Does it really matter where I host my website? Aren’t all website hosting plans equal? Yes and No. Most agencies, including us, have hosting and maintenance packages to keep your website running smoothly every day of the year. Another option is to buy hosting directly from a hosting provider and run your own maintenance. And finally, there are website builders which come with hosting built-in meaning you handle your own maintenance.
Dot Marketing performs maintenance on hundreds of websites every month and would like to share a few ideas on what a successful hosting and maintenance plan should have.
Website maintenance
Stay on top of website maintenance so your entire site doesn’t break. WordPress software, templates, and plugins will all need to be updated often. Maintenance is easy until something breaks. There are chances of issues to arise with a WordPress update and a plugin update conflicting with each other for example. In these cases, a lot of patience comes in handy to try and troubleshoot the issue. And the more plugins, the more patience you need to have.
Website backups
Another big deal to check out with your potential website hosting provider is how often will backups of your website be performed. At Dot Marketing, nightly backups are performed of your website. I can’t tell you how many times we are troubleshooting an issue, breaking the site, and need to restore from a backup.
Image compression
Sometimes, well often, we have clients that are uploading their own photos to the website. They are usually the largest file you could take on a camera and would totally bog down the website if left like that when uploaded. When those types of images hit websites on our hosting services, the image will be condensed into something speedy for a website. It’s called a CDN or Content Delivery Network. Pretty valuable for most of our websites.
Type of server
Are you subject to malware? Every website is, but we try and minimize the risk. At Dot, we choose to host our WordPress websites on a dedicated server with WPMUDEV. Or, your website could be on a server with many other websites, that is where the risk comes in. If there is a site that is not being updated and malware finds its way onto the server and your website is on the server, you get to be vulnerable.
Website security
Is your website secure? If you don’t know the answer to that, chances are your site is at risk for a security breach. Did you know that if your site shares a server with other websites, their security risks could compromise the security of your site? Our expert web team ensures that every website we manage is not only protected by several layers of cyber security, but that every site is continuously backed up so in case of an emergency, the site can be restored with minimal interruptions to your site.
Unsure of where to start?
We can help host and manage your WordPress website, ensuring your site is up to date and protected.
