How to Get More Visitors with a Solid Website Foundation
One of the key components of any soon-to-be thriving online business is building a beautiful website. However, this kind of beauty must not only stay on the surface, but also depends on its rock-solid foundation-that is, its position.
If you run a brick and mortar store, expanding it online is a great way to attract new customers. If you already have a small online store, improving its structure, security, and speed can mean a lot to your business success. If your online store – or any other type of business-oriented website – hasn’t been launched yet, now is the perfect time to learn about the best online business practices.
While there are tons of tips and tricks on how to drive traffic to your existing website and start selling at scale, very little talks about website basics.So, in this guide, we’ll discuss the ever-expanding ecosystem of websites, the importance of web hosting (opens in a new tab)And how to choose the right hosting service and make your website successful.
A growing website ecosystem
Long gone are the days when a website could stand on its own without being embedded in an all-encompassing, ever-evolving ecosystem. Today, virtually any public site is loaded with multiple pieces of digital media and other content from countless sources.
Some of these include social media sites (such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube), email marketing (opens in a new tab) Tools (such as Mailchimp), Search Engine Optimization (SEO (opens in a new tab)) tools (for example, SEMRush (opens in a new tab)), web analytics tools (such as Google Analytics), customer relationship management (CRM (opens in a new tab)) solutions such as Salesforce (opens in a new tab)), and many more.
In short, these parts of the website ecosystem help elevate your website and enhance the way you interact with customers – you can’t have a content-rich website without being part of that ecosystem.
Also, as every successful website grows over time, so does its ecosystem. So the trick is to choose a web hosting provider that offers you a service that can keep up and fuel its growth.
Why is web hosting important?
Stable, secure and fast web hosting services are a crucial part of any successful website.
For starters, your website can’t be online if it isn’t online — that is, if there isn’t space on the server to store all of its content and make it accessible to users of the webspace. In business terms, its official website is its public face – as such, it should be polished and professional.
However, that’s not all. Your website will not be able to grow without the resources to support it, i.e. number of CPUs, storage space (preferably SSD), bandwidth and RAM. Also, the type of web hosting you choose will have a big impact on your site’s performance – while shared hosting is fine for small sites, a virtual private server (VPS) is a better option if you run a high-traffic e-commerce store .
Reliable web hosting service as an all-in-one solution for websites that offer everything a domain registrar offers (opens in a new tab) and website builders (opens in a new tab) Comprehensive customer support tools. Also, look for an intuitive and insightful user interface (UI), as it will let you monitor and manage every aspect of your website from one place.
Shared and cloud VPS solutions
If you have ever looked for a web hosting solution to start a personal blogging website (opens in a new tab) or small online projects, you must have considered shared hosting. It’s cheap, enjoyable, and easy to get started with. So it’s no surprise that this is one of the most popular web hosting solutions on the planet.
However, it comes with some strings attached. As the name suggests, with a shared hosting solution, all websites share the space and resources of one physical server, which can turn into a hassle once your website starts getting more visitors and growing in size.
On the other hand, with a VPS solution, you get an isolated virtual environment on a physical server without sharing it with anyone else. Thanks to the virtualization technology behind VPS, a physical machine is split into several independent server environments with the same resources.
Conversely, since resources on a shared server are used by all sites on it, if one site takes up too much bandwidth, your site can slow down and put off potential customers.
While a VPS costs significantly more than a shared hosting solution, it is more powerful and will give you unrivaled scalability. So, once your website’s visitor numbers start to explode, you can add more resources to your VPS – ie upgrade your VPS hosting plan.
Also, while shared hosting is considered very safe because you will be sharing a server with multiple users if one site is attacked by cybercriminals, all other sites are also at risk.
However, VPS hosting also has some disadvantages that have nothing to do with pricing. Namely, lacks user-friendliness and requires some technical know-how and setup time.
While shared hosting services are so simple that you can manage everything yourself (with a few how-tos), VPS solutions require experienced experts to manage it. However, if you don’t know how to manage a VPS or don’t have expert staff to keep your servers safe and up to date, there is still hope.
VPS comes in two flavors: managed and unmanaged solutions. With an unmanaged VPS, you or your staff will manage all aspects of the server, while with a managed service, you will have a technician assist you with tasks such as migration, monitoring, and maintenance. However, be prepared to pay a fortune for all this help.
Choose the right hosting provider
While with either of these two types of hosting services – shared and VPS – you can pretty much get what you pay for, you still have to choose the right web hosting provider.
Although the easiest solution is to trust our selection of top web hosting providers and consult our “Best Shared Hosting (opens in a new tab)“and”Best VPS Hosting (opens in a new tab)” list, it is always wise to do your own research.
So, check the range of hosting plans available, their value for money, the host’s refund policy, and the type of guarantee they offer. Also, look at the company’s background and whether they have a good track record, especially when it comes to safety.
last shot
One way to ensure your website’s success is to build it on a solid website foundation that can grow with and support your website.
Whether you’re creating a website for personal or business reasons, the first thing you have to choose is the type of hosting you want – shared hosting and VPS hosting are both good choices. However, depending on your personal preference or business needs, you may prefer one solution over another.
All in all, if you’re starting small and on a tight budget, shared hosting might be best for you. Meanwhile, if you want a professional, money-making website with great security, scalability, and SEO, then a VPS solution is for you.