Web hosting is one of the most important aspects of any successful website, but it is sometimes underestimated. Choosing the right WordPress hosting for your requirements can help you enhance your SEO and boost your sales. WordPress hosting comes in many different flavors, including free, shared, VPS, Dedicated, and Managed WordPress hosting. We’ll walk you through the process of selecting the best WordPress hosting for your website in this guide.
Here I am have shared few important questions that you can ask yourself before choosing a wordpress hosting for your first website.
Is the Hosting package affordable?
As a beginner, if you are looking to buy a good web hosting, the first things that will come to your mind will be the cost. When we start new things, usually we are boot strapped. We all start with a hope that we are on the right path. And, at this stage, every step needs to be careful. Almost all the hosting providers, give huge discounts to first time sign ups. And, this price is way too cheaper than the renewal cost. So, everybody wants to take maximum advantage of this deal. Even we suggest you to go for a Longer Duration. A 3-4 year contract is required to get the best price. So, there is a little bit of a commitment, but the total price tag of four years at those low rates is still well below a single year with other options. So, compare all the hosting providers wisely before taking this crucial step.
Is the complete Hosting Setup easy?
Once you have purchased a web hosting package, the next steps would be to setup wordpress application, adding your domain name, creating email account, adding SSL certification etc . All these steps can be done easily, if you are little technical. These days, you dont need to depend on a web developer for these tasks. So, the dashboard and control panel should be super friendly for a non technical person as well.
Does Hosting support helps you with website migration?
Sometimes, when are already using one hosting provider and feel the need to switch to a better hosting, the first thought that comes to our mind is how difficult will it be to migrate the website?
Will it disturb the overall layout of the current website?
Can the web developer do it correctly for me?
The simple solution for this type of problem is to choose a hosting provider which provides a free of cost website migration to the new hosting. Yes, most of the premium customer friendly hosting providers do not charge a dime for this type of task.
Is the Control Panel User Friendly for a Beginner?
The control panel of a web hosting provider contains all the different options which are needed to manage it. For instance, you will get options to check the file manager, generate backups, create SQL databases, create email accounts, change PHP version and a lot more. So, it is required that this C-Panel or the Control Panel is easy to nevigate even for a naive user.
Are you getting a FREE Domain name?
Usually, we all buy domains before going ahead with the hosting. Somewhere this is the right thing to do. But, what if you can get a free domain with your hosting? Suppose you have bought abc dot com. May be you can get ABC dot net for free. Or you can buy a domain for your next website for free. It is always an added advantage. Afterall, everyone loves FREE lunches, right?
Are you getting a FREE Email Account?
When I started my journey as a marketer, I went ahead with a cheap plan from G***ddy. I never realised but that plan was nowhere cheap when I had to shell out extra money for getting a professional email domain. You will be able to build trust with a new lead more quickly using a custom company domain. So, in my opnion, you must always choose a web hosting which provides you a free email account.
Are you getting FREE CDN?
Simply put, a content delivery network (CDN) is a global network of servers placed in data centers all over the world.
Content from your website, such as HTML pages, photos, videos, and JavaScript files, is cached by the CDN and kept on each server. Users receive these files from the server that is geographically nearest to them when they load the webpage.
Using a CDN can significantly improve the performance of your website and services. It can speed up your website, enhance its performance, and ensure that all users, regardless of their location, enjoy the same high-quality experience.
Is SSL Certification Included in your Package?
Google made improvements to its algorithm in 2014 to give HTTPS-enabled websites the upper hand. This has been proven in a number of research carried out by SEO specialists all over the world. A study discovered a strong link between HTTPS and improved search engine ranks. Plus, if you are not having an SSL certificate, all major web browsers will start showing suspicious warning to your web visitors. So, you cannot escape this in anyway. So, it would better if you get it for FREE. Or else it will burn your pocket heavily.
Can you host multiple websites?
When you are starting out, you are not sure that you will be creating multiple websites. But, the package that you will be taking is for atleast 3-4 years (taking price advantage, remember?)
So, if this hosting will be staying with you for a long time, then why would you limit your goals. May be after an year, you will realise that in order to reach out a niche audience, you will need a niche specific landing page. At that time, the same hosting will save you a lot of money. So, always think 2-3 years ahead.
Not only this, you can also host websites of your friends, family and even clients on your own hosting ( for earning some extra bucks).
How much bandwidth it can support?
The quantity of online traffic that can be handled is largely determined by bandwidth. It refers to the amount of data that may be moved between a website, its users, and the Internet in a particular amount of time.
A website’s bandwidth allocation may be insufficient, causing it to crash or load content slowly. This can irritate website visitorsand they can bounce away from your website because the page takes too long to load. Greater visitors will be able to access your site at its fastest speed and see what services and products you have to offer with more bandwidth.
How many databases are provided in the package?
A database is a repository where you can store data for your website, web application, and other applications. Because a website or online application need a database to store its data, Web Hosting plans include a database server on which you can build your database. On a single database server, you might have one database or several databases. If you are aiming for many websites on the same web hosting server, then you must have a freedom to create unlimited databases.
You are getting a SSD Cloud Storage?
SSD cloud hosting is a completely different type of service in terms of how your website is stored. Instead of hosting your project on a single physical system, you’re using the “cloud,” a global network of interconnected servers.
This comes with a slew of appealing features.
Because there is no single point of failure, downtime will be a thing of the past. Even if a server goes down, you can still access your website because it is cached in various locations. For your site visitors, nothing has changed — they will never realize something unexpected has occurred. Every minute of downtime can cost a lot of money in terms of traffic and sales, but cloud services won’t let that happen.
Another benefit of SSD cloud hosting is its scalability, which allows you to not only expand but also decrease the amount of server resources. This is critical for a business website, especially if it experiences sudden traffic spikes during a promotional period or season.
Is the Hosting specially suited for WordPress?
In most cases, a managed WordPress hosting environment has been fine-tuned to operate with WordPress. WordPress sites are the focus of this form of web hosting. That means that everything a managed hosting business does is WordPress-friendly. You can trust a managed WordPress host to be an expert in your site’s CMS, from the way they arrange their servers to the people they hire for support. A managed host often adds additional services and features aimed to ease the strain on site owners in addition to the hardware and WordPress knowledge.
How many monthly visits it can handle?
Now, for this factor, everything depends on your current and future goals. If you will be hosting a current website with a good amount of traffic, then you are aware about this number and make a decision accordingly. But, if you are creating a new website and you are not sure about the monthly visits, then I would advise you not to go for a very high premium plan just because of this worry. You can choose a middle plan, which is not too less and not too much. In future, if you will do well, you can always upgrade the current plan.
Does it gives you option to choose a server location?
As we discussed before, a CDN is nessesory to speed up the website loading. Similary, if your target visitor is located in Australia, then why would you load your website from United States?
So, always choose a web hosting provider, which is having its servers at multiple locations around the world. So, that you can choose a location nearby to yout target audience.
Are Automatic Backups included?
A website’s backup is really important. A website backup, like having a spare tire, can aid in the recovery of your website following a security breach. It’s critical to have website security solutions in place to defend your site from hackers, as well as to detect whether a hacker has obtained access. Backups are, in many situations, a lifesaving answer in this regard.
What is the average response time of the support staff?
The new web hosting will going to remain with you for a long term. So, there may be times, when you will not get your emails or your website is not loading up properly. What will you do in this situation? The first resort would be to reach out the support team members. So, just like any other SAAS product, a good after sale support is necessary to build long term relations.
Have you checked the annual uptime rate?
The amount of time a server has been up and running is known as uptime. This is commonly expressed as a percentage, such as “99.9% uptime.” Uptime is a useful indicator of a web hosting provider’s ability to keep their systems up and functioning. If a hosting service has a high uptime percentage, it means that their servers are always up and running, which means that any site you host with them will be as well. Uptime is critical since web pages can’t keep clients if they’re down.
Do you get protection against DDoS attacks?
DDoS attacks are a major source of concern in today’s Internet security. A distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack is a malicious attempt to disrupt a targeted server’s, service’s, or network’s normal traffic by flooding the target or its surrounding infrastructure with Internet traffic.
DDoS assaults are effective because they use numerous compromised computer systems as attack traffic sources. Attackers using DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) can put your site — and your business — down in minutes. Not every web server offers enough security from DDoS attacks. So, choose your web hosting provider carefully.
Does Hosting Company have a detailed Support Forum?
A Techincal Support team is different from detailed library of technical forum. Every time you will not be willing to reach out to the technical team. Sometimes, you would like to scratch your head while solving out small petty issues. At such instances, the FAQ sections and forums from the web hosting provider serve as a boon. It not only saves a lot of your time but you are able to understand the hosting better for the future.
Does it provide Any Money Back guarantee?
Lastly, if you are betting on a new hosting provider, there are chances that you could be influenced by the so called affiliate marketers. So, this feature will be your safeguard agast a wrong decision. After using the hosting for few days, if you feel that you have made a wrong choice, that you must have a no question asked 30 day return policy.
Conclusion
Speed, security, and reliability are all important factors that you need to consider when choosing your WordPress hosting. However, the most important factor that you should consider is “Your Needs”. Evaluating your needs before purchasing your WordPress hosting can save you hundreds of dollars. I hope that the above points will help you in finding the right WordPress Hosting.
Vijay Sood is a seasoned digital marketer with a passion for driving online growth and innovation. With a robust background in developing and executing comprehensive digital strategies, Vijay excels in leveraging SEO, content marketing, and social media to boost brand visibility and engagement. His expertise lies in transforming data-driven insights into actionable marketing campaigns, helping businesses achieve their digital objectives.