How to get fast web hosting and speed up your website
A faster website means a better user experience, improved SEO, higher conversion rates, and ultimately a more successful business! Here are a few things to pay attention to when looking for somewhere to host your website. If you’re here because you want fast web hosting then read the tips below and leave a comment if you have any questions.
1. Find The Right Location
It’s important to host your website on a server that is geographically close to your customers, and has a reliable backbone network connection across the country. The closer a user is to the web hosting server, the lower the latency in server responses. The right location is very important, particularly for online gaming and VOIP applications (such as TeamSpeak or an office VoIP phone system), to name a few.
2. Consider Using CloudFlare
When choosing a web host, you may want to consider one which supports CloudFlare, a global CDN provider. CloudFlare is a content delivery network (CDN) combined with security, optimization, and other optional services such as DNS record management. After adding CloudFlare to your site, you’ll notice performance is must faster and it is optimized for mobile speed. You also gain access to real-time statistics and a web app firewall. The Starter plan is free, while the business plan costs up to $200/month. Some hosting providers offer discounts or a free “Pro” version of CloudFlare to their customers.
How CloudFlare Works
3. Hardware Is Important
Whether you’re looking for a dedicated server, VPS, or shared web hosting, knowing the “tech specs” is important. E-commerce sites, rich content, video hosting, all require processing power, disk space, and memory, that the cheapest hosts may not offer. Low quality hardware can drastically affect the performance of your website and become the root cause of most downtime, simply because it is overloaded. Consult your hosting provider to find out if they use high quality brand-name hardware such as IBM or Dell.
4. Choose a Network With The Least Latency
Similar to finding the right location, finding a location with the least latency is also important. A data center location close to your customers doesn’t guarantee the best, and lowest, latency (delay). Every hosting provider will be connected to multiple “peering exchanges” and “backbone networks”. Infrastructure is important so don’t just look at price and server specifications; learn about the host’s network equipment, fiber optic transportation, and bandwidth providers.
5. Find a Host That Will Optimize / Scale Your Website
Technical support is important when choosing faster web hosting. If you’re inexperienced with everything that’s required when hosting a new website, you’ll want a great support team behind the scenes. Most hosts offer 24/7 support, and will even optimize your site for you. Want to configure a new plugin or addon that will speed up your site (like CloudFlare)? Hopefully it’s just a support ticket or phone call away. A great support team is your key to fast hosting, as they should be able to find problems, diagnose issues, and ultimately speed up your websites. (Hint: Look for a “managed” hosting provider if you need help with the technical part of hosting). Scalability is another factor in optimizing your website. Your host should provide an easy method to upgrade your hosting resources or server when your user-base grows, otherwise your “fast” site will slow down when trying to be accessed by hundreds (or thousands) of new unexpected users.
