Every business whether big or small has and uses a web hosting service. It is a vital component in building a successful website and having a strong online presence. If you are new to operating a website, you may not be familiar with how web hosting works or why are you paying for this service. Today, a quality web hosting provider can have a major impact on your search engine visibility. Many hosting services use the latest technologies to provide an effective service that not only drives traffic to your site but also plays an important role in your business ROI.
What is Web hosting?
Web hosting is basically a service that provides technology that is required for your website to be viewed on the internet. Your website is a collection of different files and media elements such as photos and videos. A web host stores all your web applications on a physical server and makes them available on the internet with a specific domain name. Thus, when a searcher types in your domain name they will have access to your website. In a nutshell, when you sign-up for a hosting service, you rent a space that stores all the data available on your website.
Opting for a reliable hosting provider is essential for your business. If your provider is not as efficient as you would expect it to be, it will definitely affect user experience and unwanted downtime that can cost you a whole lot of revenue. Imagine this, a customer visited your site and opted for a service or product that you are offering. Now, while trying to pay online, the customer is unable to complete the transaction due to a temporary glitch in the server. The customer may try to do it again or will leave and look for other sites offerings similar services.
Every business owner knows that losing sales is bad for business, so it is important that your website has a great uptime so that user experience is not hindered by any challenges.
Types of web host
With a variety of hosting services available out there, you can choose a package that fits your company’s needs. Whether you want to build a business website or a simple personal blog. Hosting Foundry and their country-specific hosting comparisons of the best hosting providers is exactly what you need when choosing a hosting service .Here are the most popular options available:
Shared
VPS
Dedicated
Cloud
Types of Web Hosting Technology
Web hosting providers use a variety of technology to cater to all kinds of needs. Businesses come in different shapes and sizes. Plus, search engines are getting smarter so it is important to look at hosting detail while opting for one. Here some of the most common technologies that are used by hosting services:
PHP – You can add or implement a feature on your website without the approval of your hosting provider
.htaccess – If you are interested in customizing your error pages or protect your website from hotlinking, bandwidth theft, etc. You can also password-protect your folders by simply creating or modifying your .htaccess files.
FTP – It allows you to upload files directly to your server from your local or personnel computer. It basically gives you access to your website through the internet.
SSH –It is useful for maintaining databases such as MySQL and when you want to run a blog or a content management system.
5 Reason Web Hosting Impacts Search Engine Visibility
We all know that SEO plays a key role in visibility on search engines. Web hosting and SEO have more in common than you would have thought. Here are some ways how web hosting can impact your overall ranking on search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.
Speed
Speed is one of the most important factors for any online business to survive. The faster your web loads, the more likely a customer will do business on your site. If your website takes too long to load, it can be a hindrance for your customer and can be frustrating. While looking for a hosting provider, it is important to see what kind of plan will match the needs of your business. For example, if you opt for shared hosting, your server is shared among other sites whereas a dedicated or VPS hosting will offer more guaranteed performance, speed, and ROI.
Uptime
The last thing you would want is a customer-facing downtime such as a blank screen or an error message. Downtime can have a direct impact on the revenue of your site. Therefore a website host that guarantees at least 99 percent uptime is important for your business to be successful. Uptime basically refers to the accessibility and the percentage of time your site is online. The higher uptime guaranteed you take one step further in ranking higher in the process. Remember, there is always going to some downtime during the day but the key is to keep it as short as possible. This way, it won’t affect your visibility and will continue to drive traffic to your website.
Technical Support
Most people may not consider technical support as an important feature in building a strong online presence. But it is one of the most important things you need to pay attention to. While researching for a hosting provider, makes sure you check out their customer reviews based on their support.
A hosting provider who provides excellent support is more likely to make it evident on all their online platforms. Excellent hosting service should offer 24/4 support for free through various modes of communication such as email, live chat and even call. If your website crashes or goes offline in an unlikely event, every moment offline can cost your sales or conversions. Technical support can help minimize this error and fix it immediately without any delay.
Security
Hackers and cybercriminals are everywhere and you never really know when the threat is going to come. Thus, you need to ensure that your website is secure and the foundation of your site’s security begins with an excellent hosting provider. A quality host will have multiple levels of security to protect all your stored data. Some hosting providers even offer backups for your website. The benefit of backed-up data is that if your website gets hacked, you can simply just restore to a previous version of your site. Instead of starting over from scratch.
Email and Domain Name
Most hosting providers will allow you to create a domain-associated email address that is unique to your brand for free. While another hosting service may charge you. A good hosting service will provide at least one domain name that helps in building brand awareness and loyalty. It will also allow you to personalize your emails around your domain name.
Conclusion
Web hosting providers offer a variety of services and technologies that your business can benefit from. You can use the aforementioned points to find the right hosting provider that works best for you.
I am Nitin Garg, founder of BR Softech PVT LTD - an award-winning mobile game development company known for its excellence in the gaming domain. We have a team of 180+ exceptional professionals & we have a satisfied clientele of 2.7k+ globally. Driven by an entrepreneurial spirit, I aim to elevate BR Softech to a billion-dollar company.