We all know what websites are, and most of us visit them every day, but many of us are unaware of the technical infrastructure that goes on behind one to keep it up and running.
There are many different elements that make a website accessible. We won’t go into all the details, but one of the key ones you need to be aware of is web hosting. Website hosting refers to the server, or servers, that hosts your website to keep it online and available to the world.
To learn more about website hosting, you may also like our article – What is Website Hosting?
How website hosting works
Simply put, when you load a website, you send a request to a server to retrieve the information, and then your computer loads and processes that information to display the website on your screen. If the server hosting the website is offline or is slow, it means that your visitors may not be able to load your website.
Many businesses, especially small businesses, don’t realise the importance of website hosting until it’s too late and they’re tied into a contract that doesn’t work for them.
That’s why we’ve put this article together.
If you’re a small business owner, freelancer, or hobbyist and you’re looking for website hosting and want to know how to get it right, this is the article for you.
We’re going to cover:
- Some of the common pitfalls associated with website hosting
- How to find the right website hosting for your company
- How Weave Studios can help you keep your website up and running
Common pitfalls of website hosting
When it comes to website hosting, there are some common pitfalls that can catch businesses out. These are things that you should look out for before making any purchasing decisions because they could mean you need to look elsewhere in the future if not considered early on.
Please be aware that there are lots of things to consider before investing in web hosting, so always take the time to do your own research outside of the above points before making any decisions.
1. Speed (Performance)
Speed, often referred to as performance, is an important factor for web hosting. If a website loads slowly (often as a result of poor web hosting speed) then your visitors could find themselves sat staring at a loading screen. Often, people will close that website down if a page doesn’t load within the first 8.25 seconds and head to another one that loads quicker.
2. Reliability (Uptime)
Your website could be incredibly fast when it’s online, but if your website hosting is unreliable and your website keeps going offline, this could be a problem. A web hosting provider should be able to give you insights into their uptime and many will offer an SLA (Service Level Agreement) of uptime per month, often at 99.9% and upwards.
3. Scalability
Your website is doing well and the business is booming, but now you’re seeing a degradation in performance on your website because of the high number of visitors at any one time. If your website hosting doesn’t allow you to scale and bring new web servers in to cater for the increased demand, your website performance may get worse and worse as time goes on.
4. Security
Arguably the most important on this list – security should be of paramount importance for your website. If not, you could be putting both yours and your customer’s data at risk, which should be avoided at all costs.
5. Functionality
Some web hosting providers can only provide functionality for certain types of websites and applications, so you’ll need to make sure they can host everything your business needs.
6. Website Hosting Control Panel
Behind every great website is a control panel to keep everything in check. A website is simply lots of lines of code – the control panel keeps everything tied together. Making sure your web hosting provider uses a reliable and trusted control panel, such as cPanel, is important to make sure your website performs correctly and that you and/or your hosting provider can make any necessary changes to the website if needed.
7. Support
There are lots of hosting providers out there, however, when things go wrong, you want to be working with one who has your back. As an example, we make sure to offer great support for our clients. No matter whether they’re trying to make changes, or if something has gone wrong, we’re here to help as quickly as we can.
8. Backups
Backups are snapshots, or copies, of your website. Having these is important because if anything goes wrong, you can simply roll back to when everything was working correctly.
Without backups, if something goes wrong you’ll either have to figure out what went wrong and fix it, or the entire website will need to be rebuilt – both of which can take a long time to resolve. A backup can usually be restored within minutes, keeping your website in full flow in a worst-case scenario.
How to get it right
When looking for web hosting, there are lots of things to consider. We’ve covered the crucial points to think about, but please take the time to think about what else you’ll need to be on the safe side and get it right the first time around. If you’re unsure, don’t hesitate to contact our team for expert advice!
Simply avoid the common pitfalls!
The common pitfalls above are some of the common ones that typically catch businesses out. As a reminder, these are:
- Speed (Performance)
- Reliability (Uptime)
- Scalability
- Security
- Functionality
- Web Hosting Control Panel
- Support
- Backups
We recommend that you take the time to understand each one of the above in detail. You don’t need to be an expert; you simply need to be able to recognise what is good and what isn’t when looking for a web hosting provider.
Too good to be true is often the case
There are lots of businesses who lack experience trying to offer the best price that they can, often undercutting high-quality web hosting providers. Always make sure that any web hosting provider you look to work with offers the functionality that your business needs, and at the right price, so you don’t get caught out down the line and find yourself in a contract that doesn’t fulfil your web hosting needs. Remember, cheapest is not always best, and sometimes spending a little more can get you a lot more in return.
Why Weave Studios are the right choice
Did you know that Weave started as Weave Hosting? (Learn more here!)
We have extensive experience in cPanel web hosting and have years of experience in helping our clients host their websites and share what they do with the world. We currently host many of our clients’ websites with exceptional uptime and performance results.
As standard, all of our monthly web hosting packages come with:
- Unlimited bandwidth, emails, subdomains, and parked domains
- Offsite daily backups (with 31 recovery points)
- Fast and reliable performance – Free domain name (for annual plans)
- 99.99% Uptime guarantee
- Great support from our team
- And lots more features, starting from just £5.99 per month
We believe we’re the right choice for small businesses, freelancers, and hobbyists – take a look at our Web Hosting Packages to learn more about why we’re the right choice for your business and get signed up for your web hosting plan today.