When building a website, there’s a million things to consider. From design to content to marketing strategies and more, some things can easily get pushed off to the side until your website is ready to launch.
One of the often overlooked, but no less important, decisions is deciding on a web hosting provider. Web hosting can have a major impact on the quality of your website—whether good or bad.
What is web hosting?
Web hosting is a service that houses your website on the internet. Without hosting, no one would be able to visit your website or view the content.
When you subscribe to a web hosting plan, you’re paying to rent space to store your site on a computer server.
Reliable hosting is essential to running a reliable website. Below, we’ve compiled a list of things to consider when finding the right hosting provider.
Reliable Uptime
Uptime is the amount of time your website is up and available for viewing. If your web host’s servers go down, your church or nonprofit’s website will, too. This can prevent web visitors from viewing and interacting with your site.
A reliable web host will consistently check their servers to make sure all sites are up and running with no issues. And, if an issue is found, they should begin fixing any problems.
(If your website has good uptime, it can also help your site’s SEO!)
Uptime is usually measured by a percentage. The closer to 100, the better! Make sure to check your web hosting provider’s uptime rate before purchasing a plan.
Frequent Backups
Sometimes, disaster may strike your website. Whether it’s a faulty update, malware, or accidental deletion, you can’t always avoid every problem!
A good web hosting provider knows this and will take preventive measures and perform necessary website maintenance to keep your website up and running. One of the easiest ways to do this is making frequent (preferably daily) backups of your website.
If your website encounters an issue, your hosting provider can simply restore the most recent backup and your website is as good as new!
Customer Support
Just like with any service, you want a provider who will address your concerns, respond quickly, and work tirelessly until any issues are resolved. The same goes for a web hosting provider.
If your website goes down or has any issues, you want to be able to contact your host as soon as possible. The best hosting providers will be available 24/7 to discuss any issues.
Besides timelines, you want a web hosting provider who cares about their website clients. A provider that truly wants to serve your church or nonprofit well will take care of your website and provide friendly, timely support that has your organization’s best interests at heart.
No Unnecessary Upselling
Too often, website hosting providers are more concerned with making a profit than properly caring for your organization and website.
Some providers will take the opportunity to upsell you at any chance they get. Their base plan may seem reasonably priced until you notice that many of the better features require extra money every month.
If you’re looking to save money, you may want to look for a hosting provider that offers all the necessary features in one plan. Or, make sure they’re not taking advantage of your organization by making you pay more money for options that other providers offer at lower costs.
Why You Shouldn’t Self-Host
Self-hosting your own website may seem like an easy cost-efficient solution until you realize the time, money, and problems it can cost you.
It takes time.
Running your church or nonprofit is a hard enough task on its own. When you add caring for your website into the mix, the quality of your work can begin to slip. Though hosting your own website is possible, it takes time to learn the right skills and tools to keep your website running properly.
It takes expertise.
Maintaining your servers and caring for your website isn’t as easy as it looks. Most web hosting providers have the technological expertise to keep everything running smoothly as well as take preventative measures (like the backups and uptime maintenance we mentioned.) If you’re not properly trained, you could do more harm to your website than good.
It’s more expensive than you think.
Sure, you may not have to pay a monthly fee to a hosting company, but that doesn’t mean hosting your own site is free. The right software and hardware can be expensive, and so is hiring a dedicated member of your team to oversee the hosting process.
Looking for a Hosting Provider?
If your church or nonprofit is searching for a web hosting provider, then look no further! Our team at Yemba is more than qualified to provide reliable web hosting for any WordPress site, and we’d love the opportunity to serve your organization well.
For $50 per month, we’ll host your WordPress site, and you’ll receive a website maintenance plan at no extra cost. In addition to just hosting, this includes updates, daily backups, uptime monitoring, SSL certificates, and more.
Reach out to our team today to discuss your website hosting needs!
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