|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
As a business owner, I know the importance of having a website to represent and expand your company’s reach and capabilities. For businesses that rely heavily on their online presence, having a website that performs well is vital to success. WordPress has become the go-to platform for creating websites and offers excellent options for customization and scalability.
But unfortunately, too often businesses forget about the hosting aspect when launching their site, or don’t realize how important it can be until it’s too late. That’s why Managed WordPress Hosting is a great solution: It offers enterprise-level quality at small business pricing with all the expert support needed to keep your site running without any disruption.
When you invest in a managed WordPress host, you get more than just reliable hosting — you get peace of mind as well. The benefits are far-reaching, including increased performance, security and scalability at an affordable price point.
Most managed WordPress hosts also come with 24/7 support from knowledgeable customer service representatives who can help if you encounter any issues while running your site or managing your domain name. And since they’re optimized specifically for WordPress sites, they have all the features you need to make sure your pages load
A reliable hosting provider is essential for the success of any website, including those powered by WordPress. To achieve optimal performance, security, and uptime, it is recommended to switch to a managed WordPress host.
This guide provides comprehensive information on managed WordPress hosting.
Are you prepared to acquire expertise in managed WordPress hosting? Let’s jump in!
What is Managed WordPress Hosting?
Consider a scenario in which servers are not a factor to be taken into account.
An environment that frees you from the burdens of web hosting, enabling you to concentrate on your preferred activities, such as client site design, custom WordPress theme development, or for your agency growth.
Managed WordPress hosting enables you to achieve that. Managed WordPress hosting is an ideal hosting plan for those with a busy WordPress website as it provides extra services to ensure smooth website maintenance and performance. These plans are designed specifically for WordPress, optimizing the website and taking on certain tasks like security, backups, maintenance, and performance improvements.
Managed WordPress hosting is a hosting service that utilizes advanced technologies to ensure the security and speed of your WordPress website.
Managed WordPress hosting is designed specifically for WordPress sites. This means that all aspects of the hosting company's services are optimized for the popular CMS, including server structure and support staff expertise.
A managed host provides hardware and WordPress expertise, along with extra services and features to make site management easier for owners. This is why it is called a "managed" host.
Managed WordPress hosting is a suitable option for those who are building a business on WordPress, such as creative agencies, freelancers, or eCommerce owners. It's also a viable choice for enterprise sites and in-house brands who want to free up their time by relying on a reliable hosting partner. In the next section, we will discuss the specific advantages of managed WordPress hosting.
The Benefits of Managed WordPress Hosting
Selecting the ideal WordPress hosting for your website may initially seem daunting, but with a basic understanding of its advantages and disadvantages, the process becomes more manageable.
Consider using managed WordPress hosting for your website, as it offers numerous benefits. Here are 12 reasons you should choose managed WordPress hosting.
1. Faster Loading Speeds for better site performance
The importance of having fast loading speeds on a website should not be underestimated. Having a slow-loading website can have an immediate and significant negative impact on your bottom line. Studies have shown that for each 1-second delay in page response time, customer satisfaction decreases by 16%, while 1 in 4 people will abandon your site if it takes longer than 4 seconds to load. This is a serious business loss that should be avoided through the use of high-quality, managed WordPress hosting services.
A managed WordPress host offers the advantage of a tech stack specifically designed for WordPress. As a result, your site can experience improved uptime, faster loading times, and fewer issues. Many hosting providers discuss caching, but few consider the unique requirements of WordPress sites. Managed WordPress hosts are advantageous as they optimize servers based on the themes and plugins in use.
Managed hosting providers may provide various performance enhancements such as a CDN (content delivery network), server locations worldwide, and instant-scaling technology. Some providers, like FCP, are powered by the Google Cloud Platform.
Working with a managed WordPress host makes configuring traditionally difficult features simple, with the added support of a knowledgeable team available if needed.
Although it is possible to optimize your WordPress site on other hosting providers, it may require extensive troubleshooting. Opting for a managed host can alleviate the burden of server maintenance and enable you to prioritize your clients and business.
A managed WordPress host offers security and performance advantages, such as dependable infrastructure and expert assistance, that can safeguard your brand against website outages or cyber-attacks.
WordPress hosting services are equipped with cutting-edge technology to ensure lightning-fast loading speeds, such as caching. Caching pages store data from the webpages into temporary memory so they can be accessed more quickly when revisiting the site again - saving precious time for consumers. By investing in optimized WordPress hosting services, small business owners can improve their customers’ experience leading to increased sales and larger profits in the long run.
2. You Get Support From Experts in WordPress
When it comes to website hosting, getting an expert level of support is paramount. With a managed WordPress provider, you can rest assured that the team behind it are experts in both the software itself as well as the particular settings needed to make sure your WordPress site runs at peak performance. They understand plugin conflicts, advanced themes, and server-level issues like no other.
WordPress is focused on developing the content management system they excel at it thanks to their deep understanding of the platform. This gives customers access to a wealth of trusted solutions and reliable recommendations.
Whether you have questions regarding setup, troubleshooting, or simply advice - their support staff will be able to provide helpful answers quickly and accurately. Plus, relying on managed hosting means that all the work is done for you so you can focus solely on creating great content.
Managed hosts typically provide prioritized customer support through various channels such as 24/7 chat, in-app ticketing, or community forums. Using a managed WordPress host can give businesses access to a team of professionals, similar to an outsourced IT department, which can be advantageous for you.
3. Gives you the Best WordPress Security Practices
When it comes to WordPress security, WordPress users have no excuse for not doing their due diligence. With the availability of managed WordPress hosts, there are layers of built-in security enhancements such as daily backups, strong password enforcement, two-factor authentication, and limited login attempts. With a managed host like WP Engine, these features are right at your fingertips and easily accessible from your dashboard.
These daily backups can serve as an extra layer of protection should anything go wrong with your site. Keeping regular backups provides you with the peace of mind of knowing that if anything happens, you’ll be able to restore it quickly and effortlessly with just one click.
On top of this, managed hosts optimize their servers for optimal security ensuring that WordPress remains secure. This means no need for additional security plugins or configurations - everything is taken care of by the professionals at your managed hosting provider.
One of the significant security features offered by managed hosts is the capability to eliminate malware. In the event of a site breach, the support team of a managed WordPress host can assist you in cleaning it up.
It's essential to be aware of the malware-removal process to act promptly when necessary. Some hosts charge additional fees for this service, while others, such as WP Engine, provide it for free as part of their hosting packages.
4. One-Click WP Install and Staging Sites & Local Environments
Having a staging environment is one of the best parts of any proper WordPress setup. A staging site is basically a duplicate version of your production website that you can use to experiment, without having to worry about breaking anything on the live site.
Many managed WordPress hosting companies include this in their plans, so it’s easier than ever to have a clone copy of your live site ready for testing. This makes it much simpler to do things like test new plugins and themes before pushing them live, as well as make various other changes with the assurance that everything will be safe and will work properly when you’re done.
In addition to setting up a staging site with a managed WordPress host, there are also plenty of options for setting up local WordPress environments. This means running an instance of WordPress on your own computer or server – usually via VirtualBox or Docker containers – meaning you can edit files directly from your machine and preview the changing you make in real-time.
This allows developers more control over how they experiment with features and makes it easier for teams of developers to collaborate on complex projects remotely. Both of these tools are invaluable for any professional web development practice or even just experimenting at home – so make sure you take advantage of these if you can
A local environment is a component of the development workflow that enables significant site updates to be made outside of the production server, similar to a staging site. In an ideal situation, one would:
- Develop your site in a local environment
- Transfer it to a staging site for the purpose of testing.
- Deploy to production once you have completed all necessary preparations. Then launch
Managed hosting providers offer the necessary tools and support for teams and clients to effectively collaborate and maintain an ideal development workflow.
5. Exceptional Features Beyond Server Setups
Managed WordPress hosts go beyond providing just reliable, secure server set-ups. They also offer a range of other features that can help make running your business simpler and more successful.
For instance, collaboration tools are ideal for working with team members, clients, and one-time contributors. Additionally, many managed hosts provide the tools you need to create templates and turnkey sites quickly and easily.
Moreover, some managed hosting companies offer educational resources to their users so they can stay up to date on the latest tips and trends in website design, marketing, and more. Workflow tools are also key components of managed WordPress hosting.
For example, many hosts offer sophisticated daily backup solutions and other security tools to keep websites safe from malicious attacks. With these tools, businesses can automate backups, ensure multiple levels of website protection, and even arrange for notifications when servers need attention or maintenance.
Some managed WordPress hosts include educational resources like walkthroughs on technical topics such as SSL certificates or upgrading content management systems (CMS). Having access to these resources is incredibly useful for webmasters who need an extra bit of support when learning how to effectively use the platform they’re working with.
This can give WordPress businesses an invaluable edge as they strive to create sites that look professional and are easy to use for both customers and employees alike. So if you’re looking for more than just a server setup from your web host, consider a managed WordPress host with all these added benefits.
6. Add SSL Certificates with ease
SSL certificates are an important part of keeping your website, and by extension your customers, safe. These are what give you the green padlock on the search bar before your site URL to show your site is secure.
Unfortunately, they can be difficult to install without the help of a web hosting provider. Thankfully, some managed hosting providers have come to the rescue, offering easy and accessible SSL certificates that take just a few clicks to install.
The process used to be quite time-consuming and involved a lot of tedious back-and-forth communication between your host and the certificate provided. Managed WordPress hosts have helped streamline this process by partnering with Let's Encrypt or other certificate providers to offer free SSL certificates so that anyone can easily add security to their website.
This newfound ease of use is great news for website owners who want to ensure their site is secure but may not have access to the skillset required for traditional installation methods.
Managed hosting providers have contributed significantly to the accessibility and ease of installation of SSL certificates in their hosting options. To align with online best practices, some managed WordPress hosts provide free SSL certificates instead of charging for them.
Some come with automatic updates. These providers can also assist with setting up advanced SSL certificates, such as wildcard or EV.
7. You can Resell Hosting
With the rise of WordPress, reselling hosting has become even more attractive. As a webmaster or business owner, you can take advantage of the popular platform and its massive audience by leveraging your relationships with managed WordPress providers.
Many of these services will have programs specially tailored to support the needs of resellers, such as referral programs that reward you for every customer you bring on board or partner programs that provide you with additional resources to help your business grow. And when it comes to starting up a new reselling operation, the best managed WordPress hosting companies make it unexpectedly simple by offering add-ons specifically built with resellers in mind.
In other words, if you’re looking to add a new revenue stream to your business model, exploring options for reselling hosting within the WordPress ecosystem is certainly worth considering.
With so much competition out there vying for customers' attention and money, managed WordPress providers are sure to have plenty of offerings available to support businesses both large and small at every stage—making it easier than ever before to tap into this lucrative market niche.
8. Managing your site is easy with Managed WordPress hosting
Utilizing a managed WordPress host allows for the centralized organization of all your sites, eliminating the need to navigate between multiple providers or deal with varying setups. This can prove beneficial, particularly when expanding your agency or working with numerous clients, as streamlining providers can result in significant time savings when creating new sites.
The included tools also make tedious tasks more manageable, allowing you to focus on the most important tasks of growing your business. These tools are almost like having a personal IT technician at your beck and call, doing all the necessary tinkering with lines of code, plugins, and server maintenance that would otherwise take up too much of your valuable time.
Managed WordPress hosting is a great solution for those who don’t have the technical know-how or experience needed to properly manage their own website without being able to outsource it.
Opting for a managed host can streamline the setup process for both you and your clients.
9. Get Quick Access to Development Tools
Having quick access to development tools is essential for anyone working on website design or maintenance. Managed WordPress host solutions provide web developers with the ease of accessing commonly used development tools right from the hosting application. Cutting out the complexity that adds time to everyday tasks, makes this a great resource for a busy developer.
Managed WordPress hosting providers offer easy access to useful tools like slow error logs and manual cache flushing. These actions can be performed quickly and easily, making managing your site a breeze. Here is the list of the tools you can get access to:
- Flush the cache
- Toggle development mode
- Turn on wp_cache
- Turn on wp_debug
- Export logs
- Manage the database
- Access SFTP
The convenience of having these tools in one place with a familiar interface comes in two flavors: either cPanel or custom dashboard software designed and tailored for use by work teams. With custom dashboards, developers need only make minor adjustments before jumping straight into tasks like troubleshooting existing sites, debugging code, and creating an entirely new project from scratch.
Whether it’s seeing slow error logs, flushing the cache manually, or checking security protocols, having access to quick solutions like these whenever needed ensures digital problems are solved as quickly as possible without disrupting workflow.
10. Managed WordPress hosting means fewer Plugins
Having a plethora of wordpress plugins can seem like a great way to get the features you need on your website, but it can be difficult to manage that many components and make sure they are all up-to-date and secure. When facing this challenge, partnering with a managed WordPress host can help take away much of the headache.
A managed WordPress hosting provider will handle many of the basic optimizations for you, meaning there's less code to load and fewer updates to worry about. Rather than having multiple plugins for security, caching optimization, and other features, most of these services come with this built-in.
In this way, you're far less likely to miss critical plugin updates due to time restraints or budget constraints since they don't require additional investments. And when your WordPress plugins are up-to-date, your site will be more secure and enjoy better performance. Don't wait any longer - let the experts at WP Engine Hosting give your site the boost it deserves from day one.
11. You Can Focus on Growing Your Business
Managed WordPress hosting is a great solution for those looking to simplify their website hosting process. With managed providers, you don't need to worry about setting up servers and customizing your environment—it's all taken care of already. On top of this, having managed WP hosting also provides additional workflow tools that can be helpful in building your business more effectively.
These tools can make it much easier to collaborate with team members or clients by streamlining processes and communication. The value they provide in terms of time saved alone means the cost is well worth it, not to mention you get peace of mind that your site will be secure and optimized for both performance and scalability.
Using a managed WordPress host takes the hassle out of running a successful website, allowing individuals and businesses alike to focus on what they're truly passionate about in their craft! With all technical aspects handled by the provider, content creators aren't bogged down worrying about server issues anymore; instead, they can make meaningful contributions with free time spent working on other projects or activities.
Additionally, having access to use workflow tools like transfer protocols further help them work smarter instead of harder when managing client files or collaborating with other members of the team. Therefore, investing in a good managed WordPress host
In addition to the site benefits, the workflow tools of a managed host can enhance business efficiency and collaboration with teams and clients. Although the cost may exceed that of shared hosting plans, it offers greater value.
12. Increased Reliability and Server Uptime
Managed WordPress hosting offers some big advantages over typical shared and VPS hosting solutions, particularly when it comes to reliability and uptime. During peak hours of business activity, websites hosted on servers specifically configured for WordPress will have fewer technical issues, guaranteeing a more pleasant and uninterrupted customer experience.
Image source: DNSstuff
This increased reliability is even more important for small businesses whose website are their primary source of income – a few minutes or hours of downtime can result in serious financial losses.
Apart from higher levels of reliability and uptime, managed WordPress hosting also provides better security measures compared to other types of web hosting. Due to the specific nature of the server environment, gaining access to it becomes much more difficult, effectively minimizing the chances of successful cyber-attacks.
Many managed WordPress hosts offer daily backups so that if something does go wrong or a file gets corrupted by mistake you'll always have something to fall back on. All these benefits guarantee greater peace of mind when running your small business website.
Who is Managed Hosting Best For?
Managed web hosting is a great choice for anyone who wants to focus more on running their website or business without worrying about the technical details of setting up and maintaining a web presence. This includes creative agencies, freelancers, site owners, bloggers, influencers, and eCommerce sites.
For creatives and freelancers building websites for clients, managed hosting can provide consistent performance and reliability. This helps ensure projects are completed on time, within budget and at the highest level of quality.
Site owners that don't want to get bogged down in all the details of setting up their own server can benefit from having experts take care of this process so they can just focus on running their website. Bloggers and influencers often need reliable uptime with steady speed since any delay could result in losing valuable readers or followers.
Managed hosting provides the necessary backing to guarantee this kind of consistency. eCommerce sites also rely heavily on uptime as any downtime means lost customers which is bad news for business owners attempting to increase their bottom line.
Lastly, marketing teams may prefer sending traffic directly through a managed host instead of “going through IT” which can often create delays due to typical approval wait times and extra steps associated with corporate environments.
