Can Web Hosting Affect Your Online Business?

It is a general belief that an online business requires web hosting, and this is of paramount importance. Web hosting is a deciding factor as to whether or not the business succeeds on the internet. Your sales and revenues are largely dependent on your choice of web hosting company.

The web hosting provider you work with may significantly impact your business. Do note that your site's downtime can reduce your visitors and may affect your bottom line and prospects negatively.

It's essential to note these:

● If you partner with a web hosting company whose service is unreliable, your business will be riddled with inconsistent performance and lots of downtimes.

● It is also possible to lose a sale at the point of selling due to web server anomaly. This may occur when you choose a bad web host provider.

Web hosting is an integral part of your online business and should not be handled with levity. It is a crucial decision you need time to think through before selecting a web hosting company.

Kindly go through the information below to learn more about how web hosting technicalities may affect your online business.

Website Loading Speed

Studies reveal that there's a significant link between the speed of your web pages and website performance, especially in areas like the number of visitors, click-through, and conversion rates. To clearly understand this, it's been established that about 40 percent of intending visitors lose interest if it takes the web pages more than 3 seconds to load. 

So, the question is, how do you increase your website speed and gain more visitors?

There are several factors you'll need to consider in this regard. These factors may include image optimization, font types, on-site page size, and others.

Being aware that the rate at which your site opens up is mostly dependent on the web host you are partnering with can make all the difference. For instance, if you are using shared hosting, your site will be limited to some resources because it’s being shared with numerous sites, resulting in reduced speed.

Web Security

Choosing the right website hosting company will ensure your website is well secured. In recent times, cyber hacks have become more advanced, and if you're not partnering with the right web host provider, it won't be too long before your website security is compromised. Site security is one feature competent web hosting companies don't take likely. They ensure reliable malware and quality scanners are in place to checkmate any hacker's effort. It is imperative to ask about data backup, security measures, and data storage features before proceeding with any NZ website hosting company.

SEO

It was in April, 2010 that the almighty search engine company, Google began using web page speed as an important ranking index. The implication is this: if your website loads fast, you have a shot at ranking higher during search engine optimisation. Just recently, this trend has been implemented for mobile web pages as well.

So, does this mean anything for your website? Is there any connection to web hosting at all? Well, your SEO ranks high as fast as your website loads. With this, you can engage more visitors and potential customers on your site. Just as mentioned earlier, the speed of your website depends on your choice of the web host.

Uptime

Website downtime could also result in revenue loss. If you aim to maintain an optimal website performance, do your best to prevent downtimes. You might ask, "how do I achieve this?" Ensure you partner with a web hosting company that guarantees steady uptime. If this is not feasible, seek a different web hosting partner.

Web Monitoring

It's crucial that you check with your web hosting company about the kind of web monitoring they offer. Your website's security and performance depends largely on the right kind of web monitoring. Ensure you partner with a platform that allows you to monitor its network anytime and anywhere around the world. The should be embedded with alert systems to report any danger that could affect customers once detected. Consider trusting your web hosting provider search to an experienced digital marketing company, they can help you source for a reliable web hosting company. 
 
Server Location
Your server location is an important element in determining overall website loading speed. Consider hosting your website with a web hosting company whose server location is in closest proximity to your audience. That way, the transition time between gathering and relaying data to visitors' devices is reduced. Find out if your choice web hosting provider operates data centers across the locations where you have most of your target audience. One viable option is to go for web hosting companies that support Content Delivery Networks (CDNs).

Customer Support

Your website may encounter technical issues like any other technology. Such issues may originate from the web hosting. When this occurs, be double sure that a team is available to offer responsive assistance and that the issue is resolved in no time.

It can be frustrating getting automated responses when you really need people to respond to an issue and get it fixed immediately. Be sure to doubly ascertain the support team's responsiveness before you get them on board for your web hosting.

How long does it take them to respond to live chats and emails? Minutes? Hours? How many streams of support do they offer? Do they have people with the requisite skills and knowledge to solve issues? 

These are essential questions you'll need answers to if you really want to avoid bad experiences and stress due to poor customer support.

Your Web Hosting Type Matters Too

If you choose to build your site on a self-hosted platform, think about how this may affect your website and its performance. Four major hosting types exist from which you can choose:

Shared

In shared hosting, a website is placed on a server that houses other websites to share resources such as disk space, bandwidth, and the likes. Your website's wellbeing is largely dependent on other websites. If they are resource-greedy, your website performance and security may be compromised. The number of visitors and transactions are strictly monitored by providers as well. This may work well for small blogs with minimal traffic.

Cloud

Cloud hosting is similar to shared hosting. The only difference is that the website shares resources with websites on several servers. At any point, if performance drops, a different server picks up the job. It's a great choice for websites working on their traffic and other smaller sites.

VPS

This option can best be described as ‘staying in a privately owned apartment.’ All the resources are entirely yours even though they may be from a small server segment. It's a good choice for e-commerce websites and SME sites seeking better security and performance.

Dedicated

This option can be described as your own customised space. Of course, it is more expensive to obtain and maintain. You'd be better off obtaining a dedicated server if you wish to build a global e-commerce or enterprise-level site.

From this list of four, your website's unique requirements should ultimately decide which hosting type and provider to settle for. Gaining sufficient understanding of what each offer is key. Your budget is another key determinant.

Closing Thought

Web hosting is a crucial aspect of every online business, so much more than people give it credit for. This article has revealed the extent to which web hosting determines an online business' success. We've also shared with you, how the wrong choice of web hosting provider could mean declining revenue and eventual business failure. Ensure to go for a competent and reliable web hosting provider to promote your need for a reliable, fast, and secure website.