Is Your Website Holding You Back?

1
(No Transcript)
2
Introduction

• It might seem like that from the way many hosting
  packages are advertised, theres much more to
  consider than choosing a certain amount of disk
  space, RAM or bandwidth. For example, you should
  ask about the hardware being used and the way a
  server configured. You also need to think about
  the providers in-house expertise, the quality of
  its technical support and the amount of uptime
  they guarantee.
• Whilst on the surface it might look like the only
  difference between hosting packages is the price,
  it can be a mistake to put the cost of hosting as
  your main priority. All hosting is relatively
  affordable these days, so saving a few pounds a
  month could be a false economy that can causes
  problems further down the line.

3
Your site has slow loading times

• The loading time is the speed at which your
  website takes to load on a visitors browser.
  Its important because Google uses it as a
  ranking factor and because visitors abandon slow
  loading websites. It is estimated that a
  one-second delay in loading time can reduce sales
  conversions by 7.
• You can measure the speed of your site by typing
  your URL into Googles PageSpeed Insights tool.
  This will give you the results for your sites
  performance on both desktop and mobile. Its
  important that the site loads quickly on both
  types of devices, especially now that 66 of all
  UK browsing is done on smartphones and tablets.
• While there are many things that can affect your
  loading times, such as your choice of theme and
  the number of plugins your website uses, one of
  the primary factors is the type of web hosting
  you choose. Well configured, high-performance
  servers can dramatically improve speed, as can
  upgrading from shared to VPS hosting.

4
 Other users drain your resources

• If you use shared hosting, every website hosted
  on a server shares the resources that the server
  provides. Most of the time, this isnt a problem
  theres usually enough processing capacity and
  memory for everyone. However, there can be
  issues. Greedy hosts can put too many users on
  one server in the belief that most of them will
  underuse the resources available. All it takes is
  for a couple of websites to start using resource
  heavy applications, perhaps sending out several
  thousand marketing emails or importing thousands
  of product descriptions and images, and this can
  negatively affect the performance of every other
  site on the server.
• A good host will employ tools that limit the
  resources any one customer can use ensuring that
  its activities do not impinge on others. This is
  a little like the fair use policy that some
  broadband companies impose. If you opt for shared
  hosting, make sure this happens. Alternatively,
  use a different form of hosting.

5
You have poor performance during peaks

• Unfortunately, the website draining all the
  shared resources could be yours. If your site has
  grown and you have lots of visitors carrying out
  resource-heavy actions, such as using the
  shopping cart, it could be your site hitting the
  resource limits set by the host especially at
  peak times or during busy seasonal periods.
• If this happens, the slow performance of your
  site can cause customers to abandon their
  shopping carts and spend their money elsewhere.
  Your Google Analytics data will tell you if this
  is the case.
• The issue here is not really the fault of your
  web host. As mentioned above, it is trying to
  give everyone a fair share of the servers
  resources. Actually, its a sign of success its
  time to move on to a hosting package that
  provides the increased resources your site now
  needs. Your host may have bigger shared hosting
  packages or, for a few extra pounds per month,
  you could opt for the significantly better VPS
  hosting, where youll have a virtual server all
  to yourself.

6
How much storage space do you need?

• Youll also need to have an idea of how much
  space youll need to store all your websites
  software, files and images. Most websites dont
  actually need that much space. Compared to
  software run on your computer, the programs
  needed for running websites are quite small and
  the size of the web pages are usually very small
  too. Often the biggest files youll need are
  images and videos.
• If you want to run multiple websites or eCommerce
  sites with thousands of images, then you might
  need more storage space.
• For small websites, 2GB of storage will be more
  than ample for your needs. However, packages
  offering up to 20GB are available, and these can
  easily cater for many websites and vast
  quantities of data.
• Do be aware of companies that put restrictions on
  the number of files you can store. This can be a
  hidden way of limiting the space you use.

7
Your server has a bad IP reputation

• The server you use will have its own IP address.
  If one of the other tenants on that server is
  carrying out inappropriate actions, such as
  sending spam or hosting malware, then that IP
  address can get blacklisted. This is bad news for
  every other website hosted on that server as it
  can affect search engine ranking and lead to
  emails being blocked.
• What makes this particularly problematic is that
  the owner of that site might not even be aware of
  what is happening. They might have been hacked or
  infected without their knowledge. This is likely
  a result of them having poor security measures in
  place, such as not updating their software or
  having easy to crack passwords.
• A good host will provide a range of security
  features to prevent an IP address getting
  blacklisted. These include firewalls, intrusion
  monitoring, email monitoring, server monitoring
  and dedicated IP addresses. Make sure your host
  provides these.

8
You cannot use the software you want

• Shared hosting is where one server is shared by
  lots of users. As its a single server, everyone
  uses the same operating system and this is
  configured in a way that enables the majority of
  websites to run optimally.
• One of the issues with this is that you cannot
  use programs that are incompatible with that
  operating system or ask to have the server
  configured differently just to accommodate a
  specific requirement.
• If you have a critical need to run incompatible
  software, the only alternative is to have a
  server of your own. The most affordable way to do
  this is to opt for a VPS. By doing this, you have
  the freedom to use an operating system that is
  compatible, such as a legacy version of Linux or
  Windows OS.

9
Conclusion

• Web hosting plays a crucial part in the way your
  website performs. Choosing the right package and
  understanding when it is time to change hosts or
  move to a different type of hosting is vital if
  for the long-term health of your site and
  business. Hopefully, from reading this post,
  youll now have a better understanding of the
  signs to look out for.