While it’s true that there are many SEO benefits to addressing web design issues like mobile friendliness and SSL certification, there’s one detail that a surprising number of webmasters often overlook: hosting. Even with SSL certification, your website may not be secure without quality hosting. We sat down with LSM web developer, Karl Jurgelevicius, to explain why.

According to Karl, the true question about web hosting is why good hosting matters, as there are numerous options available to anyone launching a website and not all are created equal. When choosing a hosting platform, many fail to understand just how important a reliable host is to the overall functionality of their website. Why spring for the better host, rather than stick to a basic yearly low-fee? As in most cases, you pay for the quality. Good hosting prevents future headaches by three simple provisions: security, customer service, and reliability.

Website Security

A little known fact about web security is that oftentimes it doesn’t matter how well you secure your website if it is placed on an unsecure server with multiple other websites. In this sense, all websites on this server are linked, and if one is hacked, the likelihood of them all being a target is huge. This can be the most frustrating issue in the sense that no matter how secure your website is, it is still not protected. A good host will take preventative measures in order to limit risk of such privacy violations, provided through firewalls and other electronic barriers between your website and those attempting to access your website with malicious intent. If your website is compromised due to a hosting issue with a big name company and you opted for a low tier plan, the odds of a quick solution being reached is unlikely.

Customer Service

When your website goes down, it becomes an inevitability that you will be forced to get to know the customer service team of your hosting platform, but the difference between good and bad hosts becomes how quickly the issue is resolved. With a good host, a knowledgeable representative with assist you with your problem and answer your questions to the best of their ability, whether by chat or call. Like in any business, clients with a more profitable account will likely receive more immediate attention. If you skimped on hosting, the odds are you’ll be dealing with longer wait times, less attentive assistance, and a short-term fix to your issue, if you receive one at all. Customer service, though something that many wouldn’t associate with a hosting platform, as ideally you won’t need to reach out, is something that actively affects user-experience.

Reliability

Your website is the first point of access to your customers, and in this sense, you want to provide a good first impression. People don’t notice when your website is good, but they surely recognize when it is bad. If your website is frequently down, has been hacked, or proves to be less than user-friendly, they will likely take their business to a competitor. While there is always possibility that websites may crash, it is far less likely with a good host, as they’re consistently backing up data or cloning websites in order to provide a quick solution to getting your website back online. Cheap hosting often leads to a laggy website, which is a major frustration for typical end-users. While there is never a guarantee that your website will have no issues, good hosts provide better care to their clients and faster, more efficient web speeds with better security.

While the higher monthly payment seems excessive at first, it is worth the additional cost to eliminate any potential stress that comes with cheap hosting because it gives you the tools to create a more secure, better functioning website. If you care about what you’re putting out there and how your product or ideas are being projected, it is necessary to pay a little extra for hosting, as it is a reflection of both the company and your product. When it comes to hosting, there is only the question of whether you’d like a reliable, faster, more secure website.

Q: Why is a reliable host important to the success of your website?

A: Reliable hosts will end up getting rid of, or minimize, risks involved with posting your website. They’ll give you less of a headache, because if you go with a good host you know that there are support staff members actively working on the host site, and they’re going to be available to assist you with any problems that arise with hackers trying to access your site with malicious intent.

Q: When you say “good hosts,” what should I be looking for?

A: Somebody that has excellent customer support, somebody that you won’t have to be on hold for an hour if you run into a critical issue. A good host provides you the tools that you need in order to minimize future issues.

Q: What kind of security are they able to provide?

A: Better customer support, better tools, security in the sense that they’re actively monitoring against malicious infiltration.

What are the benefits of a higher monthly subscription versus a low cost platform?

A lower cost host could potentially give you more headaches in the future. Because when you go with a better host, you get more access to stuff that will prevent headaches, they will have faster speeds, people will be able to connect to your website faster. It increases user experience, as they’re not waiting for your website to load or be up, as it may have been taken down. Customer support is available to assist with those kinds of issues with better hosts and your issues are resolved at an accelerated urgency. More peace of mind accompanies a better host because you won’t run into the host being unavailable, lower frequency on any kind of malicious attacks, and your websites are faster.

Q: Why is a better host helpful to marketing?

A: Because your website is available, you could actually point to something that is available. On a good host, you can rely on your end user being able to connect quickly, as it’s shown that end users are less likely to wait more than a few seconds for a website to load before moving on. There is a lower chance of your website being hacked, as these hosts store your website on a server that is less susceptible to malicious breeches. As your website can often be the first impression of your brand, you want to make sure that it’s always available and presenting the best possible version of your product.

Q: In terms of ROI, which is generally the best package for a starting independent website?

A: It all depends on the client’s needs, as they might want a static page, and you wouldn’t need storage for that, but as another example, on different hosting sites, you can find the packages available, and the better ones that you go for will have higher bandwidth, which allows for faster connection to your website. You want to look for packages that offer more tools, such as daily back ups, it gives you the ability to have a staging and production site, smaller things like server side caching, things like that. Also, with better packages, they generally put you up to a higher priority level through their customer support staff, which means less time your website is down.