7 Common Hosting Concerns and How to Address Them

There is a lot to consider when creating a website for your company: 

• You need to acquire a good domain name 
• Implement a Content Management System (CMS) 
• Select an ecommerce platform 
• Design an excellent User Interface (UI)
• Incorporate SEO 

The list goes on and on. But the most critical factor in building a successful website is having a reliable IT infrastructure. That is, choosing the best hosting provider and package that fit your needs.  

There is so much competition online. Gaining the attention of consumers and getting them to visit your site is half the battle. Once there, you’ll need to provide a great User Experience (UX) that gains visitors’ trust and keeps them engaged. 

With poor web hosting, your site falls at the first hurdle, and the rest of your work goes to waste. With so many options online, customers have little patience for poorly performing sites and will most likely turn to one of your competitors.  

How the Pandemic Transformed Purchasing Habits

The Covid-19 pandemic drove everyone online and dramatically transformed society’s purchasing habits. It saw a dramatic reduction in in-person purchasing and a surge in online activity. Also, it created a significant number of first-time online purchasers. 

A survey shows 66% of Singaporeans have increased their online purchases during the pandemic. And in the first half of 2020, ecommerce platforms in Singapore saw a 23% growth in total site visits. 

For your ecommerce business, this means the best time to capitalise on this change. To do that, you need to deliver a great website experience to retain and engage visitors and eventually turn them into customers. 

With that, businesses have to give significant thought to their web hosting and get the best of the best out there.  

Here are seven web hosting concerns to consider when choosing a package for your business. 

7 Common Web Hosting Concerns 

Slow loading speeds

Site speed has a significant impact on customer satisfaction and UX, plus it also affects SEO. Loading time is a core web vital that Google is looking at for ranking. Therefore, the slower your site loads, the lower down the search page your site will be. 

In fact, the statistics on page load times and bounce rates are staggering. A study by Google found that if the load time increases from 1 second to 3 seconds, there’s a 32% chance that a user will abandon your website. Think of all the potential customers you’ll be losing. 

Many factors affect websites speed. Some are down to the site’s design, including the file type/size and the plugins used; some are down to the user, their internet connection, browser, and device. However, your web host plays a massive role in the overall speed you can expect to achieve. 

Beyond just looking at the advertised speed of a web host package, businesses should consider other factors to ensure fast loading times. These include: 

• Server Response Time – Look for Time to First Byte (TTFB) data; this measures how long the server takes to respond when receives a request. Make sure your server response time is below 200 milliseconds. 
• Hard Drive – The hard drive that stores your website data is a crucial factor in site speed. Look for web hosting that utilises Solid State Drives (SSDs) as they are considerably faster than mechanical drives. 
• Server Type - The three main server types offered are: shared, dedicated, and Virtual Private Server (VPS).  Shared server packages split resources between multiple websites, and an overcrowded server can reduce your site’s performance. A dedicated server option is more expensive but means you get the server all to yourself and the performance improvements that come with it. Finally, a VPS offers a middle ground where the web host guarantees a percentage of the server resources for your site. This means a sudden surge in traffic on someone else’s site won’t affect your site’s performance. 

Server crashes

Server crashes cause unplanned downtime where your website is closed for business. On top of the immediate loss of sales, server crashes also damage your reputation, making consumers less likely to return to your site. 

Website crashes can be due to: 

• Drastically higher traffic completely overloading your server (you can have too much of a good thing);
• An unexpected event at the server facility (flooding, fire, power outages, etc.);
• Or something more nefarious such as a cyber-attack. 

While some server crashes are quick fixes, the cost of recovering a total server crash can be considerable and compound the revenue loss already incurred. 

Avoid server crashes by implementing hosting that includes adequate monitoring and protection. 

Scalability issues

If all goes well and you’re successful in growing your business, your website will start to see more visitors and activity. To keep up with the growing traffic and ensure you maintain site performance, you need to scale up your hosting package. 

You don’t want to be stuck with limited server resources right when your business is starting to take off.  

You can search for hosting solutions that grow based on your audience. This doesn’t have to mean an immediate jump to a dedicated server and the price tag that comes with it. Instead, you can look for vendors who offer seamless migration to upgraded plans that provide greater disk space and higher bandwidths. 

Unsupported features

There are plenty of web hosting services out there, and you don’t have to compromise your site’s features to fit your web hosts functionality. 

Whatever specific features you require, there is a web hosting solution to match. So, whether you need Windows hosting instead of Linux, look for a web hosting that lets you freely install particular platforms or plugins. 

Lack of security

Keeping your website’s data safe is a major concern for businesses worldwide, especially in the current online environment. With the pandemic driving even more of our lives online (from remote working to online purchasing), cyberattacks are also on the rise. The FBI reported a 300% increase in cybercrimes since the beginning of the pandemic. 

That’s why having robust website security should be one of your top priorities. Your site not only holds sensitive information about your business, but it also holds your customer’s data. It is vital to keep this data out of the hands of hackers and other cybercriminals. 

Here are things to look for in terms of increased website security in hosting: 

• Secure data centres 
• Servers running the latest software 
• Private IP addresses
• Free SSL certificates for encrypted data exchange
• The regular backup of data in case you need to restore your website.

Inflexible hosting plans

Many businesses find themselves stuck with hosting services that no longer fit their requirements. This could mean overpaying for resources you no longer need or struggling to upgrade without the hassle of changing providers. 

When selecting your hosting plan, ensure it comes with flexibility so you don’t get stranded in a contract with no room for manoeuvre. 

Unresponsive customer support

If something does go wrong with your website, you’re going to need a quick fix to get back up and running. You’re going to want a hosting service with fast and responsive customer support. 

Time is money, and time spent trying to contact your website host is unnecessarily lost revenue for your business.  

Here are the most important questions to help you assess if a web hosting provider has the right support you’re looking for: 

• What type of communication channels does the hosting service offer? 
• How fast are their responses? 
• Do they have round-the-clock support? 
• How helpful and knowledgeable are the staff?

Ensure online success with reliable web hosting

As you can see, there is a lot to consider and plenty of areas for concern when choosing your web hosting service. Given the pandemic has accelerated online purchasing and ecommerce markets, the spotlight is shining bright on how a company’s websites perform. 

Never compromise when it comes to your hosting. Look for a hosting provider that can help you alleviate your hosting concerns. Leverage Vodien’s proactive IT monitoring services and comprehensive server management for your organisation. 

About Vodien

Vodien is Singapore's leading provider for Web hosting, Servers, and Web Security. Besides Virtual Private Servers (VPS) and Dedicated Servers that offer high performance and scalability, we offer colocation rack space to run servers in T1 secured environment.  

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