The number of websites is rapidly increasing, with over 100,000 being launched each day. This is propelled by the insatiable thirst that the online community has for instant and up to date information. However, some websites might not be as “instant” as others and this could be due to many reasons, key among them being a slow performing web hosting service. Below are some tips to help you select some of the best hosting services for fast WordPress hosting.
A majority of hosting services support WordPress but they all have different architectures, options and software that run their services. As either a novice or an experienced developer, your ultimate goal is, not only to have good content, but also a fast loading website, so that it is ranked higher by search engines and instantly available to your website’s visitors.
1. Check popular reliable hosts such as InMotion vs SiteGround
Whenever something is popular, there is something good about it that makes it stand out. If you check CollectiveRay’s InMotion vs SiteGround comparison, you’ll find that both are very popular and provide a level of reliability that is unmatched. InMotion has maintained its top rating as a hosting company for over 14 years, with organizations such as BBB.org and Bitcatcha giving it an A+ rating. It supports a wide variety of software, including WordPress and has very fast response times.
SiteGround was founded at roughly the same time as InMotion and provides tailor-made solutions for WordPress hosting. This ensures that you receive high quality service with a 99.9% assured uptime. This makes it one of the fastest and most reliable hosting options in the market.
Other popular hosts do exist such as BlueHost and Hostgator but so far, InMotion and SiteGround have the highest number of users.
2. Get a VPS not shared hosting
Shared hosting basically means that your website will share the same server resources as other websites. VPS is a better option that basically means you get a dedicated disk space, server resources and more customizations. Of course it is more expensive than shared hosting but it gives you more control over performance factors such as caching, CDN and SSD’s, which directly affect the speed of your website.
3. Never choose the cheapest package
The cheapest hosting packages are always very tempting to purchase because of the cost savings involved. However, as they say, cheap is always expensive. Such packages usually include very limited features and perform poorly as compared to the more premium packages. This is usually a marketing trick that hosting companies use so that they can tap into every type of customer. Cheap packages might work if you have little traffic but for business or heavily trafficked websites, the more featured, more expensive packages are best suited for your needs.
4. Do your own testing
Sometimes getting the best hosting service comes down to your actual effort in trying to find out which one is the fastest. You might have read blogs or websites that advertise certain hosting services through an affiliate program. The links to these websites can be good for testing the response time of their hosting services. By simply pasting their home URL onto server speed checker websites such as Bitcatcha, you can get the response times from different regions around the world. It is by far, the cheapest way to test the speeds of these hosting services. There is another option where you can purchase the minimum of a 1 year hosting plan from different hosting companies and analyze their performances during that entire period but this is very expensive.
Server speed checkers are the best option because they are cheap, easy to use and gives the host a rating based on the response times. Using Bitcatcha as an example, it also includes ratings for some of the most popular hosts such as SiteGround, InMotion, iPage and HostGator among many others, and this gives you a good starting point as you look for a reliable hosting service.
5. Check available caching mechanisms for fast WordPress hosting
WordPress hosting companies usually support effective caching mechanisms such as object caching and full page caching, which are provided by caching systems such as WPEngine, Kinsta and FlyWheel. These systems operate at a much lower level than WordPress plugins, making them very fast and very effective at storing and updating caches. This enables your website to load quickly and rank higher on search engines, which is good for business.
It is important to check on the caching mechanisms that web hosting companies provide before settling on one, with the most ideal decision being settling on the one with the most effective mechanisms.
Conclusion
Slow hosting services can cost you a lot of time, energy and money. No matter how good your content is, a slow website will always be annoying to the end user and will lead to lower rankings. It is important to consider the tips explained above so as to get the fastest WordPress hosting service in the market and improve your online business.