Website Tips from Creative Cat
Last Saturday, Creative Cat shared the Top 5 Things You Need from a Web Hosting Provider. If you missed Creative Caturday, on our Instagram channel, don’t worry. We’ve put her list together for you here.
#1 – Free web hosting
When we tell people they should be getting free hosting included in their web hosting plan, we usually get a, what???? This is becoming more and more standard with web hosting providers. The hosting is provided for free because the big value is in all the other things they provide. We agree! Get your web hosting for free! (In other words, if you’re paying for JUST web hosting, you’re not getting the best deal.)
#2 – SSL certificate included
SSL is a must now! Just take a look at how Google has started displaying websites that are NOT secure. Most good web hosting providers are offering an SSL Certificate as part of your monthly hosting package. If your website doesn’t have one, ask your current provider if they include an SSL Certificate with your services. If not, we can help you purchase and install an ssl certificate on your site now. If they do, you’ll need to download and install the certificate and then change all the assets on your site to secure. If you’re on WordPress, here are some instructions for you to do it yourself. Don’t have time? … Call me. ? This is what we do!
#3 – Daily site backups
Things happen! Sometimes you make a change on your site, and you crash the whole thing. Sometimes you delete something really important without meaning to do it. Sometimes crazy stuff starts happening on your site, and you have to deactivate all the plugins and reactivate them one at a time to figure out what’s going on. With security becoming a bigger and bigger issue, IF you get hacked, and your site is in ruins, you WANT a previous, safe and working version available. For all of these scenarios and more, it is comforting and quite useful to know you have a current version of your site waiting to be restored. This is something that your web hosting provider should just automagically do in the background. Whew! No worries.
#4 – Uptime Monitoring
Everyone knows, downtime is frown time. The beginning of relationships happen online all the time. Your website is probably your customer’s first impression of your business. If they come to your site, and no one’s home? You might have lost them. Downtime costs money. Uptime monitoring should include monitoring of your DNS, your website, your FTP and more. If those ABCs make no sense to you, it’s important to have a great vendor who understands exactly what is happening. You’re trying to run a business. Let the experts make sure your website stays up and running.
#5 – Access to a CDN
You want your website performing as fast as possible. Every fraction of a second costs you customers. You can read all about how Speed is a Killer here. There are many ways you can increase your web page load speed, but an easy answer is getting a hosting provider who does some of the work for you. Look for providers who offer a CDN, Content Delivery Network. Not sure what that is or how it might help you? Check us out on our next Creative Caturday, November 4th, on Instagram. We’ll explain what a CDN is and why you want one.
We know a thing or two about website hosting because we offer website maintenance to all of our website customers. Take a look at what all we include in our web maintenance plan.
