As the number of webhosting companies continues to increase, the average level of service is rising due to the increased competition.
There is no doubt that choosing the right hosting company, such as Openhost, can make your business more profitable online–or at least prevent you from losing business because of server downtime or slow loading time.
Poor Webhost Affects Page-Load Speed
The consequences of an unreliable server are obvious. Slow servers that affect your site loading speed are bad for SEO and could lead to loss of customers. About 40 percent of visitors will leave a site that takes more than 3 seconds to load. And online research on customer behavior further indicates that even a second delay can reduce conversion by as much as 7 percent.
Patience is not in high supply online, and you need to make sure you have a website that doesn’t drive your customers to your competition.
There are many factors that affect loading speed such as programming style, the size of pictures, and scripts. These have little to do with your web-host There are also online best practices that will ensure these other factors do not affect your loading speed.
These other factors are things you can easily remedy. However, your webhost plays an important role in determining your page-load speed, and if you choose the wrong host there is little you can do about it except move your site.
Most Important Factors when Choosing a Webhost
The three most important things you should look out for in a webhosting service are speed, reliability, and support.
A good way to determine how a webhosting company ranks in these features is to check user reviews on social media. You can check what customers are saying about them on Twitter or Facebook or do a Google search to find customer reviews.
A lot of hosts also have a troubleshooting page or a FAQ page where customers can make complaints. These are handled publicly so that those with similar issues will be able to fix them. Reading through such a page will give you an unbiased indication of what to expect.
Apart from complaints slow or poor support, upselling, and lack of communication are red flags that indicate a poor host.
If you are seriously considering a webhosting company, try emailing or calling them and observe the professionalism of their support team. This is often a good indication of their overall service level.
Technical Capabilities
Ensure the webhost you finally decide to use can handle the technical capabilities of your website. If your website will be using a content management system like WordPress or Drupal, ensure the host can handle it efficiently.
It’s preferable to use a host that offers one-click installation of the platform and one click updates. That’s often a good indication that the webhost can run the platform efficiently.
While on with the support, you should also enquire about the tools they offer, such as tools for malware protection, website security, and content delivery network.
Hosting Requirement Depends on Expected Traffic Volume
The size of your company and expected traffic volume should also inform your choice of webhost. Small companies that are looking to save cost and do not expect a large volume of traffic can settle for shared hosting, which allows multiple website operators on the same server.
However, for big companies, or companies that expect a large volume of traffic, a dedicated host is the only option. You simply can’t afford any downtime due to traffic spikes because there is usually money at stake.
For small companies that settle for shared hosting, you need to make sure that the webhosting service allows you to move easily to a dedicated host when you grow and your needs expand.
Most Webhosting offer both but confirm they do before you proceed.
Consider Tools Your Web Developer Will Require
There are other technical requirements your web developer will need access to, such as FTP or secured shell (Ssh) for updating hosted files, phpMyAdmin for accessing your database, Git to undo buggy updates and others, you need to ensure your intended webhost offers.
Consult with your Web developer if you are not sure what they may require.
If you will be making sales online or want to offer customers added security, ensure your hosting package has https.
Despite your best effort, however, you may find out you need something extra you didn’t consider at first until you started running your website. That’s why you usually needa scalable web hosting service that supports a large collection of tools and resources.
