Did you know that there are close to 2 billion websites today, and that number rises with every passing second? The first website was created in 1993 by Tim Berners-Lee. Shortly after, he made the "World Wide Web" technology available to the rest of the world, allowing the internet to flourish to what it is today, almost 30 years later.

Each website needs a hosting platform, but not all web hosting is the same!

If you are looking for affordable website hosting, you came to the right place. Keep reading for more information.

What Is Web Hosting?

A hosting provider is a company that stores files on its server to allow your website to run. It takes the necessary coding and converts it into something viewable to the public.

There are four main types of hosting:

  • Shared
  • Dedicated
  • VPS

Average Cost of Website Hosting

Costs can range from a few dollars a month to hundreds of dollars. It all depends on what services work best for you.

We mentioned shared, dedicated, and VPS. Each of these servers has a different price tag.

  • Shared
    • $2-$15/month
  • Dedicated
    • $80-$730/month
  • VPS
    • $15-$100/month

Best Website Host: Where to Host Your Website?

A basic understanding of different hosting services is crucial when you decide. Once you have a basic understanding of what you need, you can start your search on finding the right provider.

During your search, consider the following items:

Guarantees

Downtime can cost a company nearly $5,000 per minute. Now, this, of course, depends on the nature of your business. But even a few hundred dollars per minute can be detrimental.

To avoid this, you can check a hosting provider's guarantee uptime. You should aim for at least 99.99% of the time. And make sure they have proper risk tolerance in place to compensate for any downtime that does happen.

Easy Backend UX

New content is crucial for the ranking performance of your website. If you are looking to drive traffic to your site, whether you have a blog, an eCommerce store, or a portfolio, the point of your website is to have a virtual presence.

If you cannot navigate the backend of your website properly, it can become a painstaking task to control the content on your site.

Backup Capability

The hosting provider should also allow you to keep backups of your site. Technology is finicky. We've all had those moments when the printer simply won't print.

Things happen, updates can fail, and downtime can happen. But make sure you have proper backups to withstand the technical difficulties thrown at you.

A hosting provider should keep regular backups, but make sure that you can backup your site yourself if anything goes wrong.

Performance

If you dive into the world of search engine optimization (SEO), you will hear and read a lot about your site's performance. This is an umbrella term for many items such as:

  • SEO ranking
  • Traffic
  • Conversion rates

An SEO expert will usually guide you on how to optimize these items. However, it does all start at the foundation.

If your website's speed is not up to par, you will have a hard time optimizing the rest of the performance. Speed is something that the host provides and is crucial in how search engines rank your pages.

Other items that can affect the performance of your site are:

  • Storage
  • Security
  • Bandwidth

Customer Service and Reputation

If you are a novice in website building, you will want to look at providers and services that offer proper support and customer services.

Take a look at their reviews and testimonials. Do their existing clients have good things to say? And how do they respond to negative feedback, if they respond at all?

Additionally, do they have current support in place? Or will you be left scrambling when you need them most?

They should have resources, contact information, and chat rooms available so that you won't be left in the dark.

Managed Website Hosting: An All In One Deal

The above items are crucial for a well-running website. However, your daily operations will likely consume most of your time when you start a new business.

Many small business owners see their website as a low priority. However, they do not know that they forego the many benefits of having an online presence.

But as mentioned before, a new business owner likely has many other tasks. That is where fully managed website hosting can become highly valuable.

A managed hosting provider will provide the following solutions:

Marketing

Technology is ever-changing. In fact, in the past year, Google performed a major update that evaluates the audience's UX (User experience) and ranks the website according to readability, ease of access, and more.

Search engines constantly improve and change how they rank websites. As a result, understanding and implementing these changes is a full-time job in itself.

A managed website provider will guide and help you make the correct decisions to optimize your marketing strategy. They will provide expertise in the following areas:

  • SEO
  • PPC marketing
  • Link building
  • Press releases
  • Social media marketing
  • And more!

Content Creation

A big part of marketing goes into content creation. As most people retain information by visual content, a top marketing strategy is to create infographics, videos, and photos.

A picture is worth a 1000 words. You can provide a lot of information to your customer base by creating the right images and videos.

A managed website provider can give you exactly that without learning how to work the software needed to create stunning content.

Additionally, they can also provide blog post services. Blog posts are one of the top ways to drive new traffic to your website. However, the posts need to be high quality, on-brand, and informational.

Design

Since Google's update last year, design has become important in SEO, marketing, and customer retention.

If your website is challenging to navigate, your eCommerce store isn't streamlined, or the site is esthetically unpleasing, your audience will quickly move on to your competitors.

Additionally, Google will keep track of this traffic, resulting in a lower ranking in search engines.

Find Affordable Website Hosting Today!

Building a new website can be an exciting endeavor. It usually signals a new beginning, either personal, professional, or both!

Finding affordable website hosting can make or break your goals, so don't be afraid to shop around for the hosting provider that is a perfect fit!

If you are looking for fully managed website hosting, give us a call or schedule a free consultation!