How to Choose the Correct Web Hosting Service for Your WordPress Website?

Someone who is planning to use WordPress would not be likely to have too many programming skills, which is why the content management system service providers provided by WordPress is the perfect solution. But if that person is not too technically sound, then there are many other definitions he or should not be aware of, some of which are listed here.

Web Hosting Service for WordPress Website

Some Common Definitions Associated with Websites

IP Address

Every website has a unique location which is designated as a series of numbers separated by dots. It is not convenient for a user to remember a series of numbers for every website, which is why a domain name is needed for a site, which can tell the visitor what the website is about, and also what URL can be used to reach the website.

Domain Name

It is the address which people enter to reach your website. The domain name would refer to only one specific website at a time, but it is independent of the web hosting used or even the content management system used to create the site.

Content Management System

This is the service provider, like WordPress, whose services are used to create the content for a website. There are some web hosting services which also offer CMSs services additionally, but most CMS providers do so independently, without providing hosting services.

Web Hosting Services

Every website is maintained on a physical server, and the web hosting service that a website uses would maintain those servers at the backend. All the files that make up a website (text, graphics, images, videos, animations, etc.) would be stored on the servers of the web host. Every time a visitor browses a particular website, the visitor would access those files and interact with them.

Accordingly, when choosing a web hosting provider it is vital that website owners choose a web host that can meet their specific needs. Websites that contain more graphics for example will need a quicker web host compared to a website that is comprised largely of text. One example of a popular web host that promises to provide fast loading times is A2 Hosting – you can learn more about the potential benefits of fast a2 wordpress hosting by reading some of the reviews on the WP Dev Shed website.

Now that the basic definitions are out of the way let us focus on one of them – the web hosting service. This is the most crucial part of creating a website because how well a site works will depend on what kind of service the web host can offer. Let us see what some of the things that need to be checked before deciding on the web hosting service are.

Things to Be Checked While Choosing Web Hosting Services

Type of Website

Some websites do not use any fancy coding languages or frameworks and can be hosted on any hosting service. But if a site is using some special languages or even higher versions of some languages, then all hosts might not support it. Hence a complete view of what type of website is being built would be useful so that the web host chosen can support the website for its entire lifetime and not need changes midway.

Purpose of Website

Some websites are planned to be used only for dissemination of information, and might not even involve any engagement or activity from the visitor. But slightly more advanced sites include interactive features which would be used by the visitor. And most websites today have moved beyond that, and include some financial transactional capabilities, with many visitors who need to visit site for buying something. The choice of host would be determined by what purpose the website is being created for.

Technical Expertise

Like mentioned above, an owner creating a website using CMS might not have too much of technical knowledge, and the same would hold true for web hosting. Some web hosting services offer seamless services for any issue the purchaser faces, but some others might cost less but might require the owner to resolve some of the issues by himself.

Usage of Plugins and Themes

Users of WordPress CMS services usually choose and use a wide variety of plugins and themes on the website. Some of these might have additional requirements, which need to be checked against the web host’s capabilities to prevent problems later while updating themes or adding new plugins.

SSL Certification

From the visitor, an SSL certification is a mandatory requirement if the website is to be used for e-commerce. Many web hosting services themselves carry out the necessary work for providing an SSL certificate to the site. Before selecting a web hosting service, this aspect needs to be looked into.

The Way Forward

When a website is being created, the scope might be quite limited, but in a couple of years the range of uses and even the purpose of the website might evolve, and the requirements from the web hosting service could also change. While the ideal scenario is that a webmaster would know for sure what shape and form the website would take later as it grows, but it is not always possible. The next best option would be to discuss with the web hosting provider the possibility and charges of upgrades without making too many changes.

The choice of a web hosting provider would play an essential role in the proper working of a website.

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