If you’ve got a website and you do business on it, it’s likely that you’ve spent time thinking about how to optimize it. You may have done all the “usual” things, like compressing your images, removing unnecessary plugins, using a CDN to host your content, and so on.
Site still slow? Here’s something you might not have thought of—your web hosting. Yes, web hosting can have an effect on your website speed, so if your site is still not loading quickly, you might want to check it out.
Here’s how to improve your website speed and performance with web hosting. It’s all about choosing the web hosting provider that’s going to work for you… But here’s exactly what to look for.
Why is Website Speed Important?
Did you know that more than half of your website’s visitors will close your website if the page doesn’t load in 3 seconds or less? Once a visitor leaves, there’s very little chance of them coming back to your website, and even less chance of them buying from you if they do return.
So it’s in your best interest to keep them on your website for as long as possible. While the quality of your content plays a huge role in that, the first thing that has the potential to chase away visitors is your page loading speed.
Plus, your website speed also plays a role in your search engine rankings, so if you’re interested in attracting organic traffic through SEO, it’s well worth optimizing.
How Does Web Hosting Affect Website Speed?
While you can take steps to improve your website’s speed, your web host also plays a role. For example, if the host’s servers are located far away from where your target audience is located, it can take some time to transfer the data over to the visitor’s computer for display.
The type of hosting you choose also makes a difference. For example, if you’re on a shared hosting plan, if any other site sharing your server gets a spike in their traffic, the majority of the server’s resources will be redirected there, leaving your site without enough resources to load quickly or properly.
Things like storage, bandwidth, and server speed all make a huge difference to the performance and speed of your website. These things are completely under the control of your web hosting provider—so choose yours carefully.
How to Improve Website Speed and Performance With Web Hosting
Still battling to up your website speed and performance? Change your web hosting. Here’s what to look for in a web host to find the right option for your needs.
Be Careful About Web Hosting Type
If speed is an issue, avoid shared hosting completely. We also recommend staying away from VPS hosting and choosing either dedicated or cloud hosting. These two are the most stable, reliable, and fastest.
Choose the Right Web Hosting Plan
Once you’ve chosen your type, it’s time to opt for a plan. Here, we advise researching and comparing various web hosting companies and the plans they offer, so you can get a good idea of what’s out there.
Check out what bandwidth, storage, speed, and extras they offer. You want a plan that offers SSD storage, fast servers, and has room for growth.
Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN)
We also highly recommend choosing a web host that uses a CDN (content delivery network). This is a network of servers across the world on which your content is stored, allowing it to be sent to nearby devices much faster.
This makes a big difference as visitors from all over the world get your content faster from a server nearby, instead of waiting for it to be transferred from a server in a different country.
Not all web hosting providers offer a CDN. It’s not a problem if you’re going with cloud hosting, because that’s basically one big CDN already. But if you’re going with traditional hosting, being hosted on a server that’s far away from your target audience can slow things down a lot.
Remove Unnecessary Plugins
Are there plugins you’re not using? Plugins you’re keeping there “just in case” you need them someday? Get rid of any plugins you aren’t actively using. They can take up valuable space and slow everything down.
In the case of managed web hosting, your web host may install plugins on the backend that aren’t being used. If you have some control over your site’s settings, check this out and get rid of anything that’s not being used. If it’s not actively working, then it’s obviously not necessarily for your business at that point in time.
Caching
Make sure your web host allows you to enable browser caching. Caching allows copies of your site’s data to be stored on web browsers, like Google Chrome. That means that when someone pops on to your website on the browser, it pulls the files directly from the browser without having to wait for the server to send the info.
This makes a significant difference to your website loading time, keeping visitors on the page much longer. Make sure your chosen web host allows it.
Choose a Host With Exceptional Customer Service
While customer service won’t necessarily help your website to load faster, it’ll definitely reduce any frustration you may feel during the process of trying to boost your site speed.
Do your research here. Read real reviews and compare them to other web hosts, so you get a real feel for what customers are saying. You want to be working with a host who respects your business and does their best to help you with issues.
Make sure they’re available 24/7, via various channels, like phone, email, and chat. This is especially important if you’re not tech-savvy yourself.
Conclusion
There are plenty of factors that go into improving your website speed and performance, and web hosting is a surprising one. But the quality of the host you choose can make or break your success, no matter what your business is, so take some time to consider it.
While you contemplate your web host, take some time to analyze your site and do all the little things to boost your speed, if you haven’t already. Minify your code, enable above-the-fold loading, reduce redirects wherever possible, and optimize it for mobile. It may take a bit of time, but trust us—it’ll be worth it!
About the Author
Paul Wheeler runs a web design agency that helps small businesses optimize their websites for business success. He aims to educate business owners on all things website-related, at his own website, Reviews for Website Hosting.