Every website has a home on the internet. When it comes to selecting a host, you might think the decision isn’t that important. However, picking the wrong host can have a significant negative impact on your company. Your website’s security could be compromised and sales could be lost due to poor performance and slow page loading times, amongst other issues.
The good news is that you can prevent such possible traps by opting for premium hosting. Having your company’s website up and running as smoothly as possible means that your customers are satisfied and that conversions are not interrupted.
Premium hosting offers a range of benefits that can elevate your website’s performance and user experience, and in this blog, we explore the reasons why premium web hosting is a game-changer for any business looking to take their online presence to the next level.
What is premium hosting?
Premium hosting is a top-tier web hosting service that offers enhanced features and performance compared to standard hosting options. With premium hosting, you can expect faster loading times, better security measures, dedicated customer support, and more reliability for your website.
This type of hosting is ideal for businesses who want to prioritise optimal website performance and user experience for their audience. While it may come at a higher cost than basic hosting plans, the benefits of premium hosting often outweigh the investment by providing a seamless online presence that helps elevate your brand reputation and attract more visitors to your site.
Why choose premium web hosting?
When it comes to web hosting, opting for premium services can make all the difference in maximising your website’s potential. There are a multitude of reasons why choosing premium hosting matters and we highlight some of those reasons below.
Monitoring and protection
According to Astra Security, almost 4,000 new cyber attacks happen every day – that’s one every 14 seconds a company falls victim to a website hack. As technology becomes more sophisticated, and as do the hackers themselves, that number is only likely to increase in the coming years.
However, if you opt for premium web hosting, it would mean you have robust firewalls and built-in server-side security to help avoid such attacks and security breaches. As well as this, the service offers proactive security monitoring that scans the web continuously for bugs and threats and additional security layers and firewalls.
It will also have access to a list of plugins that aren’t enabled on your website and warn you if a plugin becomes potentially vulnerable. It even has the ability to deactivate any vulnerable plugins for you to secure your site if there is an immediate danger or you’re not able to respond promptly to remove them yourself.
With premium hosting, you can guarantee that someone will be notified if your site has been hacked, or if something goes wrong, and your hosting company will be on it to fix it.
Better business thanks to better performance
Content delivery networks (CDNs) are a massive collection of distributed servers deployed in multiple data centres across the globe. They essentially serve the content you see on a website with high availability and speed. These CDNs have been built by several premium web hosting companies to ensure sites load faster.
This is necessary for attracting and retaining visitors to your site and it’s also beneficial to SEO as the speed at which a website loads is an essential factor in how Google ranks web pages on search engine results.
WebFX states that 40% of online users will leave a website if it takes more than 3 seconds to load. By using a CDN to display your site’s content, it will significantly reduce your page load time and you’ll notice that the cost of choosing a premium hosting service will quickly pay for itself when your visitors enjoy a positive user experience and convert into paying customers as a result of a fast performing website.
Backup and restore with a single click
Backing up your website is essential and ensuring it’s easy and simple to restore is equally just as important. Regular backups are ordinarily automatic and saved for at least 30 days with premium web hosting. Some hosting companies offer a “click to backup” function that you can use to save assets or items right before making updates or improvements to your site. There’s also a “click to restore” feature that you can use if you need to go back to the original saved backup.
Backup and restore functions are available via ‘off-the-shelf’ hosting services and plugins, but the process can be complicated and time-consuming. It’s important to note that hacking isn’t the only cause of website downtime. Internal bugs can also cause sites to crash, and you don’t want to waste hours trying to find out what went wrong and how to fix it. You need to get the site back up and running right away. With premium hosting, you’ll have the ability to get your site back up and running in a matter of seconds which is a lifesaver (or at least a sanity-saver).
Testing and updates on staging servers
A staging server is a godsend as it allows you to copy your site onto a different server to make any changes you’d like such as experimenting with new designs, upgrading plugins and themes, making site improvements, and even building a new website while testing it in a stable offline environment. When you’re done, you can simply click to make the changes live.
By choosing premium web hosting, you’ll have the ability to utilise staging servers and ensure any website changes are thoroughly tested and optimised before being implemented. This reduces the risk of errors or downtime on your main website, providing peace of mind and confidence in managing a professional website effectively.
Automatic CMS, plugins, and themes updates
Opting for a premium hosting service means you’ll get automatic updates to your content management system (CMS), plugins, or themes and you’ll be notified of these updates too. These updates are crucial for maintaining the security and functionality of your website and not only do they save you time, but they also help to protect your website from vulnerabilities that can arise from using outdated software.
Failure to regularly update your CMS, plugins, and themes is another prevalent cause of website downtime. But by opting for premium web hosting, you can ensure your website continually stays up-to-date without having to worry about manually checking for and applying updates yourself.
Customer support
This alone may be worth the cost of a premium hosting service – the opportunity to quickly contact someone who can assist you if you have a problem. Having access to 24/7 assistance can be invaluable, especially if you’re running a business and need a quick resolution to a website issue that might arise.
Whether you have a technical question, you need assistance with troubleshooting, or require help with website maintenance, the customer support team of your chosen premium hosting provider can be there to assist you with your issue.
Looking for a premium hosting provider?
The majority of businesses do not consider web hosting until something goes wrong with their website. It’s then that you remember you’re usually paying for a bare-bones service with limited protection and efficiency options. Website downtime can easily result in missed sales, dissatisfied customers, and a tarnished brand.
So if you’re looking to upgrade to premium web hosting, speak to us today. We offer comprehensive premium hosting services and we’re committed to ensuring your online presence remains seamless, secure, and optimised for success.