Budget web hosting providers often cram as many websites onto a single server as they can.
This article explains why businesses should focus on the quality of service, not just the price, when picking out their web hosting provider.
You can face significant website downtime, which negatively impacts search engine optimisation (SEO).
Budget web hosting providers often cram as many websites onto a single server as they can. This results in too many websites vying for already restricted resources; so your website will often suffer slow loading times and potential downtime, hugely impacting your search engine rankings.
Like office space, if there’s a reasonable number of people, everyone has room to move around and easily share resources. But, if there are too many people, then everyone suffers, and productivity dives.
End-to-end Encryption
We are amazed to see that some hosting companies still charge extra for SSL certificates. It’s like flying with a budget airline, on the face of it, you get a great deal - but you get to the airport, and your luggage is overweight, and so you’re forced to buy expensive ‘extras’. An SSL certificate is the component that encrypts data sent through your website and is what gives that small padlock icon in the address bar on our website. In 2017, Google released updates that prioritised sites with an SSL certificate in their search rankings. Today, if you go to a website in any modern web browser that doesn’t have an SSL certificate, you will be blocked from opening the page. We cannot stress enough how important SSL Certificates are today, for SEO and for the protection of you and your customers.
Address Blacklisting and Email deliverability
On shared hosting platforms you never know how many people are on that same hosting set-up, it could be hundreds, or even thousands of companies just like yours. Now imagine a company on that same hosting package, who shares your same site IP address decides to send out unsolicited emails to a list of 20,000 people. This will cause IP blacklisting, and could spell disaster for your business. Suddenly, and through no fault of your own, you could find important emails landing in your customers junk, or worse, not being delivered at all. The problem is, you may never know about this until it is too late.
One size fits all servers aren’t good enough for your business.
Low-cost web hosting companies don't tailor their servers to your website's needs, so you have to work with their server's default configuration. The configuration is unlikely to be the optimum choice for your site.
If you run an eCommerce site, you would greatly benefit from a custom server configuration that ensures faster access speeds for users and minimal downtime while giving your business greater flexibility and preventing potential sales from falling through the net.
If you're looking to start a blog or small site, you might get away with using a budget web hosting provider. But, if your website is critical in the running of your business, then using a hosting provider that doesn't configure their servers to your site is an unnecessary risk.
Picking a budget web hosting provider that gives you any old server configuration could potentially restrict your company's long-term growth, especially if your business is solely web-based.
A lot of businesses today want to utilise the best the web has to offer, and that will often come in the form of a CMS (Content Management System). What people will often fail to tell you is that with the functionality that a CMS brings, allowing you to edit a website in real-time – come very real security concerns. That shouldn’t put you off using a CMS, but you must consider where you host that site. If your server has been specifically configured to host your CMS then you will be much better off than going with a provider who offers hosting for any platform.
Website Backups
Any reputable web hosting company will include a backup solution with your hosting plan. This means that in the unfortunate event that a website goes offline, is compromised, or simply needs rolling back to an earlier version, then you are protected. It is our experience that companies do not value a comprehensive backup solution until it is too late.
Good customer service makes all the difference if your site goes down.
One area that cheap hosting providers love to skimp on is customer service, as staff costs are a significant overhead.
Nearly every website suffers some level of downtime at some point for an endless list of reasons. When it happens, personalised and attentive customer service is worth every penny.
If disaster strikes and customers can't access your website, you don't want to be on hold for two hours with the other people sharing your server who, like you, can't access their websites.
Speaking to considerate customer service staff that pick up the phone the moment you call and work tirelessly to resolve your issue makes all the difference in a crisis.
Many budget web hosting providers have a laissez-faire attitude toward sustainability.
Some web hosting companies have taken steps to reduce their carbon footprint, but most are lagging.
There are many ways businesses can reduce their negative impact on the planet, the most obvious of which is switching to renewable energy sources like wind or solar.
Renewable energy isn't always possible for data centres and web hosting companies, so some purchase renewable energy certificates (RECs) or green support initiatives like tree planting or clearing plastic from the oceans.
This is important to us, and that is why we only use web hosting partners who are ISO 14001 accredited.
While choosing an environmentally conscious web hosting provider might not save you money, it is one way your business could start operating more sustainably, which is an increasing consumer concern.
At Doddle, we're focused on finding our customers the best web hosting solution for their business.
We don't offer one size fits all packages, and we have a proven record of outstanding customer service.
If you're thinking of moving away from your current hosting provider or considering launching a new site, we can help.