Excited about building your new WordPress website for your business or blog? Just like building a house, before you build your website, you must decide where you want your site to live. All websites are made visible on the internet through web hosting services that store your website on special computers called servers. A web host server provides a home for your website that your site visitors can reach by typing your web address (domain name) into their browser. It is the land on which you build your online presence.
When deciding which host is best for you, you have to consider price, speed, support, backups and security. The amount of each will depend on your organization’s needs.
Pricing may be one of the most important factors for a startup business. There may be budget limits that will only allow a certain amount to be dedicated to web services. However, it is important not to let price be the ultimate deciding factor. You don’t want to skimp on security and the support that your organization will require. Choose a host that fits your budget but also provides the features you require.
The speed or load time of your web pages can impact the success of your site. If your webpages are loading slowly, it is likely that your visitors will leave the website. The server that your web host uses to house your website will impact the speed of your site. If you have a shared hosting plan you will be sharing resources with other websites; this means limited space and bandwidth or speed at which an amount of data is transferred from the server to the visitor’s browser. If your organization is small and you don’t expect a whole lot of traffic, a shared host will work just fine. For larger organizations, who will get a lot of site traffic a host with a VPN or dedicated server plan would be more sufficient.
Whether you are a novice or a pro at WordPress websites, it is always good to have support. Different hosting plans provide different levels of support. Consider if you run into an issue, how easy will it be to contact your host for help? Do they provide resources and help articles? There are some WordPress hosts that provide online communities where people can ask questions and get assistance from professionals.
One of the worst feelings I have ever experienced was loosing weeks worth of work on a website for a client. I was devastated! Thankfully, the site was hosted by Bluehost, which offered automatic backups. All of that hard work was recovered. It is important to choose a host that allows you to back up your website both internally and externally. There are some hosts that allow you to schedule automatic internal backups and manual backups, however many times you deem necessary for your site.
Security is one of the most important factors when choosing a web host. There will be additional safety measures that you will have to take to maintain a secure site, but having a secure host will make the job easier in the long run. One of the most common ways WordPress websites are hacked are through outdated software. Select a host that will notify you when your software or plugins need updating. Some hosts provide one-click or automated updates. Some other security measures to look for are secure logins, malware scans, firewalls for WordPress, and free SSL certificates.
To make an ultimate decision on which host to use, assess the needs of your website. Are you just creating an online brochure or an online store? Will you be expecting a lot of traffic? What is your budget? There are many options available but you want to ensure you are choosing the option that will work for you and create a secure and reliable space for you site visitors.
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943-239-9480
stephanie@smaysdesigns.com
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