Do NOT Go Cheap When Choosing a WordPress Hosting Provider
In this post, we’ll go over some of the pitfalls of choosing cheap hosts and why it’s sometimes better to spend more on a higher-quality provider.
Why You Should NOT Go Cheap When Choosing a WordPress Hosting Provider
Have you ever wondered why some websites load so much faster than others? It’s not just the theme that you’re using or the plugins you are running. There are other factors that play a role in how fast your website loads and one of them is the web hosting company that you choose to host your website.
Since a web hosting company is responsible for storing your website and serving it up to visitors, they play a key role in how fast and secure your website is. If you have a slow website, it can affect everything from your SEO ranking to your bounce rate, which in turn will have a negative impact on your online business.
In this article, we’ll talk about the importance of choosing a good web hosting company and what things you should consider when choosing one. We’ll also go over why free WordPress hosting just isn’t worth it!
Your Website is Your Business Card
Your website is one of the first things people will see when they search for your business. It’s a lot like a business card, only it says much more about you and your services.
To make sure your website appears modern, professional, and trustworthy you need to make sure it loads quickly, looks beautiful, and has no security issues. If your website takes too long to load or is attacked by hackers because of poor hosting quality you can kiss any potential leads goodbye.
Fast Loading Times Have SEO Value
As the search engine giant has been working to improve its algorithm, site speed has gone from being a small ranking factor to one that is heavily relied on when determining your website’s position in the SERPs. Google even created a tool called PageSpeed Insights that provides you with insights on ways to make your site faster. Below are some recommendations you can use.
Finally, don’t forget about image optimization! Optimizing images will help tremendously when it comes to overall page load times since these assets tend to be larger in file size than any other resource (e.g., JavaScript). From an SEO perspective, however, optimizing images matters because there are elements within those graphics that can help search engines understand what they’re displaying without having any context for them otherwise (i.e., alt text)
Server Support will Save You Lots of Pain and Time
As a WordPress user, you will have to do a lot of troubleshooting on your own. It’s inevitable. Sometimes the problem is due to your theme or plugin; other times it’s because of some issues with the server. If you’re having any kind of performance or security problems, you need to be able to get hold of someone at the hosting company who can help resolve things ASAP. For example, if your site goes down and you can’t find any information in their knowledge base about how to restore it, you’ll need support for that as well. Fail to make use of the support available and prepare yourself for some pain and downtime!
Slow Loading Websites Goes Against Google’s SEO Guidelines and You Can be Penalized
We all want to keep our WordPress website loading as fast as possible, right? We know that users expect fast-loading sites and bounce pretty quickly if they feel like they are waiting around. It’s not just the immediate bounce—you’ll also get penalized in Google search results.
That’s right! Google has stated quite plainly that it rewards websites with fast loading times. It wants a better user experience for its searchers, and slow loading sites are not a good user experience. On the flip side, fast-loading sites have an advantage since people will spend more time on them and visit more pages.
So if you’re still using a cheap hosting provider that doesn’t offer site speed tweaks such as caching, you’re hurting your SEO efforts. But even regular WordPress users using well-known web hosts can see their websites slow down over time due to increasing traffic or misconfigured plugins.
What’s the solution? You can run your own speed tests or use one of these free WordPress plugins:
- WP Performance Score Booster – this plugin offers handy advice on how to fix any issues it finds
- Use Hummingbird – let the plugin do all the work for you by running speed tests, identifying issues, and recommending solutions
WPEngine
If you’re looking for a website hosting service, you should consider WPEngine. They are one of the largest WordPress hosting companies, super reliable and they utilize AWS.
If you’re running a WordPress site, WPEngine is the best choice. It’s designed to run only WordPress sites which means it’s optimized to provide faster load times with all the advanced security measures, caching and automatic updates you need. You can also use their staging area to test out any changes before going live.
They also provide incredible support, 24/7/365. Their staff is knowledgeable and responsive across all channels from chatbots to emails to phone calls.
In an industry where it can be difficult to differentiate between providers, WPEngine stands out for its reliability, top notch customer service and competitive pricing.
