resource bottleneck. You could still be on a server with a resource hog.
- Dedicated Server – This is only for sites with a lot of traffic. I mean, a lot of traffic. You don’t really need this unless your site is a big authority within your industry. It’s expensive, and there’s a much better option for most businesses that I will cover next.
- Managed WordPress – As far as I’m concerned, this is the gold standard for most of the businesses I work with. Managed WordPress is the most secure option if you plan to host a WordPress site. And why wouldn’t you choose WordPress? Do you just prefer to call your web guy, wait 3 days, and get billed $120 just to update the phone number on your website? If not, you need a WordPress site. WordPress gives you control, not the web development agency. And Managed WordPress Web Hosting keeps your security patches updated automatically. You get backups every 24 hours. It’s optimized for speed. It just flipping works. END OF STORY! And it works damn well for almost any small or mid-size business at a fraction of the cost of maintaining a dedicated server.
Advantages of Managed WordPress Hosting
If you are running a WordPress website, it is important to choose the right hosting provider. Not all hosting providers are created equal as we’ve already pointed out, and not all of them offer the same level of service. Managed WordPress hosting is a type of hosting that is specifically designed for WordPress websites. Let’s discuss the advantages of managed WordPress hosting and why you should consider switching to a managed WordPress host.
The Most Secure WordPress Hosting?
It’s all about security! WordPress is a content management system (CMS) that powers over 30% of all websites on the internet. It is an open-source platform, which means that anyone can contribute to its development. While this is great for innovation, it also makes WordPress a target for hackers. Using a password manager and leveraging a quality VPN service will help you reduce these risks. You should also consider managed WordPress to protect your site on the server side.
Managed WordPress hosting providers are unparalleled when it comes to website security. Not only do they go above and beyond to lock down ports, automatically enforce updates and patches, and run regular security scans, they also have a team of expert WordPress professionals at the ready 24/7 to assist you. Need help if you get hacked, or unsure how to go about setting up or troubleshooting an issue? Simply reach out to their friendly and knowledgeable support team for the guidance and support you need to ensure your website runs like a well-oiled machine.
In short, managed WordPress hosting is the most secure way to host your WordPress website.
Faster Loading Times with Caching
Managed WordPress hosting services employ advanced caching technologies and performance-optimizing features to considerably increase the loading speed of your WordPress websites, well beyond the level of control you can easily get on a shared server. This not only allows for faster and smoother browsing experience for your audience, but it also enhances your website’s SEO ranking and provides a more secure environment for your data.
We prefer managed WordPress in most cases, and our web design team can recommend a solution to fit your budget.
In summary, let’s review the different hosting options and the pros and cons of each one. It’s important that you understand how a slow or insecure hosting environment can lead to a whole slew of problems for your business. Not only can bad hosting hurt your SEO, it can be a hell of a struggle to troubleshoot hacking incidents if you’re not keeping a close eye on your website’s health. So, here’s your hosting options from best to worst:
- Dedicated Server – Expensive but secure and fast. Requires extensive IT support.
- Managed WordPress – Works best for most sites that need the flexibility of WordPress.
- VPS – Secure (provided your site stays updated).
- Shared Hosting – Slow speeds and hacking are serious concerns.
That’s your web hosting options for your business. Choose Wisely!
Looking for a more hands-off solution for your website? Hire Webology!
Webology is a website builder and local digital marketing agency located in Birmingham, Alabama. We specialize in custom WordPress website development, high-end design, SEO, Pay-Per-Click, and many other digital marketing solutions.
Discount web hosting can be a bad idea for business owners who are looking to get the most out of their investment. While it may seem like a good deal at first, there are a few things that business owners should be aware of before making the switch.First, discount web hosting typically means that the hosting company is cutting corners somewhere. This could mean that they are using cheaper hardware, which could lead to slower speeds and more downtime. It could also mean that they are not providing the same level of customer support as a more expensive host. Second, business owners should also be aware that switching to a discount host could negatively impact their SEO efforts. Search engines take a variety of factors into account when determining where to rank websites. If a website is hosted on a slow, unreliable server, it could hurt its ranking.Lastly, business owners should also know that they might not be able to get the same features and add-ons with a discount host that they would with a more expensive host. This could limit the functionality of their website and make it difficult to scale in the future. Overall, discount web hosting can be a bad idea for business owners who are looking to get the most out of their investment. While it may seem like a good deal at first, there are a few things that business owners should be aware of before making the switch.
Totally agree! If you don’t have a budget for a good host, your next best step these days is to set up a CDN. Ideally go with that and a premium hosting environment for the times your content isn’t cached in a data center somewhere close to the user