How to Know If Your Web Hosting is Holding You Back
How to Know If Your Web Hosting is Holding You Back

One of the common misconceptions in the web hosting Dubai industry is that all hosting services are the same, and the difference is only in the price tags. While it may seem so when checking out ads, the fact of the matter is that there’s more to it than choosing disk space, RAM, and bandwidth. The hardware being used and the server configuration matters too.

For instance, in the cloud hosting Dubai industry, it’s better to do some research on the hosting provider and their in-house expertise, the reliability of their technical support, their reputation, uptime guarantee, and even their customer feedbacks.

Now that most hosting services are relatively affordable, people tend to go for the most affordable package. This would just be a matter of luck, as they may or may not encounter issues in the long run because of this choice. As for those who think that there is something off with their present hosting service, here are a few signs that will make it clear whether the service is hindering the business’ growth in some way.

Slow loading times

Have you checked the speed at which your website loads on a visitor’s browser lately? This particular aspect is important because Google also considers this as a SEO ranking factor. Visitors don’t like to wait too long for a website to load. They can find a faster alternative in the meantime. Slow loading websites can reduce sales conversions considerably according to many studies. 

The slow loading time could be a result of a number of things from the theme choice to the number of plugins in use. The hosting service is also a factor. Properly configured, high performance hosting servers can significantly improve the website’s loading speed. If it’s a shared hosting solution, you can upgrade to a VPS hosting package. The challenge would be to find the right host from the many options available in the VPS hosting Dubai sector. 

Poor performance during peak traffic

Are you sure whether your website is not grown big enough to drain server resources? Generally, the hosting solution may come with resource limitations which the provider would inform you about before subscribing to the service. If your website and business grows overtime, it may start to drain more server resources particularly at peak times, when the traffic increases and visitors perform resource-heavy actions.

This could slow down the site, and if a potential buyer gets annoyed with it while trying to purchase something from the website, they’d instead opt out feeling uneasy about the website. Data from Google Analytics can be used to check whether this is the case why visitors leave before converting. This doesn’t make it the web host’s fault because of the fact that the business has outgrown the hosting package. In such scenarios, a hosting package upgrade is in order. 

‘The Bad Neighbor’

The server where your website is hosted will have its own IP address. If there are other tenants in the server and one of them is into inappropriate actions like sending spam or hosting malware, this may lead to the server’s IP getting blacklisted. A blacklisted server impacts every tenant on that server and their search engine rankings.

The problem doesn’t end there. The website owner may not be aware of what has transpired, and that the server has been blacklisted and emails blocked. Unlawful actions by another tenant might even lead to your website on that server getting hacked or malware infected. As a countermeasure to such scenarios, the server should be always armed with regularly updated software and robust security measures.

A good host can provide it all, including firewalls, intrusion detection mechanisms, email monitoring, dedicated IP addresses, and security features that prevent an IP address from getting blacklisted. 

Conclusion

The role of web hosting in the success of a website is not to be underestimated. It’s critical to understand what kind of hosting solution would be apt and when to upgrade that hosting solution for the long-term health of a website and its business.