If you’re running a WordPress website, choosing the right web hosting provider is one of your most important decisions. Often your web developer will point you in the right direction, as they will know from their experience that poor hosting leads to poor website outcomes. They don’t want you using cheap hosting owned by a faceless multinational – as they know from bitter experience that there will be constant issues with the site, and good support will be very difficult to get.
Quality web hosting may cost a bit more, but it will mean the difference between a fast, secure, and reliable site versus one that’s slow, vulnerable, and constantly crashing. Unfortunately, many hosting providers just don’t ‘cut the mustard’ for WordPress. In this blog I’ll take a quick look at just why good hosting matters so much and how to avoid subpar providers (start by listening to your web developer).
The Critical Role of Web Hosting for WordPress & Website Performance
Your web host is the foundation on which your WordPress site is running. Here’s why it matters so much:
- Performance: A good web host ensures your site loads quickly, and a fast-loading site is crucial for user experience and SEO. Hosting isn’t the entire answer, but I’ve seen underperforming sites move to better hosts and improve instantly (with no change in the plugins or themes used). In fact, one client jokingly asked if their site was ‘now too fast’!
- Security: Quality hosts have robust security measures to protect your site from attacks. Another client found this out the hard way when their site was constantly breached every 24 hours, despite using a security plugin and keeping everything up to date. It wasn’t until the website was moved that the hacks stopped.
- Reliability: Top-tier hosting minimises downtime, keeping your site accessible 24/7. And in the rare event that things do go down at the hosts end, they notify you, keep you updated, and are working very quickly to get things back up and running. In other words, they act professionally and care about their reputation.
- Scalability: As your site grows, your hosting should be able to accommodate increased use of resources. Some hosts will ‘nickel and dime’ you over the resources your site uses.
- Support: When issues arise, expert WordPress-specific support can be invaluable. You want a company that is prepared to invest in training their support staff and making them available to you. Not putting up a dozen barriers you have to jump over that make it incredibly difficult to speak to a real person. And when you get to speak to that person, they are patient and take their time with you.
The Problem with Many WordPress Hosts
The web hosting market unfortunately has plenty of subpar options and it’s very easy to end up using one of them due to their extensive advertising and slick marketing. This is especially true for large multinational companies that buy up independent local web hosting companies and then roll them into their systems and support (often badly).
These are the are the top problems with poor performing web hosts:
- Overselling: Many web hosts cram too many sites onto a single server, leading to poor performance.
- Lack of Specialisation: Their support staff often don’t understand the unique needs of WordPress sites or WooCommerce sites.
- Outdated Technology: Some hosts use old server software and hardware, hampering site speed and security.
- Poor Support: Many hosts offer basic support, leaving you to struggle on your own with WordPress-specific issues that can often be solved with better hosting.
Recommended WordPress Hosting Provider
While there are many hosting options out there, one stands out for their WordPress-specific offerings and that is Wordify.
Wordify.com
Wordify is an Australian managed WordPress web hosting company. Even though they are in Australia, I am confident in recommending them to New Zealand companies – due to the speed of the internet between our two countries and Wordify’s use of smart caching and CDN.
Their Key Benefits & Features:
- Easy to use hosting dashboard – manage multiple WordPress sites
- Great for teams – collaborate on sites without sharing passwords
- Customised WordPress stack on AWS and Google Cloud – means your site will load quickly
- Automatic updates and backups
- Realtime Malware Scanning
- Advanced security features
- 24/7 WordPress expert support
- Free migrations – with their easy-to-use migration manager
- Free web developer account with free password protected development hosting
Conclusion
Investing in quality WordPress hosting is investing in your website’s success. While opting for the cheapest option may be tempting, the long-term costs of poor performance, security vulnerabilities, and downtime far outweigh any initial savings. Choosing a reputable WordPress-specific host like Wordify sets your site up for success from day one. For developers, Wordify offers excellent tools and environment needed to build, deploy, and maintain high-performance WordPress sites efficiently and effectively – without the pain factor of managing your own server.
In my personal experience, I’ve taken on sites that have had problem after problem, with constant firefighting. Sure enough, as soon as the site was moved to Wordify the problems went away.
If you’d like to know more about Wordify, or would like your WordPress website transferred to their hosting, get in touch and I’ll be happy to help.
