What is hosting and why is it important?
Hosting is important if you have decided to launch your product or service on a website for the first time or if you have considered ways to increase the number of users on your existing website. Hosting is an integral component of a website’s overall performance and to improve your website’s performance you need to understand what goes into a website becoming a functioning marketing avenue for the business. Hosting is like the first building block of your digital network so it needs to be done correctly.
The best way to make the right decisions when it comes to your website is to understand how a website works and why it is important that each step is done to a quality standard.
Effective online platforms begin with the basics and before you begin with your website you need to choose the right hosting company. If you go and search for a hosting company, there are many choices available, all offering a variety of services with their own pros and cons. The way to make an informed decision is to better understand your websites needs. For example, are you using an e-commerce site that is aimed at selling a product directly to a customer or is your website aimed at giving visitors information so they can contact you from the website for a consultation or quotation? Is your website storing personal information which needs to be protected? Maybe, your website is a 4 pager with no additional features, whatever the case your hosting solution needs to be the best it can be for your website.
Try and think of a website as having “weight’’ the more your website is filled with large images and animation videos etc the longer it will take for the website to load – this is often referred to as load speed, having a premium hosting environment can help lower your websites load speed.
All websites have different components that function together to provide the website experience your visitors receive. The full website is hosted on a server with a specific hosting provider. Depending on the effectiveness of the hosting company and the hosting package you have chosen affects your website’s overall performance. When you have a website your domain needs to be hosted. Think of this as your businesses rent for a space on the internet and much like in reality is better to ‘house’ your shop in a better location. Most websites will begin ‘renting’ their space on a Shared server; this is the most effective option as your website is essentially sharing the server resources. While this is the most common hosting
package for websites there is one large drawback. If a website on the server is overusing the resources your website’s load speed and functionality could be affected.
Every website should be hosted in an effective environment. Ultimately, after having worked with South African hosting companies, we searched the global market for a hosting company that had the overall server performance we felt we needed for us to achieve better search engine results including load speed. One of the most impressive companies Web Anatomy spoke to was InMotion hosting and we haven’t looked back since. The customer service provided by Inmotion is second to none. Their friendly support associates are always available to answer your questions and assist when needed.
InMotion has several hosting options suited to different websites’ needs. These plans include a WordPress hosting option with WooCommerce one-click installation, a shared Business hosting environment and a VPS option for those who need the affordability of shared hosting environment with more power and control over your OS (Operating System). InMotion also offers dedicated servers for those established websites and eCommerce stores that need their servers set up specifically for their needs. In fact, Inmotion is so confident in the ability to satisfy hosting needs, they offer a 90-day money-back guarantee and are awarded an A+ rating by the Better Business Bureau. (The Better Business Bureau is a consumer protection entity that reviews businesses in terms of integrity and performance in Canada and the US).
Web Anatomy focuses on website performance and search engine optimization in accordance with Google guidelines to better a website’s ability to grow sales and InMotion’s hosting plans have allowed us to grow this service.