The speed of at which your website loads on a users browser hinges on the quality of your web host. When a page takes more than 3 seconds to load there’s a 40% chance that your visitors will leave the site before interacting with the content. When users leave before interacting with content your SEO score goes down.
So, it is important to choose the best web hosting for small business over the cheaper competition. The success of your small business depends on the functionality of your website.
The right hosting plan is out there, no matter the size or scope of your small business website.
This article tells you which is the best web host for small business in 2019. Learn what to look for in your web hosting service, and what makes the best web hosts stand out from the rest.
Types of Web Hosting
A web host simply houses your website data on a server that is connected to the internet. Anyone can buy a server and hook it up to an internet connection, but it takes a professional to calibrate the server.
This is why most website administrators opt to pay for a managed hosting service, rather than setting up their own private server.
Managed Web Hosting
Managed WP hosts take care of all your hosting needs for you. A well managed WP host provider maintains and configures the optimal server configuration. They fix server issues and are responsible for the security of the server.
A good managed host will monitor the server 24 hours a day 7 days a week. They will even apply and update the operating systems.
Self-service Web Hosting
With self-serviced WP hosting, you buy and run your own server or hire someone else to run it for you. I recommend sticking with managed hosting so you can focus on your business instead of trying to deal with these complicated things yourself.
Types of Servers: Shared, Cloud, or Dedicated.
The account which you pay for with a web host determines the type of server that your website data is stored in. Managed web hosts often give members the option between three different types of server plans:
Shared
Shared server hosting is the least reliable. Shared server web hosting plans typically provide limited resources to each website. Server resources are split between thousands of websites that share the same server space.
Each server allotment has limited speed and disk space. Subscribers often lack the ability to customize their server settings. And each website’s bandwidth is split with every other site sharing the server.
When a website receives an influx of site traffic, the server can experience overload and crash your website.
That being said, there do exist shared server web hosting services that provide reliable site up-time, support, and resource allotments. If you have a low budget and low visitor traffic on your site a shared server hosting plan can save you money and satisfy all your needs.
The biggest drawback to choosing a shared hosting plan is the possibility that downtime frequency may hurt your SEO strategy.
Cloud
Cloud servers are a decentralized virtual hosting service that allows for high levels of customization and scalability. Cloud servers give you the ability to update software. Cloud hosting is more expensive than shared hosting but less than dedicated hosting.
Dedicated
A dedicated server is a server dedicated to the needs of just your site. You have access to the server’s full storage capacity. Since your site does not share resources with any other site, dedicated is the fastest server type.
Dedicated servers can handle spikes in traffic well, and give you complete control over your data and what hardware specs you choose to use. But, that extra speed comes at a higher plan price than the alternatives.
Best Web Hosting for Small Business
The best web hosting for small business in 2019 is WPEngine Hosting and SiteGround Hosting. WPEngine is the best option for sites that receive more than 500 visitors a day. Siteground is an economical option for sites that recieve less than 500 visitors a day.
Both services provide admins with site analysis tools and options for web monitoring services.
WPEngine is the best web hosting for small business that needs the highest quality service and uptime speed. It offers plans starting around $30/month.
SiteGround also has very fast web hosting for small business and blogs. SiteGround offers plans for shared hosting that start around $4/month.
SiteGround provides reliable shared hosting for websites that are just getting started or receive minimal online traffic.
Storage Space
If you have a blog or small business website, then you’ll be fine with 10GB on the SiteGround entry-level plan. WPEngine is the best choice if you have a bigger business with more website data storage requirements.
WPEngine plans include storage on a solid-state drive (SSD) to help increase your site’s response speed.
Uptime
Uptime is the time which the hosting and servers are up and working. You want 100% uptime or as close to it as possible.
WPEngine guarantees the maximum uptime for your website. You are informed as to any scheduled downtime for site maintenance. If your business is dependent on site uptime for revenue, consider going with WPEngine.
SiteGround guarantees the best uptime metric of any shared host. Each plan has allocated resources that are untouchable by other sites on the same server. So, an influx in traffic on a different website will not affect your website.
Customer Support
You need good customer support and service support because when problems arise you need competent people to solve them. Both WPEngine and SiteGround provide comprehensive customer support available 24/7. Users can contact customer support by email, phone, or online chat.
Final Thoughts
If your small business relies on the functioning of your website, the best option is WPEngine. If your business would benefit from the additional savings from a cheaper plan, SiteGround offers the most reliable shared hosting services.
WPEngine and SiteGround offer reliable hosting services and let your business grow seamlessly into bigger plans. Both web hosts offer cloud and dedicated server options for when your website really takes off.
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