Everything in the internet starts with web hosting – the service that makes it all possible by enabling businesses, blogs, and other websites to be accessible online to prospective clients and users. So basically for a business, web hosting is the key to establishing an online presence.

And therein lies the catch…

An unreliable hosting service, despite giving your business an online presence, will occasionally end up making it inaccessible to prospective customers at times when they want to check your website out.

So what does people generally expect from a reliable hosting service then?

  • Cost-effectiveness
  • 99.9% uptime
  • 24/7 technical support
  • Ability to handle mission critical applications
  • Responsiveness

…just to name a few.

But generally people just want a cost-effective hosting solution. Most of them end up availing shared hosting service. For a business, this is actually not a good deal. In the long run, shared hosting just wouldn’t cut it. This leaves them with three other alternatives.

Before we get into details, let’s analyze why shared hosting isn’t a good idea for businesses.

Shared hosting’s low price tag is the decisive factor that makes it preferable to many website owners. But there are other variables that people don’t usually bother to consider. First off, shared hosting is not something that promotes the growth of a business. Your website will be sharing server resources with other websites. If a few of those neighboring websites utilize a lot of server resources, your website will be left to function with what remains; and it won’t be enough to guarantee accessibility to your potential customers at all times.

As a matter of fact, it can slow down your website. This is known as the bad neighbor effect. However, shared hosting is easier to set up and is a good start to just launch your website. But once your website starts to grow and traffic starts to increase, you will be forced to switch to a better hosting solution.
 

The Alternatives – VPS or Dedicated?

 
You have 3 alternatives – Cloud, VPS, and Dedicated. But in this blog, we will analyze facts and features to help make the choice between VPS and dedicated servers.
 

Virtual Private Servers

 
The best way to describe VPS is to think of it as a condo. When you own a condo, you will be responsible in maintaining it. However, you and the others in the building will be sharing a few resources. VPS is quite similar. Your website will be hosted on a virtual private server (a virtual compartment of a physical server). That is your condo. There will be other virtual compartments that house other websites, and each function independently.

You will get access to the resources you pay for. Other websites on the machine will not be affecting your website’s performance in any way. It also offers more security than shared hosting, and costs much less compared to a low-end dedicated server.
 
Other benefits include:

  • Scalability; you can add or remove resources depending on your business needs
  • Great control and security with root access
  • Minimal server load, in most cases, results in a comparatively better performance

So basically this is pretty much a more reliable version of shared hosting. And the only limitation you should be worried about is the reliability of the hosting service provider. If you don’t have complete access to all the resources you paid for, your website will run out of breath at peak loads.
 

Dedicated Servers

 
One of the best albeit costlier alternative to shared hosting, dedicated hosting solutions give you a server dedicated to serving your website alone. You will not have to share resources with any other websites. Shared hosting may be prone to connectivity issues, downtimes, and even speed drops. Issues like that don’t exist in a dedicated server.

However, you should be mindful of the amount of resources your dedicated hosting solution provides. It’s primarily of use to websites with high or consistently increasing traffic.
 
Benefits include:

  • More power and control over resources than other hosting alternatives
  • Can handle high traffic without any issues
  • Reliable and highly secure
  • Customizable; you have the choice of using the software and hardware the way you want
  • Supports a plethora of scripting languages

There are two things you need to be aware of if you are interested in availing a dedicated hosting solution. First, the amount of resources the server provides you. Make sure your website has more than enough to function even at peak loads. Second, go for a managed dedicated server if you think you can’t maintain the server on your own. If you go for an unmanaged dedicated server, you will either have to maintain/upgrade/repair the server by yourself or hire help from technicians.

Its biggest limitation is that it’s costlier than other hosting alternatives. If by some chance the server crashes, it will take a good amount of time to get it fixed.
 

Analysis

 

  • VPS is less expensive comparatively and comes with reasonably good features for a low-mid scale website. Dedicated servers are expensive, robust, secure, and ideal for large websites with high traffic.
  • Dedicated servers are comparatively more scalable than virtual private servers.
  • VPS offers just enough security for a website to function (generally), while dedicated servers offer the best security you can get in the hosting sector.

 

Conclusion

 
Let’s make things easier. Ask yourself the following questions to figure out the right kind of hosting solution you will need.

  • Is your website small, medium, or big?
  • What is your budget to avail a reliable hosting package?
  • Once the website grows, will there be a lot of traffic?
  • Does your website accept payments for products or services, and does it save sensitive information of registered users in its database?

If your website is big and the traffic keeps increasing, a dedicated server will do you justice. If it’s small and you are not expecting a big spike in traffic, you can manage with a VPS package. If there are sensitive information involved, you would need robust security. A dedicated server is the best option when it comes to security. So basically, your choice ultimately depends on how big the website is, and its demands.

Written by: Safeer

Time waits for no man…

And it’s all about time and speed these days. How fast can a vehicle go? How fast is your internet? Does that website load fast? People feel rushed and stressed, and are struggling to keep up with day-to-day activities. It’s no wonder why they prefer something to be done faster just to save time. They fill their lives with smartphones, laptops, and handheld devices for faster shopping, to manage schedules, and even to arrange for cabs to pick them up the moment they leave office.

This speed orientated culture is common across the globe. The faster things are done, the happier people become. This is also the reason why people become quickly frustrated with slow-loading websites. They expect a website to load quickly when they visit.

Website loading time has to do with many other things, according to research. Consider an online shopping website. Every time it loads slowly, conversion rates decline consequently reducing profit.

A few other facts:

  • A delay in loading considerably decreases customer satisfaction
  • Search engines like Google don’t appreciate slow loading sites. Such sites will have a comparatively lower rank in search engine results
  • The faster the site loads, the more likely it is for the user to recommend it to others.

There are proven facts about the potential of a fast-loading website. But that’s not our topic at hand. Basically, a fast loading website plays a part in the success of your business.

So how can one speed up a website?

There are a lot of ways. But before you begin the optimization process, first make sure you have an analysis of the current loading speed of your website. You can use Google PageSpeed Insights for that. This can help you compare the change in speed post optimization. The next important step is to back up your site just in case.

Here are a few ways you can speed up your website without hassle.
 

A New Web Host

 
Your web hosting solution could be one of the biggest reasons why your website is slow. So the first thing to do is to analyze your web host to determine if it’s the reason. If it is, you can shift to a different, reliable web hosting provider. Additionally, you can also use services from a web security provider that essentially reduces the load on your web host. Loading files from CDN would become easier as it will bypass the server you use, effectively speeding up the website.

Bonus tip: A good hosting provider will have invested in giving you a great experience by leveraging server-side tools to give your website enhanced performance and security. They will always be available for support 24×7.
 

Unnecessary Add-ons and Plugins

 
These two significantly reduces your website speed. You will have to pay more attention to them if you are using open source cms platforms like WordPress, Joomla or Drupal. The number of plugins you use is not necessarily the important factor always. The quality of the plugins you use matter a lot. Plugins that load a lot of scripts or that operates with remote requests should be avoided.

So basically, use plugins only if they are absolutely necessary. If it seems like they are slowing the website down, you will have to either remove them or replace them with better ones that won’t tax your website.
 

Enable Caching

 
Active caching boosts considerably boosts the speed of your website. This is because it will store a version of your website on the browser, and serves you that version till you choose to update the website or refresh the version. There are many ways to enable website caching. Your hosting provider might also assist you in determining one.
 

Content Delivery Networks (CDN)

 
Make sure your website is hosted in a server that is close to or at the same location you operate from. For instance, some providers host websites in servers located in the US. The owners of those websites in the US will have an advantage here with faster websites. But people from other parts of the world, say from Asia, will not have the same advantage.

This is where CDN comes in. A CDN essentially distributes your website files across interconnected servers in different locations of the world. So the server closest to the visitor’s geographic location will be serving the website to the visitor, accounting for a faster website performance.
 

Website Theme

 
Even the website theme impacts the speed of a website. Even if the speed difference is in milliseconds, it is still not something to neglect. It has been proven that changing the theme alone consequently boosts website speed. A theme with a cumbersome code can degrade site performance so much that even a good server configuration won’t be of help.
 

Optimize Images

 
Images in your website that aren’t optimized utilize more server resources than optimized images. Because of this reason, the website takes longer to load. There are ways to reduce the size of the image without compromising image quality. This optimization requires you to use a specific set of tools. For WordPress websites, you can use Kraken or EWWW Image Optimizer.
 

Optimize Database

 
CMSs that rely a lot on database usage will find this very effective in boosting their website’s speed. However, in most other cases, this is mostly neglected. Plugins that keep increasing data in the database consequently slows down the website. By regularly optimizing your database, and cleaning up the junk files, your website will show signs of better performance.

For WordPress websites, you can use the WP-Optimize plugin. For other websites, you can find manual tutorials in the internet. It can be a bit tedious, but the results are invaluable.
 

Others Hotlinking Images in Your Website

 
Each time someone hotlinks the images in your website, you will be losing a portion of your bandwidth since the request is processed by your server every time that someone’s visitors try to view those images. So it’s best to disable hotlinking images hosted by your server.
 

Conclusion

 
Assuming you have backed up your website, compare the speed of your website post implementing the suggestions above. Remember that this is not a one-time deal. Owners of websites should be vigilant at all times, and monitor their website activities closely to detect performance drops and rectify them.

Written by: Safeer

So what’s the easiest way to find a hosting provider for your website?

People normally look for easy ways to do things. Internet made finding things easy. Google made it easier. So right now, the easiest way to find a web hosting solution is to google it. You can search for either ‘the cheapest hosting provider’ or ‘best hosting provider’ or something like that. But the catch is that what you find might not always be the best deal for you.

When it comes to hosting your website which potentially carries the future of your business in it, you should be a bit more careful.

Finding a hosting provider is easy. Finding the right one is a challenge.

If you can nail the right hosting provider, your website will be able to take your business to new heights. Downtimes, slow performance etc. won’t be blocking your way.

Rule 101 to nail the right hosting provider – Do not settle for anything less than that which will truly get the most out of your website.

Here’s one way to find the right provider – Ask questions. Their answers will tell you whether they are good as they claim to be.
 

1. What’s your security policy?

 
Their answer should include the security measures they employ to protect the data. Each type of hosting package, may it be shared, cloud or dedicated, will have security features unique to that package. They should be explaining it specifically. You should also ask them how often they do anti-malware/anti-virus scans.

If you are running an eCommerce website or any website that handles sensitive customer data, an SSL certificate is recommended. Those hosting providers who offer SSL certificates should make their way up your list.
 

2. How reliable are your servers and what can you say about your uptime?

 
When you approach hosting providers for their services, your catchphrase should be “Downtime is a No No”. After that you can ask them about their server reliability. Their answers should indicate that they have stable network connections with a 99% or more uptime. Below 99% uptime is not recommended. A web hosting operating 24×7 with an uptime score of 99.5% is a great deal.
 

3. What’s your backup policy?

 
You may have heard of hosting companies offering regular backups. When you are about to hire one, you should ask them to define that ‘regular’ they are promising. Many companies back up the data once a day. Some more than once. But there are hosts that don’t actually perform daily backs. This question will let you know which category the host in question belongs to.
 

4. What if there’s a power outage? Will you be accountable for it?

 
Obviously there will be Yes and No answers. Regardless of what the answer is, you should keep pushing by asking them to explain. If the answer is and when they start explaining, inspect when the company holds themselves responsible and when they don’t.

It’s also wise to ask them if they can be flexible enough to amend this clause if necessary. This could be useful when there is a power outage due to factors beyond the host’s control. Ask them if they would charge you in such a scenario.
 

5. Is the service scalable?

 
Depending on the type of your business, your web hosting requirements will vary. Some could do well with a shared hosting plan while others may require dedicated servers. Ask the host about the web hosting services available, and then ask them about their scalability.

There could be policies for scaling up or down. If the hosting provider doesn’t give a lot of hosting options, you may have to leave your current host and find a new one that can properly accommodate your website without affecting its performance. Depending on whether your business shrinks or grows, you will need to scale the hosting plan appropriately.

This is why it’s best to approach a host who provides a range of hosting options that you can upgrade or downgrade to depending on your business requirements.
 

6. What are your customer support policies?

 
This is a question that you can ask both the host and their present or former customers. Technical support and timely customer service are very important factors that define the quality of a host’s service.

They should be quick to respond should their clients need help resolving a technical issue. Reliable hosting companies offer 24×7 customer support including holidays. Make sure to ask them about their response and resolution time.

Other customers of the host can give you a review of the host’s quality. Also, don’t forget to ask them how you can reach out to them when necessary.

And now for the last question
 

7. What if I am not satisfied with your service?

 
Ask the host if they have a trial package for you to test their service. If they don’t, enquire about their customer satisfaction policies and whether they provide any kind of guarantee for their services.

If you are dissatisfied after you start using their services, and you want to migrate to a different hosting provider, you need to make sure the hosting provider wouldn’t complicate the migration. You should know if they offer a refund policy and how they can help you move your stuff out to a different server.
 

End-note

 
As I mentioned before, it really is challenging to find the right hosting provider. The results are worth the time you spent researching. These questions can help you identify the host that’d be perfect for your business. However, it doesn’t mean that these are the only things you can ask a host related to the services they offer.

If you have more questions, feel free to ask them. They are obligated to answer your queries. Don’t take a call trusting their words alone. Check the feedbacks of their customers as well (Plan B). Good luck.

Written by: Shibu Kumar

The world of online business can be ruthless at times though it grants huge payouts for businesses that do it right. ‘Survival of the fittest’ applies here as well. But then again, there are startups that just grow at an incredible rate. So obviously there should be a formula for that kind of success.
 

The basic survival kit for businesses in the digital world

 
For a business to survive in the wild, harsh environments of the digital realm, it requires

  • An appealing website
  • A dependable web hosting provider
  • Excellent marketing and SEO strategies
  • Patience

Now, the first one in the kit is a no brainer. A website is basically the business’ identity in the digital world. It generates revenue, acquires more customers, retains them, and is capable of more. But there is a catch. For the website to be effective, it needs a home – a place where it will be secure and nourished.

This is where the second item in the kit comes into play.

(The third and fourth item in the kit are another story for another time)
 

A Dependable Hosting Company

 
Dependable can mean anything good, like reliable, safe, supportive, secure, robust…

The company makes sure you have the right web hosting service for your business so that your website is at its best at all times. This means great server response times, excellent uptime, adequate bandwidth and storage, 24/7 customer support etc. But these are all obvious facts anyone familiar with web hosting would know.

So what does it mean for your business if the hosting company is not that dependable? For starters, surviving the online business world becomes difficult.

Your website becomes vulnerable to a number of threats.
 

Threat to Data Integrity

 
Business emails, financial transactions, customer feedbacks, customer credentials… These are all data that feeds a business. In the case of your business, you could use these data for a lot of things from improving operations to optimizing business strategies. You don’t want this data to fall into the wrong hands or lose it to malicious programs like viruses or malware.

A DDOS (distributed denial of service) attack on the server which overcomes even the firewall means chaos. Even the administrator won’t be able to access the data in most cases. A hacked server which automatically keeps sending spammy emails is another example. The email service provider might block the DNS server from where the spammy emails originate. This means authorized account holders won’t be able to send mails.

If your hosting company isn’t competent, this could ruin them and your business in no time.
 

Physical Threats

 
The host will have the servers secured at remote data centers in most cases, promising that your data will be safe. But there are a lot of hosting providers out there who still doesn’t have the right security measures to prevent unauthorized access to their data centers.

A dependable hosting company would have 24/7 physical security, biometric access and deployable emergency protocols to protect this data. A data center without adequate security means your data is accessible to those who have access to the data center.
 

Server-related Threats

 
This is something you should give a lot of importance to. The server is supposed to give 100% uptime for websites. But that’s technically not possible. A reliable host server will offer an uptime of 99% or higher. Anything lower than that is looked at with doubt in the industry.

Apart from this, the server may experience a lot of technical issues. You would want your host to resolve the issue immediately before it starts to affect your website’s performance. An unreliable hosting company means you can’t expect them to fix it all in time.

A dependable hosting provider on the other hand will have a team of professionals ready at all times to answer your calls and troubleshoot the issues.
 

Conclusion

 
A dependable web hosting provider works akin to a bank. Banks secure your valuables in their lockers. There will be many lockers. But a user can unlock only those lockers that he’s authorized to unlock. Security protocols ensure that. The bank is responsible for providing that level of security to safeguard those valuables. A dependable host does the same.

Even in a dedicated server hosting solution where the server houses only your website, and there is no other user in the server who can access your website’s data, there should be security mechanisms to secure those data should someone try to access it externally. A dependable host will have that.

So basically, the difference between a dependable host and an undependable one is that the former ‘will’ have everything required to keep your website and its data safe and secure, while the latter ‘should’ have those things to fulfill the same purpose. ‘Will’ and ‘Should’.

So back to our topic…

What is the future of your business without a dependable hosting company?

Honestly,

THERE IS NO FUTURE!!!

Start with a dependable hosting company by your side, and you will only have to focus on your business, and not on keeping your website intact.

Written by: Shibu Kumar

One of those many problems businesses face online! A nightmare that gives webmasters a run for their money! A vexing interruption for web hosting providers while they try to be focused on providing technical support to their clients.

Your website can get blacklisted for a lot of reasons. Google does it too. Too often. An estimated average of 10000+ websites get blacklisted daily by the search engine, mostly because of malware infections, exposing sensitive information etc.

So what happens once a website gets blacklisted?

The website owner will panic. The web hosting provider will have their hands full cleaning up the mess and getting the site back to running condition. This can be a bigger problem for businesses that don’t have advanced security specialists or monitoring tools for their website. In many cases, they won’t even realize that their websites have been blacklisted until it’s too late.
 

Analyzing the problem

 
Let’s consider the case of those businesses that can’t afford to implement security measures good enough to alert them when their sites get blacklisted. Most of the time, the owners come to know of the mishap after getting alerts from their browser or search engine when they try to access their sites. And chaos ensues.

Once a website gets blacklisted, time is of the essence. For businesses, every minute lost with a blacklisted website could mean not only lost revenue but also damage to their reputation. SMBs and startups suffer more as they won’t normally have wallets heavy enough to get through the ordeal.

A blacklisted website might lose its organic traffic from marketing which in turn negatively impacts the sales. As for the web host, the situation stands to undermine their credibility.
 

Fixing the problem

 
If it’s because of a malware infection, it could take more than a few hours, maybe even days, to remove it completely and cleanse the website. And that depends on the severity of the infection, and whether the website has an effective backup mechanism.

Removing infections and restoring backup is just step 1. The second step involves convincing Google to ‘unblock’ the website.

A simple 2 step fix right? Easier said than done.

The unblocking process may take hours.
 

Where web hosting providers come in

 
They have their work cut out for them. A blacklisted website of one of their customers can impact the providers’ business as well. Generally, many website owners tend to think it’s the hosting platform’s fault that they can’t access their website, when the website is blacklisted. Regardless of the reason for getting blacklisted, it wouldn’t be easy for hosting providers to get the website off the blacklist.

Reliable web hosting providers may have a plan to follow in case of such emergencies, to remediate the problem and minimize the damage. There are a lot of effective tools providers can use to get the de-blacklisting process done as fast as possible, thereby garnering the trust of clients. Good hosts won’t be using a lot of resources while fixing the problem.

Blacklisting problem can be a mess but it won’t be giving anyone a hard time if the site owners use powerful backup tools. They can restore the website to the way it was, with adequate support from the web host.

To remediate the problem quickly and efficiently, and have the websites back in action, the hosting providers should be aware of the following:

  • Using good antivirus programs to quarantine malicious files from on administrators’ systems.
  • Change passwords for everything that presently uses a password including logins, FTP, CMS accounts, databases etc.
  • Make sure clients have installed latest versions of the applications and software they use including the OS.
  • Delete all modified files added to the server after the issue was first identified. After deleting all the files, perform the complete system restore. Cloud-based backup/recovery features make it easier for hosting providers.
  • Request Google to review the website again and remove the website from the blacklist. Google Webmaster Tools is required for this.

There are many threats to a website. Getting blacklisted is just one of them. This should make it clear why it’s important for every web host and site owner to have tools at the ready to get their websites and their data back online, should a mishap occur.

Written by: Shibu Kumar
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