Choosing the right hosting service provider is one of the most critical yet often overlooked components when it comes to the success of a website. A good WordPress hosting provider will not only offer all the right tools to conveniently manage your website but will also boost your SEO and increase your traffic.
With that said, finding the best WordPress hosting service is not always easy. That’s especially true considering that many hosting companies often make bold assertions about their services with little evidence to back them up.
So, if you are in the market for a top WordPress hosting service provider, it helps to know what to look out for, so you are better able to make an informed choice. Here are factors that make a good WordPress hosting service:
Security
With cases of cybercrime increasing each day, cybersecurity has never been more important. For this reason, security should be at the top of your priority list when shopping for a WordPress hosting service.
Fortunately, most of the top web hosting service providers in the market go to great lengths to buffer the websites of their clients against unauthorized access and data breaches. Standard security features to look for in your WordPress hosting provider include:
- SSL certificates
- DDoS protection
- Threat monitoring
- Two-factor authorization
- Web application firewall (WAF)
It’s also important to ensure that the hosting company offers automated backup solutions (PDF) as these provide an extra layer of protection in case you inadvertently delete files or your site crashes.
Performance
Lags and slow-loading web pages can easily drive away visitors from your website, causing you to lose out on the traffic that you need to grow your brand and increase your revenue. For this reason, you should go for a hosting provider that can guarantee high levels of performance at all times.
Below are factors you can look out for when vetting a hosting provider for your site:
- Error rate
- Throughput
- Page load time
- Requests per second (RPS)
- Peak response times (PRT)
Great Customer Support
It is inevitable that you will run into some concerns or questions once you begin working with a new WordPress hosting provider. So, naturally, you want a hosting provider with convenient and direct communication avenues that you can use to get in touch with them for any assistance you may require.
The good news is that most of the top WordPress hosting providers offer 24/7 customer support and have a very quick response time. Besides resolving basic website-related issues, such as server management and security, a reliable customer support team should also be able to provide assistance when it comes to web optimization and upgrades.
Reliability
When choosing a WordPress hosting service for your website, you can’t overlook the reliability of your provider’s servers. Even a single instance of downtime can not only cause you to lose out on revenue but also hurt your ranking on search engines and potentially damage your reputation
As such, it’s important to ensure that the hosting provider’s servers are reliable. Unfortunately, this can be a bit tricky since, as mentioned, most providers often go out of their way to inflate the efficiency of their servers when advertising.
Ideally, your hosting provider should be able to guarantee 99.9% uptime without being subject to any unexpected maintenance. To achieve this standard, most reputable hosting providers use strategies such as monitoring the capacity of their servers and creating backup routes to redirect excess traffic.
Scalability
Most people who invest their time and money into launching and running a website have the desire to watch it grow over time. So, when shopping for the right WordPress hosting for your site, you want a provider that is in tune with and responsive to this need.
In terms of scalability, the most important thing is to ensure your hosting provider has flexible plans that can conveniently accommodate any site. A reliable web hosting company will be able to suggest the right hosting package for your website and inform you when it is time to upgrade to a new plan to accommodate your site’s growth.
Choosing a WordPress hosting provider can make or break your website. So, if you are looking for a web hosting company to launch your website through, carefully consider whether they meet the criteria discussed above before committing to any purchase.