How to Pick a GREAT Hosting Company, Focused on WordPress.
WordPress has, in recent years, become a top choice among business owners for enhancing the effectiveness of their online presence. Opting for a managed WordPress account has also become quite popular, as businesses have realized the value of outsourcing their hosting services to experienced professionals. Knowing how to choose the best candidate to manage a WordPress account, however, is often a difficult task in the face of a mushrooming industry.
WordPress Web Hosting
Since there are a multitude of options available, it is well worth learning some criteria by which to identify a superior hosting service. Some of the most basic, but crucial, factors to look for include:
- A company that has dedicated itself to WordPress alone. Being focused on one thing can help them excel.
- A quick-response, 24/7 support team
- Rapid WordPress deployment
- A server that is focused on the website alone, and not cluttered with an email accounts
- Quick restoration of back-ups, should they temporarily fail, and full visibility on how many back-ups are kept on file and how many days they will last
- Top-tier malware scanning
- Support for the latest versions of PHP and MySQL scripts
- A content delivery network (CDN), which quickly optimizes your content based on geographic locations
- The ability to provide you a full-orbed development area
The best WordPress Web hosts will offer you all of the above, and more. It is always possible to skimp, but the best policy to remember is: “You pay for what you get, so pay a bit more.” It is well worth paying a little extra to get fully reliable WordPress management.
WordPress Security
When you ask yourself what to look for in WordPress hosting, you should not think only of functionality. Without adequate security measures, all of your data could be stolen at the click of a button. Paradoxically, the more plugins and functions installed, the greater the danger of data theft, and yet, without functionality, there is no reason to have a WordPress account.
A good WordPress host will know how to minimize the risk of hacker attacks. While nothing online is ever 100% secure, professional hosting services have experienced personnel and advanced software and hardware that can maximally protect your data.
Some of the ways in which WordPress hosting can enhance your online security include:
- Refraining from installing more plugins than needed and eliminating any you are not using or do not plan to use in the near future. There is no reason to give hackers extra targets to shoot at when you are not gaining any benefit from the risk.
- Testing all plugins and other functions before actually using them. By investing in a staging website, you will be able to test coding and overall security before implementation.
- Running security audits on all new WordPress customizations. If your customized content and tools change rapidly, however, you can schedule regular security audits every few months instead of doing it before implementing each adjustment.
- Paying attention to the security importance of backup systems. If your backup system is on the same server, or worse yet the same Web directory, hackers could steal your information. This is because search engine directory indexing sometimes automatically exposes same-server backup files to public view.
- Hire a proven company who can worry about security for you.
Conclusion
There is much to consider when selecting a WordPress Web hosting service, including the company’s expertise in WordPress functionality, security, and customer service. As the success of your business partly depends on making a wise Web-host choice, you should take the time to research each company and compare them based on the criteria above. If you have questions, call us today!