AndyMcGowan

Upgrading your business’ website hosting service may seem like a trivial issue, but it can have a serious growth impact. Having a hosting service that doesn’t provide the necessary elements to provide the best user experience is just one risk.

Did you know that a poor user experience could lead potential customers toward your competitors? This makes upgrading absolutely vital to business success.

“Digital user experience encompasses all aspects of a person’s interaction with your web or mobile site including behavior, actions, perceptions and satisfaction,” Casey Weisbach of Forbes Agency Council explained. “Putting an emphasis on user experience will not only benefit your customers but will consequently deliver results for your company.”

You most likely have a shared web hosting service, since it is the most common service to purchase when starting a business. This type of service has probably served you well over the last year or two. However, traffic is increasing and the size of your website has probably grown. You will need a cloud developer to help expand your website and keep it functioning with what you have grown to so you are not confined to one ‘space’.

These are excellent issues to have but to reach your full potential and maximize profits, you may need to begin thinking about upgrading your website hosting service. The following can serve as a guide to learn more, allowing you to make the best decision.

Upgrading to a Cloud Website Hosting Service

Cloud website hosting is pretty new in the hosting service space, but it has become rather useful for fast growing businesses. What is cloud hosting? Cloud hosting combines multiple servers on the cloud and makes them work together like one big server.

The reason for upgrading to a cloud service is that it provides a way to scale your website bandwidth and other elements with ease. For example, if you’re experiencing high-level growth, you simply notify your hosting provider and they add hardware to facilitate your needs.

Upgrading to a Virtual Private Server (VPS) Hosting Service

Using a virtual private server (VPS) is the stepping-stone between a shared hosting service and dedicated service. It acts as multiple servers, but originates from one, kind of like the flipside of cloud hosting services.

VPS hosting combats the issue of shared server space. You may know that when your site is sharing a server with hundreds of websites, like in the case of shared hosting, site performance can be impacted if you’re sharing a server with a large website that gets a ton of traffic.

This can keep your business’ user experience optimal, since load time and other user engagement musts won’t be impacted. Virtual private server services are more costly than shared, but the cost is worth the experience you’ll deliver to your audience.

Upgrading to a Dedicated Website Hosting Service

If you don’t think a VPS will be enough for the large amount of traffic and the site expansion you’re doing for your website, a dedicated website hosting service may be the next step.

Upgrading to a dedicated hosting service gives you total control with root permissions and the ability to maintain a high-level of site performance for your visitors.

In fact, user experience is so important for businesses with high growth that 88 percent of people will leave a bad-performing site never to return. One of the major issues consumers have is slow page load time. A dedicated server can remedy this for a highly trafficked website.

The down side is price. Upgrading to a dedicated hosting service can cost hundreds of dollars per month. However, if you are losing potential customers due to poor performance, it may be a valid option, despite the price tag.

Setting Up In-Company Hosting

Lastly, you may be ready to set up your own hosting. This is a moment when you go from large company to global corporation, or if you are a rapidly growing tech company that simply needs more space and control to meet the needs of your company and clients.

DIY hosting, for lack of a better term, is a must if you can’t rely on the services or cybersecurity protocolsof outsourced hosting providers. However, there is a level of expertise needed to setup your own in-company hosting.

You’ll need to have a team of computer professionals know about and do:

• Software configuration
• Hardware maintenance
• Data center
• Servers (with installation)
• Bandwidth
• System admins
• Security protocols

DIY hosting is the top step in hosting service. It may be challenging to setup at first, but not unattainable. This type of hosting is also costly, and certainly not for startups or entrepreneurs.

In Conclusion . . .

When shared web hosting is no longer an option for your business, begin planning your hosting upgrade before site performance is impacted. Remember, if you provide a poor user experience, you will lose customers that will most likely never return to your site. Is your business ready for a hosting upgrade?