What’s so important about having your website hosted by a solid service provider? Just about EVERYTHING! The Internet is instantly accessible via smartphone and desktop (we’ve found tablet usage is way down these days). When someone is searching for a product or service you provide, your website needs to be available, fast and secure. If there is a service issue with your organization’s website, you don’t want to be on hold (or stuck in a web chat bot) for hours on end, or receive the dreaded “We will respond to your ticket within 24 hours” confirmation message.
While there are many web hosting providers out there, we’ve found success in hosting for our many clients by focusing on three primary areas:
- Cloud-based, rocket-fast technology platform
- Security and recovery plan implementation
- Fast, friendly, local customer support and service
Web Hosting Decision Points
Of course, we won’t spend this entire blog post just “tooting our own horn.” Instead, we want to provide you with a checklist containing the information you need to make the best selection when searching for a hosting service company. Read on, and if you do find you’re in the market for web hosting services, feel free to contact us.
The company you select as your web hosting provider is responsible for keeping your website running, ensuring peak performance, protecting and even restoring it if necessary. Whether you’re launching a new website or have one that’s several years old, it’s important to work with a trusted hosting provider and for you to have knowledge of the criteria every business needs to assess during the selection process.
What Is a Web Hosting Service Provider?
A web hosting service provider is responsible for keeping your website online 24/7, with fast load times. The host should ensure that your site is secure and monitored for performance issues, has a comprehensive back up and resiliency plan, and updates it regularly with new CMS and plugin versions. Managed web hosting services should also include swift technical support with experts who are familiar with the web hosting platform architecture and your CMS. With the right web hosting partner, you shouldn’t need to worry about your site being down, malfunctioning or loading slowly.
Your Web Hosting Provider Selection Checklist
Here’s what you need to consider when evaluating web hosting providers.
For more information on each consideration and why they’re important enough to be included in our list, keep reading.
Top Considerations for Choosing a Web Hosting Provider
When it comes to protecting your website, here are the most important features to look for when comparing web hosting services. Let’s discuss why each of these considerations are essential for a business (and website) of any size.
1. Fast, Accurate Technical Support
When your website needs immediate attention or repair, it’s critical to have a support team that will quickly take action. Necessary software and plugin updates to improve performance aren’t always perfect; at times, they can malfunction or mess up design at a page or site level. When that happens, it’s the job of your web hosting provider to take swift action to resolve any issues. Having a support team you can trust and quickly communicate with is essential to ensuring your website is functional and accessible.
2. 24/7/365 Uptime Monitoring
Uptime references how often a website stays online, measured by the time during which it is reliably accessible on the internet. You may not get notified if your website is down for more than a few minutes, but your web hosting provider should. You need to trust that your web hosting provider will immediately take action to restore your website and get it back online as soon as possible. Otherwise, your website may be down for a significant period of time, costing you business. Consistent management, an alert system and daily backups are necessary to ensure the 24/7/365 uptime you need to succeed online.
3. Impressive Load Speeds
When was the last time you waited more than a few seconds for a website to load? Potential leads will bounce from your site if it doesn’t load quickly and move on to the competition.
You need a screaming fast website that will load quickly, even in high-traffic scenarios. What technology and techniques does the hosting company use to ensure impressive load speed performance? Website speed matters and can land or cost your customers, so be sure to choose a web hosting provider that can deliver fast load times.
4. Top-Notch Security
Even local businesses can fall prey to hackers looking to steal information, hijack domains or hold a website hostage. Without a proper security plan, at minimum, a website hack can completely disrupt your hard-earned rankings and cause long-term damage to your site’s domain authority.
Without secure web hosting, firewall and threat detection software, security plugins, professional site monitoring and regular backups, you could lose your most valuable digital asset if a hack takes place.
5. Comprehensive Backup & Recovery Services
Can your current hosting provider recover the latest working version of your website should a server crash, software upgrade glitch or a hack occur? In the event the worst should happen, you need a web hosting provider that can quickly restore your site. This is accomplished through robust backup procedures at the website and server level, with regular daily and weekly backups to ensure proper security and recoverability.
6. Scalability & Upgrade Options
As time goes on, your products or services will grow, your website’s content library will expand and the number of webpages on your site will increase. How will the web host perform then?
While less expensive, with shared hosting there are limited resources and data storage space. So performance can drop as a site grows or high visitor numbers strain load times. Meanwhile, cloud hosting allows seamless scaling and maximum uptime without the risk of a server crash interrupting site accessibility. Make sure you ask what type of web hosting offerings are available and choose the most appropriate one.
Protect Your Website with Secure, Fast & Scalable Web Hosting from Bleevit
As one of your most essential business assets, your website needs appropriate security plus near 100% uptime and high-performance infrastructure. If your current web hosting provider is not delivering on the crucial criteria covered in this post, it’s time to make the switch. Reach out to our team at Bleevit to learn more about our web hosting capabilities and why new and longtime clients trust us to keep their websites up and running.
WRITTEN BY
Robin Hogan, COO & Co-Founder – Bleevit Interactive
Robin leverages unsurpassed client dedication and a diverse skill set with over 20 years of senior-level experience to bring passion to her work and depth to her writing. She works tirelessly to deploy successful marketing strategies and cloud technologies for local businesses.
When she’s not working, Robin enjoys spending time with family and friends, supporting local community organizations and tending to her bountiful garden. Email her at hello@bleevit.com if you have questions or want more information.
