Best Practices for Website Hosting

When first getting started with your website, you’ll want to ensure that it runs smoothly and securely. By following some of these best practices, you’ll rest assured that you are providing a positive user experience for your website visitors.

Choose a reputable hosting provider

It’s important to select a hosting provider that you trust—one that has a good reputation for reliability, performance, and security. The best way to do this is by checking the provider’s reviews and ratings before signing up for a hosting plan.

Opt for a hosting plan that suits your needs

Choosing the right hosting plan is an essential part of making sure your site is running efficiently. You’ll want to choose a plan suited for your specific needs so you’re not paying for features you don’t need. A few factors to consider are:

• Website traffic
• Storage space
• Bandwidth
• Type of website
• Technical Support

Keep your website updated

Keeping your website updated is crucial for maintaining its security, functionality, and performance. With a managed hosting plan, your hosting provider will take care of these updates for you, allowing you to focus on running your business. Some of these regular updates include:

• CMS Updates: If you use a Content Management System (CMS) such as WordPress, you’ll want to ensure that it is regularly updated. These updates often contain security patches and bug fixes to keep your website secure and up to date.
• Plugin and Theme Updates: It is likely you’ll use plugins and themes to add functionality and enhance design features on your website. Ensuring that all plugins and themes are updated regularly will help keep your website secure and functioning correctly. You’ll want to avoid using too many plugins, though, as they may cause conflicts and can slow down your website.
• Software Updates: It is vital that the software used by your website, such as the server and database, are updated regularly. This will improve website performance and provide security patches and bug fixes.
• Security Patches: Scanning for security vulnerabilities and applying relevant security patches as soon as possible will ensure that your website stays protected from potential threats.
• Checking for Broken Links and Errors: Fixing issues like broken links and 404 errors will help ensure that your website runs smoothly and provides a positive user experience.

Use a content delivery network (CDN)

A CDN can help improve website performance by caching your website’s content in multiple locations around the world, reducing the time it takes to load your website for users in various locations.

Backup your website regularly

Backup your website regularly to protect against data loss, hacking, and website failure. Many managed hosting plans include automated backups, but you can also use a third-party backup service.

Secure your website

Use a secure connection (HTTPS) to encrypt data transmitted between your website and users. Install security plugins, such as firewalls, to protect against hacking attempts.

Monitor website performance

Regularly monitoring your website’s performance (including uptime, speed, and response time) will allow you to identify issues before they become major problems.

Optimize website speed

Optimize your website’s speed and improve user experience by compressing images, minifying CSS and JavaScript files, and using a caching plugin to speed up webpage load times.

For more information on choosing the right hosting plan, reach out and talk to one of our experienced team members. We’ll be happy to talk through your specific needs and goals to find a plan that’s right for you!