It’s easy to think that all website hosting providers are created equal. On a fundamental level, they all seem to provide a similar service. Many providers offer free domains, many promise high uptime ratios and many have similar pricing structures.
While hosting offerings may seem similar on the surface, if you look a little closer you will start to see the distinguishing factors that separate an average hosting provider from a good one. Here are a few of the key factors you should examine when deciding where to turn for hosting.
Fast & reliable performance
On a basic level, does your hosting provider deliver fast enough performance to meet your needs? Let’s say you have a WordPress site, and you log into WP Admin daily to update or view your blog posts, or to manage an online store. If that experience is unnecessarily slow because of hosting speed limitations, you are going to spend a lot of time waiting for pages to load, cumulatively. A few extra seconds per load might not seem like a lot. However, the difference between a four-second load time and a two-second load time becomes apparent over time.
When you apply that same logic to your website visitors and consider the amount of time they will spend waiting for pages to load, the benefits of fast hosting performance become even clearer.
But of course, speed is not the answer to everything. To accompany that speed, you also need reliability. For hosting providers, reliability means they have near perfect uptime. That means you can always count on your host to keep your server up and running, so your website is always accessible to users.
To that end, the Bluehost team is always looking for ways to improve our hosting speed and reliability. In 2022, we made updates that resulted in significant hosting improvements. More on that later.
eCommerce capabilities
If you want to sell online, or if you’re already doing so, you should work with a hosting provider that supports your eCommerce ambitions. You want 24/7 store support, unlimited products, WooCommerce functionality, easy-to-access traffic analytics, email marketing tools, and other capabilities that make it easier for you to run your online store.
When checking out a hosting provider, make sure to explore their eCommerce offerings and see what their online store packages include. You want to work with a provider that offers everything you need under one roof and has hosting packages that suit your needs, both on the hosting and eCommerce fronts. Your host should also provide you with resouces, such as guides and how-to articles, to help you build the store of your vision.
At Bluehost, we understand that running an online business can be challenging, especially when you just started out. It can be difficult to identify what you need in an ecommerce website that will set you up for success later down the road.
That’s why we’ve created hosting plans specifically tailored to meet the needs of online store owners. This new eCommerce solution will definitely make your life easier. We’re also very proud because it won us the 2022 BIG Award!
Everyday convenience
Running your website shouldn’t be difficult. It should be easy and convenient for you to do every day, even on the go. A big part of that is your provider’s dashboard; do they have a convenient, all-in-one dashboard that enables you to build and manage your website with ease? Look into that before signing up.
You should also consider the quality of customer support when choosing a host. Your hosting provider should offer 24/7 support from experts who understand your needs and can help you. They should help you with building your website, as well as growing and managing it for years to come. In case you encounter issues with your website, a knowledgeable support team can help you resolve those problems quickly so you can get back to business as usual.
Ultimately, support is about making things more convenient for you every day, so make sure the support your hosting provider offers matches your needs.
WordPress optimization
Dedicated WordPress hosting is neccessary for the optimal WordPress website experience. If you’re on WordPress, you’ll want to check if a potential host offers hosting packages designed specifically for the platform and by experts that understand it. If that provider has a variety of WordPress hosting plans available, that’s even better.
Features to look out for include:
- WordPress-optimized performance that delivers better results than traditional hosting options.
- Bundled site analytics options, such as Jetpack.
- Bundled features that a site might need, like online payment for WooCommerce stores, for instance.
- SEO, email marketing and social media tools.
- A convenient marketing management dashboard, so you can track your marketing efforts with ease.
- Unlimited themes.
You’ll eliminate a lot of worries should you dedcide to choose a host that offers dedicated WordPress hosting. And if you’re looking for a good host that has deep understandings of the WordPress platform, look no further. Bluehost has been recommended by WordPress as their preferred hosting service since 2005!
Bluehost hosting improvements
At Bluehost, we understand that speed matters when it comes to hosting. We care about your needs, and we want you and your users to have the best possible website experience. As part of that commitment, we recently implemented platform optimizations resulting in major hosting improvements. The result? Server response times that are up to 70 percent faster.
These hosting improvements, especially speed, add up over time and could make a big difference for both you and your website’s visitors. Whether you are a WordPress veteran or just building your first website, our hosting improvements will give you a better, faster experience every time you log into WP Admin and ensure your users are able to load your pages quickly and smoothly.
As a trusted web hosting provider since 2003, we provide innovative hosting solutions that optimize WordPress websites for speed, performance and design. Coupled with our 24/7 support, affordable packages, world-class security and comprehensive suite of web tools, it’s easy to see why over 2 million websites are powered by Bluehost.
Not to mention, we’re proud to have received numerous awards that speak for the quality of our products and services. For instance, Bluehost was named one of the best web hosting services of 2022 by the U.S. News & World Report, tied at the number 1 spot.
Turn to us for all your hosting needs and see for yourself how the right hosting provider can make all the difference.
