The Foundation of Every Successful Website is the Right Host
Brian Wallace, Founder & President, NowSourcing
Creating a website is a critical aspect of a company, making choosing the right host a key component to every successful business. Having a website for your company allows you to market your business online and increases credibility to potential consumers. When making your website, Google’s Best Practices advise that the page should load in less than 3 seconds. Increasing website speed shows improved user experience, increased conversation rates, and improved search ranking. Just a 9-second increase in page load time can increase mobile bounce rate by 123%. Key factors contributing to website speed are poorly coded plugins, overcrowded pages, shared hosting that allows other sites to consume resources, WordPress configuration, and external scripts.
Finding the right host is the key to a fast loading website. There are a variety of hosting options available, including cloud hosting, shared hosting, dedicated server hosting, managed WordPress hosting, and virtual private sector. Each website host has different benefits, so figuring out what type of hosting will work best for your site is essential. For example, cloud hosting spreads resources across multiple servers, and applications use combined computing resources, whereas shared hosting has multiple websites on one server that use the shared server resources. Dedicated server hosting stores each site on its own server, but website owners control all facets of hosting, whereas managed WordPress hosting requires all technical aspects of running WordPress to be controlled by the host. Virtual private sector has each website stored within its own space on a shared server.
To choose the correct WordPress host for your brand, you need to know what to look for. Managed hosting companies provide many different services, including hardware and software setup, software configuration, hardware maintenance and replacement, software patching and updates, technical support, and monitoring. Every WordPress host should offer 24/7 security support, as well as tech support, web servers built explicitly for hosting WordPress sites, pre-installed WordPress, automatic nightly backups, automatic updates, and expert support.
The first step when looking for the right host is to decide what type of hosting you need by making a list of the features your site requires. Next, compare the pricing and features supplied by the different hosting providers. Make sure to take advantage of free trial periods because they can help you see what hosting works best for your site. After comparing the different hosting platforms, it’s time to pick the right host and start to build your site. After finishing setup, it’s important to test your site speed. You can do so by using the links provided at the bottom of the infographic. Choosing the correct web host can make all the difference in your site’s success, and in turn, your business.
About the Author: Brian Wallace is the Founder and President of NowSourcing, an industry leading infographic design agency in Louisville, KY and Cincinnati, OH which works with companies ranging from startups to Fortune 500s. Brian runs #LinkedInLocal events, hosts the Next Action Podcast, and has been named a Google Small Business Adviser for 2016-present. Follow Brian Wallace on Linked
