Have you ever been to a website and been greeted with a warning that says ‘Warning: Website Not Secure’ and prevents you from going to that website? Or simply an error that says, ‘Connection Timed Out’? If so, you may have experienced what a website with poor web hosting is like.
In 2019, 83.4% of businesses had a website. Many people will look online for information about a company before making a purchase or engaging with them, making a website the perfect place to showcase the information you want your future customers to see.
If your potential customers are finding you online, but your website is often offline or inaccessible, this could make your future customers think twice before making a purchase or an enquiry. That’s where reliable web hosting comes in.
Web hosting. Why does my website need it?
Let’s put web hosting into perspective. If you pretend that your website is a physical shop, the hosting would be the shutters for your shop. Imagine those shutters not working correctly, going up and down as they please, or worse, staying permanently shut. The same effect for the passers-by happens online when people try to access your website.
Every single website on the internet requires web hosting to stay online. In its simplest form, when people visit your website, they connect to the server that hosts your website, which provides them with the information they need to load your site. If that server is offline or struggling to cope with the demand of people trying to access a website, the website will load slowly or not at all.
That’s why web hosting is so crucial.
In the digital age we’re in, businesses need to be online 24/7 for their customers. Many companies have multiple resources online, including social media channels, a website, and more. Many consumers choose to look at a website as it’s the most reliable when learning about a company, and it’s the one that you can truly show your products/services and all information relating to your company. Therefore, many companies use their digital resources, such as social media, to point towards their website.
For further information about how to build a digital presence and why it’s so important for your business, see Why a Digital Presence is Important for Businesses in 2021.
How does web hosting affect my website?
Your website is a fantastic way of demonstrating to your audience that you’re a serious company. To make sure customers have the smoothest journey to your website, you need reliable web hosting.
There are multiple ways that web hosting can impact the experience of a user, such as:
- A slow connection could make visitors leave your website
- If your website doesn’t have a secure connection, many visitors may feel uneasy about accessing your website
- A website with low uptime can be seen negatively by search engines, ranking your website lower
- Most web hosting providers will have regular back-ups, meaning if something goes wrong with your website, they can simply restore a previous version. If you don’t have regular back-ups, and something goes wrong, you’ll need to rebuild your entire website.
How does web hosting affect my business?
Good web hosting can drastically change the customer’s experience with your business, which means it should be a priority. With the web being more popular than ever, a good web hosting provider can be a valuable investment for your business.
Web hosting can have a direct impact on your business, such as:
- If your website is offline, many visitors may see your company as unreliable
- If your website is frequently inaccessible, this could frustrate your visitors and build a bad reputation for your business
- If your website has frequent downtime, it could lead customers to think your business does the same
- If your website certificate is out of date or invalid, customers may be wary about doing business with your company as they could be worried about their data.
Web hosting can be a game-changer for businesses, and therefore shouldn’t be taken lightly.
What makes a good hosting provider?
Many benefits come with a good hosting provider, making them a worthy investment. There are a few key things to look out for when looking for web hosting, which we’ve detailed below.
Website speed
Website speed has many attributes, and web hosting is one of the most prominent. Good hosting providers will make sure not to slow your website down.
Reliability
It’s important to understand historical uptime and whether any uptime Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are offered as part of the hosting agreement. A good provider will be able to share this information and often have SLAs in place too.
Secure connection
Security is paramount with a website, so check if they facilitate a secure connection between your website and visitors. Without this, your visitors will get a warning to prevent them from heading to your website as it could be insecure, which can turn away a lot of traffic.
Back-ups
Back-ups are crucial in a worst-case disaster scenario. If your website becomes broken beyond repair, a web hosting provider can roll it back to a previous version for you as if it never happened. Be sure to check the frequency of back-ups and the different types of back-ups that they include.
Fail-overs
If the server that’s hosting your website goes down, will your website? Many hosting providers have fail-overs in place, which means if something happens to your particular server, or even the facility the server is situated, another server elsewhere is ready to jump in and keep your website online.
Support
If your website goes offline, the last thing you want is a hosting provider who you can’t get in touch with. Make sure to understand the support that they offer and that you’re happy with it.
How Weave Studios can help
We recognise the importance of a reliable web hosting provider. In the early days of Weave Hosting (before Weave Studios existed! Find out more about our story), being a reliable web hosting provider was the bread and butter of our business.
Despite the growth of Weave Studios, we’ve kept a close grip on making sure we’re a reliable web hosting provider for our clients, with many happy customers as a result. Learn more about our web hosting services.