WordPress is one of the most popular content management platforms in the world. As of 2022, approximately 835 million websites throughout the internet are powered by WordPress. Its intuitive user interface lets even beginners with no coding experience launch their own website. Anything from blogs, business websites, e-stores, right down to portfolios and digital magazines can be created with minimal effort. Of course, creating a website is just half of the battle. Hosting it and having a good quality hosting service is a must. So, let’s get started and outline important steps when looking for a hosting provider!
Things To Consider When Choosing a Host
You won’t be hard pressed to find a hosting provider at all. Worldwide, there are at least 330,000 web hosting services available to choose from. Just like many things, picking any one won’t do. If you are tech-savvy, there’s always the option of hosting your website on your own server, but keep in mind that a hosting provider would save you a lot of time. They’d take over server maintenance, technical issues, keeping everything up-to-date, while leaving you more time to run your business and focus on content creation. Pricing can range from just $5 or $10 a month, to hundreds and possibly thousands of dollars, for premium packages aimed towards large-scale businesses that see millions of visitors to their website each day. Here are just a few things you will want to look for in a good hosting service:
Plan Variety and Your Needs
Think about your website, its audience, and its purpose. Are you going to be creating a niche blog and don’t expect a lot of visitors? A bustling e-commerce website to serve customers around the world? One plan won’t fit all of those needs. Some hosting providers will have a variety of plans to support anything, from small businesses to bustling enterprises. Other providers may cater exclusively to a certain type of websites and scales. The best choice would be to look for a provider that offers a variety of different plans. You’ll have the best chance to find one that is tailored to your needs. Also, thinking long-term, as your business expands, you may want to upgrade, or switch to a different plan, to better suit your new needs.
Up-Time and Quality Customer Support
You definitely want to look for the hosting provider’s up-time rating. In a nutshell, a hosting provider’s up-time is the percentage at which servers they provide, and you pay for are online, accessible and able to perform. Keep in mind that independently verifying a provider’s up-time is near impossible, so for the most part – you’ll have to take their word for it. You can expect every service to boast high up-times, which is why you shouldn’t base your decision solely around this factor. A high percentage of uptime could be a good indicator of a reliable service.
Each time your website goes down and your visitors can’t access it – your business suffers. And when that happens, the last thing you want is to be left to the mercy of a bare-bones customer support center that can’t be reached at a time of great distress. Ideally, you want to look for a provider that offers knowledgeable support, a ticketing system to let you quickly report and escalate issues, as well as multiple ways of reaching them to speak to a representative.
Free SSL Certificates
Security plays a big factor in running a website. Data encryption and keeping your customer’s sensitive information safe is a must. SSL certificates by themselves can cost anywhere from $20 to $300 per year. But, because they are so vital – most hosting providers will actually provide them with their plan, free of charge. Unfortunately, not all of them do, so you will want to look for the ones that do.
Free Trials and Money-Back Guarantees
While not a must by any means, you should seek to take advantage of the largest number of benefits you can when signing up with a hosting provider. A vast majority of them offers a free trial, so you can see if the service suits your needs. This can go anywhere from 7 all the way up to 30, with some not even requiring your credit card information to sign up for the trial.
The more important one is a money-back guarantee. You will find that not all providers will offer one, so you can consider the ones they do to be very confident in the quality of their service. If, for any reason, you should decide to cancel and stop using a service, you can at least receive either a full, or a pro-rated refund.
Hosting Providers for WordPress Websites
Something worth keeping in mind is that not all hosting providers will be able to host WordPress websites. That doesn’t mean you’ll have a lot of trouble findings ones that do. For example, SiteGround, Namecheap and HostGator are some of the most popular ones that do. All of them are reliable, not too heavy on the wallet, and offer money-back guarantees.
How To Select the Right Provider for Your Website?
A lot of the base, or crucial information can be found directly on the host provider’s website. Things like pricing, features and benefits are usually strong selling points, so they’ll make sure you can easily access them. However, there are times when you may need additional information, or read a bit about someone’s unbiased opinion about the service. For the basic information, head straight to the website of your chosen provider and read up. User-experiences and realistic reviews are usually found on forums. If your requests or questions are somewhat more specific – feel free to ask, most hosting providers will, at the very least, have an email address you could use to get in touch.
Conclusion
Finding a good hosting provider can be a challenge, especially considering that not all of them are going to be equally trustworthy. Use the guide above to vet your providers and ask as many questions as you need to until you are satisfied and ready to sign up.
