Would you trust your Mercedes Benz or BMW to any roadside mechanic or would you rather bring it to a repair shop that specializes in those brands of automobiles? Your website is like a car – used properly it will help drive your business forward. Unlike a car that depreciates over time, your website will continually add value to your business. Thus, if you want your website to perform optimally, you should have it hosted by a platform that specializes in its system.
When it comes to websites, WordPress is the brand that is synonymous with performance. Businesses trust WordPress more than any other platform for enhancing their presence on the Internet.
According to a survey conducted by W3Techs, WordPress is used by 34.5% of all websites and is the consensus number 1 Content Management System (CMS) in the world.
If you have a website that is powered by WordPress, your business is in good hands – the best in the business! It only makes good business sense to have your WordPress website under the care and maintenance of a company that specializes in this amazing CMS platform.
Enter managed WordPress hosting services.
Managed WordPress Hosting – What Is It?
A web host service provider is a company that provides the technology and services that allow the website to be accessed on the Internet. These services use powerful computers called servers to host your website.
The assets of your website – content, graphics, audio files, databases, and images – are stored in these servers. If someone wants to access your website, all he has to do is type your URL or website address in his browser.
Once the Internet user launches his search query, his computer will connect to the server and your webpage will be delivered via his browser.
You can read more about web hosting services in our article “How To Choose Your Web Host”.
A managed WordPress hosting service is web hosting that is designed specifically to support the needs of a WordPress website.
From the servers to the customer support staff that the company hires, everything is tailor-made to ensure the WordPress websites are functioning at optimal levels and easily accessible to Internet users.
In addition, managed WordPress hosting includes services intended to relieve the owner from the tasks involved in managing his website so he can focus on the core activities of the business.
What Are The Advantages Of Using Managed WordPress Hosting For Your Business?
If you are building an online presence for your business with WordPress, signing up for a WordPress hosting service is the best thing you can do to ensure the performance, safety, and security of your website.
1. Have Your Site Managed by WordPress Experts
You can’t have the word “managed” beside WordPress hosting services unless you have people who are trained, experienced, and have the requisite skills to manage your WordPress website.
Put simply, when you sign up for managed WordPress hosting services, you are leaving your WordPress website in the very capable and highly-qualified hands of the experts.
Other web hosting platforms will offer you support for your WordPress website but their competencies and expertise are limited. They may not have the level of WordPress proficiency to distinguish a conflict between plugins and a full-blown problem with the servers.
Managed WordPress hosting services will also open up their toolbox and utilize all the tools of the trade to prioritize the needs of a WordPress website. For example, you’ll be given access to 24/7 customer support and have an IT expert at your fingertips whenever your website runs into trouble.
2. Optimal Site Performance and Fast Download Speed
For the reason that the entire technology of a managed WordPress hosting services provider is tailor-made for a WordPress website, you can be assured that your website will be running optimally with faster download speed and improved uptime.
You can avail of features that can further enhance the performance of your website such as a CDN or Content Delivery Network which ensures the fast delivery of your content anywhere in the world.
Slow download time will contribute to poor user experience and lead to foregone revenues and a tarnished reputation. With managed WordPress hosting services, you no longer have to worry about users abandoning your website because it took more than 3 seconds to download.
3. Worry-Free Site Management Experience
Think of a managed WordPress hosting service as a one-stop-shop for all your WordPress website needs. It is the only hub for your website; there is no need to go from one provider to another or to change configurations and setups. The hosting service is dedicated to everything WordPress.
If your business is in “growth mode” and you are working with several new clients, having hosted services specific to your WordPress website will take the burden of managing the site for you.
In our case, we primarily use the services of GoDaddy for these features.
As the web host, GoDaddy provides the routine backups and the automatic WordPress core file updates but the company does not touch the plugins.
We offer our clients a separate service that takes care of managing and updating the plugins as well as protecting the other features of the website.
4. Incorporate WordPress-Specific Security Measures
The threat of cyber-attacks is an everyday reality. Just because you have never been hacked does not mean you never will. Don’t wait to be a statistic. You should always prioritize the security and integrity of your website.
Cyber-criminals are trying to stay one step ahead of cyber-security measures. As a business owner, it is very hard to keep up with the latest security updates.
With Managed WordPress hosting services, you can be assured that they take the security of the server very seriously. They work hard to protect the server from intruders.
However, server level security is not enough to keep you secure. There must be security features on your website as well. We take website security very seriously.
For our clients on our Extreme WordPress Care Plans, we have taken it upon ourselves to regularly update the security features and to update the required plugins to make sure the client’s website is protected to the server level.
You can have peace of mind knowing these security measures will be installed as soon as they are available.
5. Add SSL Certificates With Only a Few Clicks
SSL or Secure Sockets Layer Certificates are no longer just the concern of e-commerce websites. Effective last July 2018, Google declared SSL Certificates as mandatory for websites.
If your website does not have SSL Certificates, visitors will be greeted by the dreaded 2 words “Not Secure”.
Consequently, your drive to move up the search rankings will be derailed because the search engine giant included SSL Certificates as a ranking factor in its search algorithm.
A managed WordPress hosting service will make it easier for you to have SSL Certificates for your website. With most hosting platforms, acquiring the SSL Certificates will take time.
However, managed WordPress hosting services have partnered up with SSL Certificate providers to make the process easier and faster. It takes only a few clicks to have that much sought-after green padlock added to your URL.
Conclusion
As we like to say, your website is your business address on the Internet. Setting it up using the WordPress CMS platform is a great idea. You are moving in the right direction!
Therefore, you must make sure that it is managed properly. As a business owner, your time is best dedicated to managing the tasks that contribute to your bottom line. The last thing you would want is to be thrown a curveball in your schedule because your WordPress website ran into server issues.
Signing up for managed WordPress hosting services will put your website under the guidance of the most qualified people in the industry. Professionals who have the requisite skills, knowledge, experience, and expertise to give your WordPress website the ideal environment to ensure top-level performance.
One of the biggest advantages of having a website is that you have a version of your business which is open 24/7. People from all over the world can access your website and learn more about your business; its products and services.
With managed WordPress hosting services, you can sleep soundly knowing that your business is open, customers are perusing through your content, and your assets are secured and protected.
You may also want to learn more about our Extreme WordPress Care plans which offer robust security and protection that work with your hosting environment. Our Extreme WordPress Care plans are the perfect complement to managed WordPress hosting services.
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