Ah, new technology... launching a website has all the excitement and novelty of buying a new vehicle, minus that new car smell. However, making all of the technology decisions to support a new website can be less thrilling.
With over 25 years of website development experience, we are well versed in helping our clients understand the nuances, benefits, and differences of many tech solutions. To help shed some light on one of our most popular client questions, here are a few things you should know about website hosting.
Shared vs VPS hosting
During every website build, a client needs to decide where they wish to host their website and what type of hosting service makes sense for their company. The two primary hosting options are shared hosting and Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting.
Shared hosting
Shared hosting means that your website will share a virtual server, database, bandwidth, and storage with other websites.
Pro: Shared hosting is the most basic and cheapest form of hosting available. Affordability is one of the primary reasons people choose shared hosting.
Con: If something happens to another site within your shared hosting environment, it can impact you.
Con: Shared hosting data is not encrypted. When consumers visit your website, they may receive pop-up security warnings. Visually you can tell if a site is not encrypted by simply looking at the browser – the 'secure' lock symbol will not display, and HTTP will appear before the URL.
Con: The absence of the 'secure' symbol and the appearance of a pop-up warning may distract customers. For many businesses, the negative brand impact outweighs the cost savings gained by sharing a server.
Con: Today, SEO is everything for businesses that want to appear on Google search results. Google prioritizes search results for websites that are encrypted/have SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificates. Essentially, websites on shared hosting have lower SEO and appear lower on Google search results.
VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosting
Pro: VPS hosting gives you more space, bandwidth, and overall better site performance.
Pro: Increased stability and reliability.
Pro: It supports data encryption and SSL certificates, meaning that your website will be more secure, have better SEO and Google search results.
Pro: Site visitors will feel safe visiting your website when they see the 'secure' icon and HTTPS in the browser.
Drawback: The extra service, protection, and performance does equate to a higher cost. However, VPS hosting is very affordable, and WSD offers highly competitive rates.
Why hosting with WSD makes sense
There are so many hosting providers, from BlueHost to GoDaddy and HostGator, it can be hard to know who to choose. Fortunately, we make it easy for our clients to decide where to host their site by offering top-notch VPS and shared hosting services.
5 reasons to host your site with WSD
- Customer service: Hosting with WSD means working with friendly people who know your name. Whenever you call WSD, you will be working with real people, not automated self-help systems.
- Experience: WSD has a fully staffed technical team, including experienced developers – which means that if you have an issue, we have an expert on hand to help provide a solution.
- Reliability: We have a long-tenured staff that understands your business and will always be there to help you succeed.
- Robust server security: All of WSD's servers are managed and monitored with nightly backups. We configure our servers securely with firewalling and other industry best practices.
- Easy migration: Once you decide to host with WSD, you can leave the transfer to us. We will ensure your site is moved from your existing hosting provider to our servers seamlessly. If you wish to stop hosting with us, we will gladly help you re-locate your site to another provider.
Contact us, today, to learn more about hosting with WebSight Design!
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