#WebHosting Archives - Page 3 of 3

What to Consider when Choosing a WordPress Hosting Plan

Posted on 14/01/201917/06/2021 by Tushar

While dedicated WordPress hosting is available from many service providers, the features offered can vary considerably from host to host. Knowing what to look for can help site owners make informed decisions about which provider to opt for, a choice that can have a significant long-term impact on the success of the website. Here, we discuss the essential features you should look for in a dedicated WordPress hosting solution.

WordPress optimised servers

The key difference between a standard hosting package and dedicated WordPress hosting is the server. By only hosting WordPress websites on a server, the service provider is free to configure it to boost the performance of the WordPress platform. This will include optimising the server with features like NGINX cache, PHP7+OPcache and HTTP2. The NGINX caching engine delivers frequently requested website files to users’ browsers in milliseconds, PHP7 together with OPcache enhances performance and the latest HTTP/2 protocol increases website responsiveness.

Another feature to look for is MySQL database management which, when powered by MariaDB, enables the server to be optimised for the read-heavy workloads which occur in WordPress. Users should also have access to tools like PHPMyAdmin, which enable easier management of their MySQL databases.

While PHP 7 currently provides the best performance, some WordPress sites still need to use older versions of PHP to maintain compatibility with legacy versions of WordPress, plugins or themes. The server should be configured to cater for these sites and the hosting package should give you the option to choose a version via a PHP version selector.

Additionally, users should also look for SSD storage, which offers far superior read-write speeds compared to more traditional HDD drives.

Advanced security

Used to create 35% of the world’s websites, the popularity of WordPress makes it a regular target of cybercriminals. A good web host will know this and ensure that your WordPress hosting comes with first-rate security. This will include a WordPress application firewall that will detect and repel attacks from hackers and bots.

The most advanced service providers offer WordPress security toolkits, accessible on any device, that enable you to manage a wide range of security features from anywhere at any time. These toolkits will scan your website for security issues, let you know if you are following best practice and warn you when you need to carry out updates. For additional ease of use, look for 1-click hardening capabilities that ensure you follow best practice without having to put it into place yourself. This is ideal for those new to WordPress.

Beyond this, look for a hosting solution that provides free SSL certificates to encrypt data sent between your server and a user’s browser and which ensures the secure padlock icon is displayed next to your web address on browsers. Finally, to protect you against data loss, choose a host which carries out daily backups so your data can easily be recovered.

Ease of use features

Ease of use starts with a user-friendly control panel. Ideally, this should be a fully-featured toolkit that is accessible on all devices, enabling you to manage your websites wherever you are. With this, you should be able to install and manage multiple sites and the installation should be easy, using a one-click installer that can get the task completed in less than 30 seconds. Also, look for a plugin and theme manager that will allow you to install, patch and update themes and plugins directly from within the control panel.

Users should be able to easily carry out a wide range of other tasks from within the control panel. These include enabling automatic patching for WordPress core; creating development environments to test things like new plugins before going live; and cloning sites for use in development and staging and syncing these to production. To prevent major development issues, you should also look for features that enable you to create snapshots which you can restore to should changes not go to plan, putting the site into maintenance mode with a single click and having a debug mode for debugging code. Another helpful feature to look for is the ability to create, schedule and automate tasks using an inbuilt cronjob manager.

Service and support

First and foremost, you should expect that your web host provides 24/7 technical support. This will mean that, whenever you have an issue, a WordPress expert will be available to deal with it and help you put things right. You also need to look for guaranteed uptime, storage capacity, unlimited or unmetered bandwidth (data transfer) and the number of websites and mailboxes you can create in your package. If you are moving from another host, finding a web host that offers inbuilt migration management and who will migrate your site for free is a big plus.

Conclusion

WordPress is a unique CMS and has its own particular needs when it comes to hosting. A dedicated WordPress hosting package should fulfil those needs and make it easy for the site to be managed. Hopefully, the information given here will help you find a WordPress hosting solution that is right for you.

WordPress 5.5 – Guide

Posted on 11/01/201917/06/2021 by Tushar

WordPress has just released version 5.5 and it’s one of the most feature-packed updates since the launch of version 5.0 in December 2018. Here, we’ll look at some of its most useful and helpful advancements.

1. Gutenberg enhancements

The latest update sees further enhancements to the popular Gutenberg block editor which was first launched with WordPress 5.0. The interface has been tweaked to make it more user-friendly, more blocks have been added to build pages with and there are two new features: block patterns and block directory.

Block patterns are predefined block layouts that can be inserted onto your pages with settings already in place. They can save users a great deal of time and effort and can be tweaked if required. What’s great about the feature is that patterns can be created and shared, so while there are not many available at the moment, the intention is that developers will begin to create these predefined blocks and make them available in the same way that plugins are available now.

With the expectancy that the number of blocks and block patterns will rise dramatically, WordPress has introduced the block directory. Similar to the plugin and theme directory, it is designed to help users browse and search for the blocks and patterns they want to use.

2. Easier image editing

Any images inserted into the standard image block can now be edited without having to open them in the media library. Instead, they can be cropped, resized and rotated within the block itself. The biggest benefit of this is that you can see the changes straight away, saving users the hassle of going back and forth to the image library until they get the image exactly as they want it. Unfortunately, this doesn’t happen on other types of block, though it may be something seen in a future update.

3. Lazy-loading images

Good news for those wanting their WordPress website to load faster is that version 5.5 makes lazy-loading the default image setting. This means images are only downloaded to a user’s browser as they scroll down the page towards them. By delaying the download of image files, the rest of the site can load on the browser much quicker. Not only is this great for the user experience; it will also help with SEO, with page speed being an important ranking factor.

4. Responsive content previews

While page previews have always been possible in WordPress, version 5.5 gives you the chance to view how your unpublished page will look on smartphones and tablets as well as on PCs. With Google’s drive towards ‘mobile-first’ website development, this can help the pages you publish to meet the search engine’s high expectations for how a website looks and works on mobile devices. Even more importantly, it will ensure your site continues to communicate effectively as the use of mobile browsing grows.

5. Default XML sitemaps

XML sitemaps are highly valuable files that enable search engine crawlers to index every part of your website. Without them, there’s a chance that parts of your site might not get indexed and, as a result, not be searchable on the internet. Indeed, it is possible to upload these files to Google’s Search Console so that any changes you make to your site can be indexed automatically without you having to wait for the search engine crawlers to seek them out.

Prior to this version, users needed a plugin to generate an XML sitemap, however, the 5.5 update generates them automatically.

6. Automatic updates for plugins

Finally, we come to our favourite feature: automatic updates. As a web host, the security of our customers’ websites is a major concern and one of the biggest threats comes from vulnerabilities in plugins. While these vulnerabilities are usually spotted and patched very quickly by developers, millions of websites don’t update to the newer versions quickly enough and this leaves them open to cyberattacks.

The easiest solution is to enable automatic updates and this has been possible for some time using plugins like Jetpack or, for users of cPanel, in the actual control panel. Thankfully, this feature has now been built into the WordPress core and so is available to every user without the need for third-party software, and this should make millions of websites far more secure.

However, as some WordPress websites rely on legacy plugins, the new version does not make automatic updates the default setting. Indeed, there is always a remote possibility that an update might cause a compatibility issue which you may wish to test before going live with it. However, if you are confident about the plugins you use and wish to enable automatic updates, you can do so in the ‘Plugins’ area of version 5.5.

Conclusion

As you can see, WordPress 5.5 is a major update providing some very useful new features. It will make it easier to build better pages and edit images, help websites to perform better, especially on mobile sites, it will improve SEO through faster loading and XML sitemaps, and it will enhance security by offering automatic updates.

5 Worst-Case Scenarios of Not BackUp Your Website

Posted on 10/01/201917/06/2021 by Tushar

If you’ve never had a serious problem with your website, backups are probably something you don’t lose much sleep over. But just because you haven’t seen your website go down or lost data in the past doesn’t mean you are immune in the future. There are plenty of ways you can suffer such a disaster, with server failures, hacking and the accidental pressing of the delete button being just some of the potential causes. Without a backup, restoring your website would be a long, difficult and expensive process. Not convinced you need them? Here are five potential nightmares that might change your mind.

1. To err is human

Even with the best will in the world and all the right procedures in place, people still make mistakes. All it takes is for someone to accidentally click on the wrong button and important website files can be wiped. As a result, your website might cease to function. It’s bad for your reputation and you’re losing business while it’s offline.

While restoring your website is possible, it may take a long time to get it back online, especially if you are using bespoke software or a theme that has been customised for your needs. Installing a fresh version of WordPress and your theme, for example, might not take that long. However, if you’ve edited the code to change the look or functionality of the site, all these tweaks will need to be carried out from fresh, once more.

The longer restoration takes, the more your company will suffer and for some, the damage can put them out of business. With a backup in place, everything can be restored, as it was, very quickly indeed.

2. Disappearing content and data

Perhaps more important than the website is the actual content that goes on it and the data you store. If you lost your content there’d be no product pages, landing pages, blog posts or any of the other important information you need to share with your customers. If you lost your data, you may lose all your existing orders, customer details and inventory information.

Losing content or data is more problematic than losing your website files. With content, you may have to start creating it again from scratch which can be a massive task if you sell large numbers of products or have a substantial blog. If you lose customer data, you may never be able to get it back and may be in breach of regulations too.

3. Killed off by infection

According to Hiscox, there are 65,000 cyberattacks on UK businesses every day. One of the main forms of attack is to attempt to infect a company’s website with malware. Malware can do many forms of damage to a website, from putting your site at ransom to installing hidden programs that infect your customers’ computers when they visit your site. As a result, they can take your website offline or corrupt your files. If your site is corrupted, you host may have to take it offline to prevent the spread of malware to others while search engines will stop listing it until the issue is fixed.

Finding the corrupted files (sometimes the infection replicates itself) and getting rid of the infected code can be a long process and the easiest thing is to delete the entire website and install a backup. Of course, you cannot do this without a recent backup in place.

4. When great plans backfire

A common time for issues to happen with websites is when people make changes to them. There are quite a few things that can go wrong, for example, software compatibility issues, tweaks to coding breaking your software or new themes making your content appear all wrong. Indeed, any major modification to the functionality or design of your website can result in unforeseen issues, which is why many companies carry them out in an experimental environment before letting them go live. Unfortunately, lots of other companies choose to make the changes to their live website and when plans go wrong, the site can easily be put offline. With a backup in place, you can restore your old, fully working website straightaway.

5. The vendor trap

The success of your website relies to a great extent on the quality of your web hosting provider. A good provider offers faster loading times, increased reliability, enhanced security, managed services, 24/7 expert technical support and the right packages and prices for the growing needs of your business. There may be a time, therefore, that you consider migrating your website to a new host.

Moving to a different provider means moving your entire website to a new server. Without a backup, this means starting from scratch and for lots of businesses, this is just too much hassle to consider. As a result, many stay with their existing provider even if the services they receive are not up to the standard they require. If you do have a backup, migrating is simple. Indeed, so simple that some web hosts will do it for you.

Backing up your site

You can back up your site in numerous ways, such as doing it manually to a computer or using a plugin that saves your site to places like Google Drive or Dropbox. However, depending on your website’s needs, you may need to back up more frequently or keep several copies of older backups (e.g., if your latest backup took place after your website became corrupted, you’ll need to restore an earlier version). Your backups will also need to be stored remotely, i.e. not on the same server where your website is stored. If you don’t and the server fails, you’ll lose your website and your backup at the same time.

The ideal solution is to use a backup service provided by your web host. Here, you automate backups and control the frequency and number of backups kept. You’ll also be safe in the knowledge that the backups will be stored securely and will be backed up themselves by the host.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are numerous nightmares that can occur if you do not backup your website. All of them can result in your website being taken offline and even the loss of your critical content and data. For many businesses that operate online, such issues can have a significant impact. A backup is an inexpensive solution that enables your site to be restored regardless of the problem which caused it. For that reason, creating regular backups is indispensable.

5 Key Features to Look For in Developer Hosting Solutions

Posted on 08/01/201917/06/2021 by Tushar

When it comes to finding a hosting solution, developers have specific needs. Whether they are developing websites or applications, they’ll need a hosting solution that provides them with all the resources, features and control required to undertake their development projects and the storage space to keep all the projects they have worked on. Here, we’ll look at five important features that developers should look for in their hosting.

1. Putting resources in place

Although each project will differ in its size, scope and complexity, developers will need hosting with the capacity to let them carry out their work unimpeded. This means finding a solution that provides all the server resources you need, including CPU, RAM, storage and bandwidth. You’ll also be looking for exceptional performance from your hosting as it can speed up development time for you and your client, as well as improving how well the application or website performs when you show it to your client during development. Reliability is also key, so look for a hosting that provides a minimum of 99.9% uptime.

Ideally, therefore, a developer needs to shy away from shared hosting and adopt a more powerful solution, such as VPS, dedicated server or for those developing cloud-based applications, cloud hosting. To ensure optimal performance, look for hosting that includes the latest Intel Xeon processors and SSD storage which can significantly boost speed.

You should also bear in mind that you may need to scale up resources beyond what your current package provides. Should there be a need to do so, you’ll want this to be as quick, simple and undisruptive as possible. While the cloud offers unrivalled and instant scalability at the click of a button, if you choose VPS or dedicated server hosting, you need to make sure that your provider allows you to upgrade easily.

2. Putting you in control

As a developer, the hosting solution you choose must give you the flexibility to work on any type of project. This starts with having control over the choice of the operating system. Not only do you need a choice between Linux or Windows; you’ll also want to choose from the range of these systems to find the one which best suits the application you are developing.

Furthermore, you’ll also need hosting that supports and provides easy integration for the programming languages or frameworks that you need to work with. Solutions that provide 1-click installations for the key software and frameworks you intend to use don’t just save you the time and effort of a manual install, they increase the pace of the development too.

3. Getting to the root of things

Having root access is also vital for developers as it gives them complete control over their server. This gives you the freedom to configure the server in the most appropriate way for your projects and enables you to install and configure applications, run multiple websites and carry out various other important tasks.

4. Security built-in

Cybercrime continues to be a major headache for the IT community and developers need to ensure that the applications and websites they are developing are secure. The last thing you need is to have your client’s intellectual property and data stolen from your development server or to hand them over an application that has been stealthily infected with malware. Neither do you want the project having to go back to square one because of infection, corruption or ransomware or stalling because of a DDoS attack.

For this reason, choose a host that provides robust protection, including custom firewall rules, intrusion prevention, anti-DDoS, anti-malware, VPM and application security, to ensure your server is always protected.

For peace of mind and quick, easy restoration, a backup solution is essential for any developer.

5. Expert technical support

24/7 expert technical support is critical to developers whose projects may have them working with a range of different setups. Having an expert on tap to help you with any issues, regardless of the time of day, can provide indispensable assistance when you need it most. Make sure any hosting solution you choose has this included.

Conclusion As a developer, you’ll want to provide your clients with a first-class service and to do this, you’ll need first-class service from your hosting provider. You’ll require a high-performance solution that provides you with all the resources to carry out your projects; you’ll want the freedom to deploy the operating system of your choice and have full control over your server; you need the ability to use the programming languages, frameworks and software that the job demands as well as an

The Dedicated Server : Role in Digital Transformation

Posted on 07/01/201917/06/2021 by Tushar

When businesses think of digital transformation, cloud migration is often the first thing that comes to mind. Indeed, the cloud is a necessary requirement: it’s cost-effective, easily scalable and puts the latest technologies, like data analytics, automation, AI, ML and IoT at your fingertips. However, if you intend to deploy the best technology for the task at hand, the dedicated server still has an important role to play. Here, we’ll look at why dedicated servers are a key element in digital transformation.

Security

Data is the driving force behind digital transformation. Companies are collecting it in greater quantities than ever before to analyse it and discover the insights that lead to improvements in operations, marketing, finance, procurement and many other areas of the business.

However, while the cloud is the best place in which to carry out analytics, for some organisations, it is not necessarily the best place to store the data, especially personal and sensitive data. That’s not to say that the cloud is less secure than a dedicated server, both can be configured to the same exacting security standards. At eukhost, for example, we can offer the same protection for both, using next-gen FortiGate firewalls whose advanced security features include intrusion detection, anti-malware, DDoS protection, VPN and DMZ.

The difference lies in the needs of the individual company. If your business stores personal or sensitive information and has to comply with regulations such as GDPR, you may require a data storage solution that, unlike the public cloud, is not multi-tenancy. The role of the dedicated server here is that its single-tenancy storage offers greater compliance with stringent regulations. Additionally, some hosts, like eukhost, can develop and implement a security policy that meets both your internal and regulatory requirements, providing services that include intrusion detection and prevention, application firewall configuration, DDoS protection, email security and more.

In a world where cybercriminals are using ever more sophisticated tools, such as Ransomware as a Service, and where the number of cyberattacks involving data theft is continually on the rise, a dedicated server could be a wisely chosen component of your digital transformation infrastructure.

Performance

The other chief reason for deploying a dedicated server is that digital transformation often requires organisations to run resource-heavy applications which they will need to perform flawlessly. While the cloud does offer very high performance, our cloud VM’s underlying hardware, for example, features Xeon E5-2600s with 8 to 12 cores, for organisations which need it, a dedicated server can offer even greater performance.

The main reason for this is that you can define your own specification and build a bespoke dedicated server that perfectly matches your CPU, RAM and storage requirements. You have a choice of core or frequency optimised CPUs or both; single, dual or quad processors; and SSD storage and PCIe based drives. You can choose the processor speed and the number of cores and disks, giving you complete control of your environment.

For organisations needing to run resource-heavy applications, a dedicated server offers the best performance. Your applications will run faster, with those which rely on database access, like CMS, carrying out non-cached queries and data writes much quicker. With SSDs installed, a dedicated server can perform thousands of simultaneous reads and writes without the application having to wait around for the storage, as it would with HDDs. In addition, backups and restoration will be performed quicker and your server will respond more rapidly.

Other benefits of dedicated servers

Dedicated servers come as part of a hosting package and these provide organisations with other important benefits. This includes cost-effective server management with round the clock monitoring and maintenance of your system; geographical redundancy, off-site backup and replication services; and, importantly, 24 x 7 x 365 expert technical support, so that if you have an issue, it can be dealt with straight away.

Not a solution for every workload

Of course, a digitally transformed company needs to use the best technology for each workload and a dedicated server is not the number one choice for everything. While its single tenancy provides enhanced security and bespoke hardware offers superior performance, the virtualisation technology employed in the cloud makes it better for running mission-critical applications that need high availability rates of 100% uptime. Similarly, the cloud is also the better environment for workloads which need quick and easily scalable resources to cope with unexpected spikes in demand. Indeed, its pay as you go charging structure also makes this highly cost-effective.

Conclusion

For companies seeking the right technology for their digital transformation, dedicated servers have an important role to play. They offer the best solution for running resource-heavy applications and provide a secure, single tenancy storage environment for personal and sensitive data. The latest hosting packages ensure that companies have access to the best hardware and the most advanced security tools while being able to take advantage of server management solutions, backup and replication services, and around the clock support.

7 Steps to a More Effective Data Management

Posted on 06/01/201917/06/2021 by Tushar

Data has become one of the most valuable resources for business, providing key insights about the company and its market. However, with so much data available for analysis, the need for effective data management is becoming increasingly important. Here are some the steps you can take to ensure your company is using best practice when it comes to managing your data.

1. Know what you want to use data for

Today, companies are gathering enormous quantities of data. Much of that, however, will never be used. To make data management easier, it is important to know what you want from your data so that you keep that which helps meet your objectives and get rid of that which does not. This will help reduce storage costs and make it easier to organise and manage what data is kept. If you have data which is not useful at present but which you want to keep in case it becomes useful in the future, you can always condense it and store it separately.

There are many things you may wish to use your data for. These include data-driven decision-making, automation and processing improvement, customer journey mapping and personalisation, audience targeting, product recommendations and so forth. Knowing what your objectives are will help ensure you only gather and collect the data that you need.

2. Security and compliance are key priorities

All companies are obliged to comply with data protection regulations, such as GDPR, and this means compliance should be foremost on your list of priorities. Failure to comply or implement stringent security measures can have devastating consequences. Under GDPR, businesses can be fined up to €40 million or 4% of annual global revenue, whichever is the greatest. For British Airways, this was an eye-watering €204.6 million. On top of any fines, there are also reputational damage and case actions to consider.

Working with the right hosting provider, implementing robust security policies and using secure data management software can help your data to be more secure.

3. Data quality is vital

The quality of the insights your data can provide is based upon the quality of the data you are using. While the first step to improving quality is to limit data to that which meets your company’s goals, it is also vital that data is accurate and up-to-date. Inaccurate or out-of-date information can provide misleading insights and lead to companies making the wrong decisions. For this reason, cleansing data should be something undertaken regularly.

Quality can also be improved by ensuring that employees know how to accurately gather and input data or that systems which collect data automatically are configured to do so correctly.

4. Eradicate duplicate data

Not only does duplicate data means you’ll pay for more storage than you need; there’s also the chance that it will be counted twice during any analysis and will, thus, skew the accuracy of any report generated using it. As there are various ways to receive duplicate data, companies need to put processes in place to discover and prevent it from being inputted into the data management system.

5. Managing access to data

There are two important things to consider when looking at access to data. The first is that, for data analytics to be effective, team members need access to all relevant datasets. This is incredibly difficult to achieve when it is stored in departmental silos where access is restricted to departmental members. Unifying data in a centralised repository, like a data warehouse, removes silos and ensures everyone can have the big picture. It also means data security can be centrally managed.

The second consideration is balancing security with ease of access. This means setting up logical access control where permission to access data and tools is granted on an individual basis depending on the employee’s needs. Not only does this ensure employees only use data they have the authorisation to access; it also means that if their accounts are hacked, hackers won’t have unlimited access to the company’s entire data or its applications.

6. Make sure data can be recovered

Data loss can happen for a whole host of reasons, including human error, malware, hardware failure, natural disasters, hacking and so forth. While losing personal data can get the company into hot water over compliance, all the other data your company relies on will have significant value too. Losing that data can put a company out of business. To ensure it doesn’t happen, having a remote backup system in place is crucial.

Ideally, you should schedule automated backups to be taken at the intervals which the company needs. For the increasing numbers of businesses who receive data continuously, this will mean having continuous backups taking place, so that, if the worst happens, you have as much recent data as possible to restore. Cloud storage is often the best solution as it is scalable, secure, integrity tested, can be encrypted and is easily accessed for restoration.

7. Choose the right hosting provider

The hosting provider plays a vital role in ensuring good data management. They will provide and manage the infrastructure needed and implement a range of stringent security measures including firewalls, encryption, intrusion protection, backup services, etc. Those opting for a cloud solution will also benefit from the scalability and payment model of cloud when it comes to storage and processing capacity. Crucially, however, is choosing a host that understands your goals and your needs and which can supply the expertise and computing environment your data management requires.

Conclusion

Effective data management is essential for businesses to make the best use of big data analytics and the insights it provides. Knowing what you want to use that data for, improving its quality, eradicating duplications and making it easier to access are key elements in that management strategy. So, too, are ensuring the data is secure, setting up logical access, making remote backups and choosing the right hosting provider.

How to Evaluate a Web Hosting Provider’s Reliability

Posted on 05/01/201917/06/2021 by Tushar

As any builder will tell you, if you build a house on poor foundations, it will fall. The same principle applies when building a website: here, however, the foundations are not reinforced concrete but the services of your hosting provider. A website its reliant on its hosting for its ongoing performance and success. Here, we’ll look at the criteria you need to look at when measuring the reliability of a web hosting provider.

1. The services you need

Hosting comes in a variety of forms and websites have their own specific needs. Finding the right host means matching these together. For example, if you run a WordPress website, you may want dedicated WordPress hosting which is designed specifically for optimising the performance and security of WordPress sites.

Look for a provider that offers all forms of hosting: shared, VPS, dedicated servers and cloud and which provides different solutions and packages for each form. You may need Linux or Windows hosting, business or reseller hosting, a choice between cPanel or Plesk control panels, the ability to choose the hardware spec of your dedicated server, want managed services or a bespoke enterprise-level cloud solution. A reliable host will be able to provide the solution which is tailored to your needs.

2. Availability

Availability, in web hosting parlance, refers to the amount of time that your website or application stays online. Also known as ‘uptime’, it is of critical importance because a website or app that goes offline loses you money and damages your reputation for reliability.

There are several reasons a website can go offline and not all of these are caused by poor web hosting. However, issues with hardware failure or overcrowded shared servers are within the remit of a web host and if these lead to constant lack of availability, your online venture can suffer as a consequence.

When it comes to availability, look for a web host that guarantees 99.9% uptime (the remaining 0.1% may be needed to update the operating system and patch vulnerabilities). At the same time, you can increase hardware reliability by opting for SSD storage, which uses solid-state rather than mechanical disk drives and is thus less prone to failure.

3. Technical support

While all web hosts will have a customer service department, what is more vital is finding a host that provides 24/7 technical support. There are many issues you can have with running a website and having 24/7 technical support in place means that, regardless of the time of day, an expert will be available to help sort the problem straight away.

Having a support team there for you in a time of need is one of the main reliability measures you should look for. For convenience, look for a support team that can be contacted by live chat, phone or ticket.

4. Money-back guarantee

People don’t always make the right choice with their hosting, nor are they always satisfied with the hosting services or support they receive. What makes this a bitter pill to swallow is that, should they change their mind, they find themselves out of pocket.

A reliable host is one which puts its customers first and which is so confident in the quality of its service that it offers a money-back guarantee. Here at Anteelo, for example, if you change your mind, you can claim a full refund on all hosting services (except dedicated servers and licensed add-ons) within the first 30 days. Additionally, our Anytime Money Back policy allows you to claim a refund for any unused portion of your contract even after the initial 30 days have passed.

5. Security

Cyberattacks have become a major threat to website owners with hacking, ransomware, malware, data theft and DDoS attacks leading to the demise of many businesses. One increasingly important measure of a web host’s reliability is how well they protect their customers from cybercrime.

Hosts should have security experts in place and provide them with the latest tools to do their job effectively. These should include the latest firewalls, intrusion detection and prevention tools and anti-spam email filters. They should also provide security services such as remote, encrypted backups, SSL certificates and email signing certificates.

6. Scalability

Your hosting needs may change over time. If your website grows and gets lots more traffic, the hosting package you currently use might not offer sufficient storage, bandwidth, RAM and CPU resources to cope with your needs.

A measure of reliability is how quick and easy a host makes it to scale up to a bigger package or even to a different form of hosting solution (e.g. VPS, dedicated server or cloud). If this involves migrating to a different server, they’ll also help you with the process of migration so that the move is as seamless and undisruptive as possible. At the same time, scaling back to a smaller solution should be just as easy.

7. Price

Every business will consider price when it looks to acquire the services of a web host. However, it is important to compare like with like rather than going for the cheapest deal. While affordability is important, so too is price stability and cost transparency.

A reliable host is one which makes its pricing completely clear and where there are no hidden extras. Additionally, although prices do change from time to time, a good host will try to keep increases to a minimum and implement them as infrequently as possible.

8. What others think

While web hosts can provide details about their products and services on their website, a true measure of their reliability is what their customers say about them. Online reviews and star ratings are highly valuable resources for owners looking for the best hosting solutions as you get the customer’s judgement on the quality of their services.

Conclusion

With a reliable web host supporting your online venture, you have the right solution for your budget and hosting needs, the flexibility to grow, the security and uptime guarantees to keep you online, the support in place to take care of issues and the backing of other customers to help you make the right decision. And if you’re still not happy, you can rest assured that you’ll get your money back.

4 Ways Your Web Host Affects Your Google Ranking

Posted on 01/01/201917/06/2021 by Tushar

During its latest algorithm update in May 2020, Google has tweaked a number of its ranking criteria which are directly related to the quality of your web hosting. Here, we’ll look at what aspects of your hosting can influence your website’s ability to rank and explain how they are important.

1. Site loading speed

Site speed is important to search engines because it improves the customer experience. Slow-loading websites have much higher abandonment rates because users just aren’t willing to wait for them to load. For this reason, the slower a site performs, the less likely Google will feature it in its results – it looks bad on them. What’s more, to do well, the site needs to perform quickly on both mobile devices and PCs.

Website loading times are an important web hosting feature for Google. While there are several things you can do to speed up your website that don’t rely on hosting, such as image optimisation, compression, minification, caching and the use of content delivery networks, ultimately, the performance of your server is critical.

Google takes note of a number of timescales when judging performance, such as the time it takes to start loading content on a browser, how quickly the page becomes interactive and how long it takes for your server to respond to an action performed by the user, for example, clicking on a link. If your server performs too slowly on any of these criteria, it will affect your page’s ability to rank.

Choosing a web host that uses high-performance servers, such as those with SSD drives and Intel Xeon processors can speed up performance dramatically. So, too, can upgrading to a more powerful solution, such as VPS, cloud or dedicated server.

2. Server uptime

While Google doesn’t like sending users to slow loading website’s, it is perhaps even less happy about sending them to sites which are frequently offline. If it keeps supplying links to sites which aren’t there, people will use an alternative search engine. Google, therefore, monitors the amount of time that websites are online and uses this as part of its ranking algorithm.

There are numerous reasons your site can go offline. Some of these are related to things you do on your site, such as putting it into maintenance mode or causing it to crash through installing incompatible software or making coding errors. Other reasons can be due to your web hosting, such as when your server needs its operating system patching and updating.

With some hosting solutions, however, the amount of time your website goes offline can be unacceptable to Google. For example, if the hardware is outdated, unreliable and keeps breaking down or if too few resources are available for shared hosting accounts that the server simply can’t cope with the amount of traffic. In these instances, it can affect the site’s ranking ability.

To protect yourself, ensure your web host offers guaranteed uptime backed by service level agreement (SLA). The minimum you should be looking for is 99.95% uptime. If you require 100% uptime, then you need to choose a cloud hosting solution.

3. Server location

Data needs to travel from A to B and the further it has to go, the longer it takes. This increases latency, making your server respond slower to requests from a user’s browser and, thus, reduces site speed.

While it is possible to speed up global loading times using a Content Delivery Network (CDN), this only works for static website data, i.e. website content that remains the same. For websites that provide lots of dynamic data, i.e. pages that change for individual users or which display things like product search results, the nearer the server to the browser, the better the performance.

Ideally, therefore, you need a server geographically located closer to where most of your traffic comes from. If you are a UK based company, it makes sense to have your website hosted on servers in a UK based datacentre.

Some web hosts, however, store their data all over the planet, much of it in huge US data centres. Even if the company is UK based, its servers may be anywhere. At eukhost, all our datacentres are located within the UK.

4. SSL certificates

The padlock icon displayed on browsers is a clear indication of how seriously Google takes security. The last thing it wants is to send its users to sites where their financial data may be at risk of interception because of an insecure connection between the browser and the website.

Today, the security of that connection is key to performing well in search engine results. The only way to obtain a green padlock icon is to install an SSL certificate that will encrypt data travelling between the browser and the server. These are normally obtained via your web host.

There are different types of SSL certificate and the one you need depends on the level of security required for your organisation. A good web host will provide all the different types available and give technical help to install it if required.

Perhaps less well known is that a basic Domain Validated SSL can now be obtained free of charge from the Let’s Encrypt certificate authority. eukhost, which is a sponsor of Let’s Encrypt, enables its customers to install these free Domain validated SSL certificates directly from within your cPanel control panel. Many web hosts, however, prevent this, forcing customers to buy alternate SSLs and pay an annual fee for their use.

Conclusion

In its drive to provide better services to its users, Google is pushing websites to up their game. From a web hosting perspective, this means having a site that loads quickly on all devices, has minimal latency, is reliably online for 99.5% of the time or more and which provides secure, encrypted connections. Websites with these things in place will find themselves better positioned by Google’s algorithm.

Enterprise cloud hosting migration challenges

Posted on 04/10/201819/06/2021 by Tushar

Despite the enormous benefits that the cloud brings, there are several issues that many enterprises face as they transition to this new technology. These include making choices about the right time to migrate, the best way to do it and which services to move. Other issues concern security, the use of managed services and whether to opt for a multi-cloud or hybrid cloud approach. Here weâ€™ll look at these challenges in more depth.

Planning the move to the cloud

Research by the Cloud Industry Forum shows that 88 per cent of UK enterprises have now adopted cloud technology with two-thirds expected to expand their use during the next 12 months. In doing so, many will shrink their in-house data centres or close them entirely. The result is that they can scale down or eliminate the expense of paying for the physical premises, hardware, applications and security that a data centre requires and replace this setup with a more agile cloud infrastructure.

The issue is that planning the migration of many different applications from the data centre to the cloud can be a challenge that takes considerable time to carry out and which often stretches already busy IT teams beyond capacity. Indeed, many IT teams lack the skills needed to carry out a successful migration.

The solution is not to undergo this process in isolation. You should find a provider that will carry out the necessary assessments, assist you in designing and developing the infrastructure you will need and which will then plan and undertake the migrations on your behalf.

Finding the right cloud solution

The cloud provides a range of benefits for enterprises, itâ€™s cost-effective, secure and provides the scalability businesses need to be agile. Finding the right cloud solution, however, can be a challenge. Crucial requirements include ensuring all your applications are ready for migration and finding the best platform on which to host them.

The complexities involved often means that, for some enterprises, standard-package cloud service setups might not provide the best solution for their needs. Increasingly, businesses are looking for service providers that can offer bespoke cloud or hybrid solutions that provide the ideal environment for all their applications.

Managed solutions

Many companies that migrate to the cloud attempt to keep costs down by managing their IT in-house. However, moving parts of your infrastructure to the cloud or to a multi-cloud/hybrid cloud environment can make managing these integrated services more complex. Add to this the constant development of new applications and technologies means that maintaining a highly trained IT team can be very expensive.

By outsourcing your IT management to a credible provider, not only are the on-going training costs reduced, it also frees up your IT staff to concentrate on more business orientated projects which can drive the company forward. Service providers employ certified IT teams who are able to expertly manage all aspects of your solution and are compliant with a wide range of regulations and industry standards.

Cutting IT costs

As enterprises expand their use of and reliance on IT, one of their biggest challenges is to prevent the costs becoming excessive. Cloud services help reduce costs in a number of ways. Firstly, they reduce the requirement for a large-scale data centre, its ongoing operating costs and the capital expenditure on hardware. The use of managed services can also reduce the need for such a large IT team and the associated training costs. Additionally, the pay as you use pricing of cloud means that costs, as well as services, are scalable, helping you to keep them to a minimum when IT requirements are low.

Data storage and security

The storage and security of data is a key challenge for enterprises, especially with the increasing number of threats and regulations. Data breaches can lead to huge fines but, perhaps more importantly, can have a devastating impact on the companyâ€™s reputation.

While there have been concerns about data stored in the internet accessible cloud, service providers have to comply with strict standards and regulations to ensure customersâ€™ data, such as personal and mission-critical information and intellectual property, is secure.

Conclusion

Migrating to the cloud can bring many benefits, giving enterprises access to the latest technologies, such as the IoT, artificial intelligence, machine learning and big data analysis. With so many businesses already employing cloud IT, maintaining competitiveness may rely on such a move. However, migration is not without its challenges as we hope this post has shown. That said, by choosing the right hosting partner, these can be overcome. If you are looking for a cloud hosting provider who can offer the services mentioned in this post, check out our enterprise cloud hosting page.

WordPress optimised servers

Advanced security

Ease of use features

Service and support

Conclusion

1. Gutenberg enhancements

2. Easier image editing

3. Lazy-loading images

4. Responsive content previews

5. Default XML sitemaps

6. Automatic updates for plugins

Conclusion

1. To err is human

2. Disappearing content and data

3. Killed off by infection

4. When great plans backfire

5. The vendor trap

Backing up your site

Conclusion

1. Putting resources in place

2. Putting you in control

3. Getting to the root of things

4. Security built-in

5. Expert technical support

Security

Performance

Other benefits of dedicated servers

Not a solution for every workload

Conclusion

1. Know what you want to use data for

2. Security and compliance are key priorities

3. Data quality is vital

4. Eradicate duplicate data

5. Managing access to data

6. Make sure data can be recovered

7. Choose the right hosting provider

Conclusion

1. The services you need

2. Availability

3. Technical support

4. Money-back guarantee

5. Security

6. Scalability

7. Price

8. What others think

Conclusion

1. Site loading speed

2. Server uptime

3. Server location

4. SSL certificates

Conclusion

Planning the move to the cloud

Finding the right cloud solution

Managed solutions

Cutting IT costs

Data storage and security

Conclusion

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