Some may wonder why WordPress is so popular in the realms of e-commerce and e-stores, but those people generally see WordPress as a monolithic system that functions as a singularity. WordPress should instead be perceived as a base system that, due to its accessibility and customization capabilities, each developer can personalize to their own liking.
It provides a solid baseline for website creation that you can then personally extend through add-ons and plugins. From minor, aesthetic add-ons to major feature additions that can simplify your work process, WordPress can be as simple and as complex as you wish it to be.
And while front-end customization isn't the be-all-end-all when it comes to #choosing add-ons, choosing proper add-ons and plugins for the #back-end of your store is crucial. Share on XHaving a plugin such as WooCommerce Order Export that massively simplifies your organization and workflow or WooCommerce Table Rate Shipping that can change the tedious nature of creating and managing shipping rates into a quick five-minute task is crucial in growing your e-store and achieving success.
That being said, none of this will matter if you choose a poor baseline for your website, and that’s where WordPress hosting comes into play. If your e-store has issues with hosting, it won’t matter if you have all the plugins in the world when customers simply avoid you due to poor speed, safety, and who knows how many other problems.
Today, we’ll give you a few tips on how to choose the perfect hosting, but before we do that, we’ll share our favorite one. We love WPMU DEV hosting most because it’s packed with unique and powerful hosting features you won’t find anywhere else (like seven built-in pro-WP plugins). See for yourself and get 20% off any of their hosting plans here.
Speed
When it comes to WordPress, hosting speed is everything. The moment your customer feels like your website takes too long to load, they have generally already decided to leave your website. Unless you’re running a crucially important business that they have to visit, most customers tend to either look for an alternative or drop your e-store completely.
In the age of super-fast internet speeds, where everyone expects information handed to them instantly, you just can’t risk being slow anymore. This will also be mentioned further down, but make sure that the speed you’re paying for is the speed you receive as many cheaper hosting options throttle their website speeds to squeeze more money out of your pockets.
Security
While there still are some customers who might suffer through a slow connection, there are no customers that’ll tolerate safety concerns. There’s a definite reason why there’s such a large uptick of VPN sponsorships online, and it’s definitely not due to a gap in the market.
Therefore ensuring that your website is safe and that your host respects your security demands is crucial when it comes to choosing your WordPress hosting service. Having your WordPress host provide you with basic security options such as DDoS protection and a firewall shows you that they value safety and that your e-store is in safe hands.
Reliability
If you went down to your favorite coffee shop and found out it just magically disappeared, wouldn’t you be upset and confused? The same standard should be upheld with websites too, after all, if your host is unreliable and takes your website down every so often, you’d lose customers like crazy as they’d go looking for a more reliable e-store to shop at.
And if your e-store is constantly active and has no downtime, you even gain the ability to cater to international audiences whose primary shopping time is well after the standard work hours in your time zone.
Cost
Managing a business is all about finding a balance, especially if you’re just starting out. So unless you’re willing to spend crazy amounts of cash just on hosting (and don’t forget a lot of other things in website development require funding, too), you should probably consider some more economical WordPress hosting options.
And while it’s true that cheaper hosts often come with drawbacks, it’s up to you to find what features you can skimp out on so that your hosting service isn’t a financial burden on your new e-store.
It is also important to remember that there are cheaper quality options that provide an excellent service comparable to the very expensive ones, and then there are the ‘cheap’ cheap options that you should steer clear of for the safety of your customers and yourself.
One of such services we mentioned earlier, WPMU DEV. WPMU DEV is fast becoming one of the best choices on the web, and it’s both reliable and affordable. Get 20% off any of their fully-managed and dedicated plans.
Customer Support
In website development, there are always some issues. Sometimes they’re very rare and don’t really impact your website, and sometimes unfortunately, those issues can grow into website-breaking problems. This is why it’s so important for your WordPress hosting service to have good customer support that can help you out with any possible issues that may arise.
Just imaging how awful it would be if you had to deal with your issues alone without any expertise in the area. Instead, choose a web host that can provide you with all the help you need, and you’ll effectively ensure the health of your website for years to come.
Final Thoughts
Picking a WordPress website hosting service can be quite tricky, especially because there are so many factors you need to keep in mind. But with these few tips, your options should be a bit more streamlined, and your decision will be a lot easier to make.