You’re excited. Your site is being noticed and traffic is flowing in. The conversion rates aren’t what you want them to be, but with an excellent marketing strategy in place, you’re confident that it will get there some time soon.
However, have you ever thought that maybe your site should be converting more traffic right now? Site conversion and productivity relies heavily on a number of factors, not just marketing strategies. One of those factors is webhosting.
Web hosts can make or break your conversion rates with their different types of hosting services. Everything they do is hidden in the background and unless you carefully scrutinize your site’s statistics, you may not discover the underlying problem of slow conversions.
Other than simply hosting your site, web hosts should be helping in improving productivity and conversions. Here’s how.
Speed – Three seconds and you’re out!
Quality Web Hosting
Marketing strategies can build your audience. People will start falling in line, waiting to see what it is you want to present, and maybe even buy your product.
In brick and mortar stores, if you have a terrific product but a small entrance and only one cashier, people will be willing to wait in line for hours to buy the product. Just imagine the lines outside Apple’s stores when they release a new iPod or iPhone.
Unfortunately, it isn’t the same on the web. If someone comes to your site and has to wait for over 3 seconds before the information comes through, that person will simply back click and search for another site.
Web hosting is partly responsible for speed. Site design is the other part, but you’re fully responsible for that. A good web host should be able to monitor the page load speed of their hosted sites. If it goes above the accepted standards for speed, which is 3 seconds, then there’s a problem.
One way they improve site speed is through the hosting plan. For instance, virtual private servers have the ability to improve a site’s page load speeds.
Web hosts keep your website secure
Security is another factor that can greatly reduce or improve website performance. Many good webhosts today use Linux operating systems together with virtual private server hosting plans simply because Linux VPS hosting provides high security and performance.
Compared with other operating systems, Linux has the best reputation when it comes to security. With the right combination of VPS security protocols, a Linux VPS hosting plan will have excellent security features.
Web hosts provide scalability
If you only had a glass ball to see exactly how your website will perform in the future, you’d be able to pick the right hosting plan right from the very start. Since you don’t, you’ll need to rely on your web hosts’ scalability options to have the right plan every step of the way.
Good hosting plans, like virtual private servers, allow you to use whatever resources you need. You can use more or less resources without worrying about its effect on your monthly bill.
Great web hosts use excellent servers
Your site’s performance will rely on the performance of the physical servers it’s on, especially when you’re still on shared hosting. Web hosts that strive to provide value for money ensure that they have good quality servers to provide different types of hosting services. Some even go to the extent of using top of the line equipment just to ensure that their customers are fully satisfied with their services.
Good web hosts are stable
Nothing is worse than finally getting into a momentum and suddenly discovering that your host has equipment or security problems. Site conversion relies heavily on your site’s reputation. If your site frequently experiences downtime, then potential customers will view this as a risk.
Web hosts provide excellent ecommerce solutions
If your site’s conversion rates rely on converting traffic into customers, then you need excellent ecommerce solutions. Every transaction should be flawless. Customers need to be able to go through all the steps easily, while being provided with all the information they need.
Many sites fail to convert because of poorly designed ecommerce solutions. Even if you’re on a virtual private server hosting plan that provides excellent page load speeds, if the ecommerce solution fails to impress your customers, then site conversion will definitely be affected.
Web hosts limit the number of sites on a server
The speed of website relies heavily on the performance of the server. If your site is on a server that hosts too many sites, then it’s natural that your page load speed will suffer together with the rest of the sites, regardless of the different types of hosting services except for dedicated servers.
Good web hosts ensure that the number of sites they host on a server is limited to the amount of resources the server can provide for each site without sacrificing the site’s speed.
