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When building a business website, usually your first thought is about affordability. Most small businesses do not have big web budgets when they are just starting out.
However, as your business grows, so will your web presence. You’ll experience more traffic, more sales, and more complex needs for your web business. Your original small business website may not be able to cope with these changes.
Scalable web hosting options allow your website to grow with your business. Here is a quick guide to what resources you can use as your business expands.
Look for a Scalable WordPress Hosting Solution
WordPress is one of the most popular web hosting platforms in the world. People use it for their business websites and for personal blogs because it is easy to use and free for basic plans.
However, if you are using a free or basic plan, your WordPress may not be able to cope as your business grows. The platform on its own does not work well with sudden spikes in traffic or other periods of heavy demand.
One option is to look into a scalable WordPress hosting platform. A business offering reliable WordPress hosting takes your existing website and moves it to its servers. These additional hosting platforms offer better loading speeds, additional storage, and additional services such as on-page caching.
The benefit of using scalable WordPress hosting is that these businesses offer additional services that can help your site be functional during periods of heavy traffic. However, you get these benefits while using your original WordPress site, so you can keep the benefits of WordPress while getting additional technical support.
Opt for Cloud Infrastructure
One option for rapidly growing businesses is to look into cloud hosting as opposed to traditional web hosting. While traditional web hosting stores all of your data on physical servers, cloud hosting uses a network of digital servers to host your website.
The benefit of cloud web hosting is that the limits of traditional web hosting are avoided. You don’t have to worry about a server crashing during periods of high traffic or running out of physical data when your website expands.
There’s no better endorsement of cloud web hosting than by looking at the companies that use this option. The biggest web providers, Google and Amazon, all use cloud hosting as part of their services.
However, there are some drawbacks to cloud hosting that may not make this the right choice for you. Cloud hosting is usually more expensive and difficult to budget. It also requires specialized knowledge to make your website compatible with the cloud. While this is the right option for large companies, smaller businesses are better off looking for other scalable web hosting options.
Performance Optimization Management
Most web hosting options offer performance optimization services in addition to hosting support. Sometimes, even with hosting support, crucial performance indicators, such as loading time, will lag during periods of high traffic.
This is important because having a well-performing website is very important when it comes to running an online business. As more and more crucial functions move online, having a website that can meet your customers’ expectations is crucial.
Make sure that the hosting provider you use has performance optimization services in place. These are important technical interventions that make sure that your website performs well, such as CDNs (Content Delivery Networks) and caching.
The best hosting service will have these management protocols in place to help with performance during periods of high traffic.
Load Balancing Hosting
One feature that scalable web hosting options offer is load balancing hosting, which is important if you have longer periods of high traffic.
Like cloud hosting, load balancing hosting relies on multiple servers to help keep your website online. Multiple servers are better able to cope with higher traffic than one singular server, which can crash if there are too many visitors.
Load balancing hosting is one option that allows your website to cope with periods of high traffic. You also have extra reliability that your website will be available despite any technical challenges. If your main problem with your website has been its unreliability during periods of high traffic, this is a feature to look for when searching for scalable web hosting options.
Dynamic Scalable Web Hosting
When you look at your different hosting options for scaling your business’s website, one factor to look out for is how often you need extra web support.
If you notice a consistent uptick in traffic and inquiries to your website, look for scalable web hosting options that offer consistent support for expanding websites.
On the other hand, you may notice that you only need additional web hosting during certain busy periods, such as if your social media goes viral, you have a sale going on, or around busy shopping periods such as the holidays.
In that case, look for scalable web hosting options that offer dynamic resource allocation. These companies only allocate extra resources such as servers to your website when you need them, keeping things at default levels when there aren’t too many visitors.
Pricing Dynamics
Besides the services offered by each scalable web hosting option, you should look at the pricing models that they use to operate. There are two main models: fixed and dynamic pricing.
Web hosting servers offering dynamic web hosting also offer dynamic pricing. The logic is that you only pay for additional services when you use them. However, if you encounter a busy period, this can cost you a lot of money, and make your hosting expenses unpredictable from month to month.
Hosting companies that offer fixed plans give you the same services for a set monthly cost. These costs are usually affordable for businesses of all sizes and provide reliable web hosting services that can deal with periods of high traffic.
Finding the Right Scalable Web Hosting Option
When your business is growing, it’s time to invest in your website as well. Scalable web hosting services that work with your existing website providers such as WordPress provide you with the best additional support while making your transition seamless.
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