Is it Time to Start Looking For a New Web Host?

They say that moving house is one of the most stressful things that people have to go through in life. Thankfully, if you find that you have to move house for your website (ie: your web host), then it’s not that bad, and with a little pre-planning, the transition from old host to new host can be a completely seamless process.

Most web hosts will offer you a free site migration as part of their hosting packages, which basically means that they will take care of the move of your website for you. This is the perfect solution for those that are not too technically minded, and who would have difficulty making the necessary backups and then transferring the data over to the new server.

Is your current hosting meeting your expectations?

Once you’ve signed up for your web hosting, you will hopefully have chosen a host that offers a high quality of performance, and one that is also helpful when it comes to client support.

However, you will want to make sure that your WordPress website is running as it should do, and that you are not experiencing any common problems that sometimes come along with hosting.

Have you noticed any changes?

If you’ve noticed a drop in the performance of your website recently, you’ll need to figure out if this has been caused by any changes you have made to your website, or if it’s something that is related to the server.

The first question you need to ask yourself is “have I changed or updated anything on my site recently?”. Have you uploaded any new files? If you are using a CMS such as WordPress for your website, have you updated any existing plugins or have you installed any new ones?

There are lots of things that you may have done that could affect the performance of your site. If you haven’t made any such changes to your website, then the problem is most likely related to your web host. You can check out the Fortune Lords website and check if there are other hosting companies with similar problems.

If you’ve noticed that your website appears to be taking longer to load up, have you also experienced other sites taking longer than usual? If so, then the issue might lie with your internet connection. If other websites are the same, but only your one seems to be slower, then it could be a server issue.

Once you’ve determined that the decrease in the performance of your website is most likely due to the host, it’s important that you get in contact with them right away and explain the situation. It could be that the server is having its resources stretched by other users, which is a common problem with some shared hosting solutions. If there are any issues with the server, the host will be in a position to take care of things, and should keep you updated with what is happening.

Are you reaching the limits of your hosting account?

Most hosting accounts will have a fixed amount of resources allocated to them. You’ll most likely have a limited amount of disc space and data transfer. Have you noticed that you seem to be close to using all of the resources? If so, then there are a couple of options for you.

If you are happy with the performance of your website, and haven’t had any problems with you hosting, then you need to speak to the host and ask them about upgrading your hosting account to the next level, which will allocate more resources to you.

If you haven’t been happy with the performance, and feel that you are not getting value for money from your web host, then it might be time to consider switching over to a new host.

Are you having problems installing software?

Some web hosts will include a variety of software that you can use for your websites such as WordPress, Joomla, Drupal and many others. These are excellent content management systems that you can use for building your website, with WordPress being the most popular.

From the control panel of your hosting, you should find an option that will allow you to easily install the software. However, depending on your host, there will be different ways to do this. One of the most popular and easiest methods is by using something called Softaculous, which is a software installer that is included with many web hosting packages. Through this, you can install WordPress or any other CMS with just a couple of clicks.

However, there are some web hosts who don’t offer such easy software installation, and in some cases, you might be forced to download the CMS from the developers websites, and then upload and install the systems to your hosting manually.

This can be time consuming, and if you don’t know what you are doing, then it can be extremely difficult as well. If you want to use a CMS for your website, and your host isn’t making it easy for you to install then, you might want to start looking for a web host that provides easy installation of such software.

Are you getting helpful and timely responses from support?

One of the most important factors when deciding on a web host, apart from the performance, is the quality of support that they offer their clients.

Have you experienced problems with your website, submitted a support ticket, and have never heard back from anyone? This is actually something that is pretty common, especially with cheap web hosts that offer hosting from just $1.

For such a low price, you cannot seriously be expecting quality performance and support from the host. If you are using such a host, and are serious about your website, then moving to a more reliable and quality host is vital.

There are thousands of different web hosting providers all over the world offering all types of hosting from simple shared hosting packages through to dedicated servers and VPS. You won’t have a problem finding an alternative host to the one you are currently using, especially if you are experiencing problems with them.

If you are running a business website, then you will be fully aware of how important it is that your website is running without any problems or downtime. If you notice a drop in the performance, then it won’t be long before you also start noticing that the number of clients, inquiries and revenue could also start to fall. Keep an eye on the performance of your website, make sure that it’s working as it should be, and don’t take anything for granted.