Another year has come and gone and, for better or worse, we have all moved right along with it. Your business has made it through another milestone. You are smarter, wiser, and have seen it all rise… or fall. Lessons have been learned and now, it’s time to get on with the coming year and new plans. As an ecommerce website owner, you should already be considering how to improve all aspects of your site’s performance. The best place to start? Right at the foundation of your website – your web hosting platform.
Your website is an integral part of your business and, if you truly want your business to succeed, you should learn from the past year and set goals to help improve your site’s performance, monetization, stability, and more.
Don’t worry – we’re here to help. We’ve outlined 7 New Year’s Resolutions that could help get you back on track so you aren’t left in the ecommerce dust when it comes to website hosting.
- Optimize Hosting for Mobile Visitors – Most web hosting providers have their plans and packages built around conventional website design, which assumes visitors are on laptops or PCs. But, in a world where over 50 percent of internet users connect using mobile devices, you would be well-advised to consider moving to a provider that caters to ever-changing mobile demands.
- Cut Hosting Costs – Whether you do it directly by opting for a cheaper hosting solution or increase your payments while getting more features thrown in for optimal performance, your focus should be on getting more out of your hosting solution.
- Lose The Extras – No matter how small your website starts, it will gain traction as time goes by. Your disk space will be filled with temp files that are dumped by almost every application that runs. That extra weight will keep piling on until you have a site that is so laggy and resource-intensive that it will negatively affect its overall performance. Next year, you should make it a priority to not only clean up the accumulated junk from the previous years, but also plan to carry out regularly scheduled pro-active steps to keep the amount of unused data and media files to a minimum.
- Move to The Cloud – Cloud computing technology has been around for quite some time now and, if you haven’t embraced this new technology yet, then the New Year should be the time you make the move. While it may seem like too daunting a task at first, you shouldn’t be too worried about how things will go, because most hosting providers help you migrate from conventional servers to the cloud, while also showing you the ropes, so you’re well-equipped to handle the transition.
- Look For More Features – Technology is continuously evolving and web hosting features and packages are no different. In a commercial world that has come to be defined by the aggressiveness of its marketing schemes, web hosting providers too have chosen to reach out to new clients and customers by offering the latest features, apps, and gadgets on their websites. This is the right time to be on the lookout for such additions to your site, as they could be the differentiating factor that’ll give you a leg-up over your competition.
- Blog Hosting Providers – If you have a blog, you’re already ahead of the game! If not, then you’ve got some serious catching up to do. Before you jump straight into writing your thoughts down, though, make sure you have the right blog-hosting platform. There are hosting providers who specifically rent out server space for blogs. Also, if you already have a blog, but are hosting it with your website, you should also have a look at the advantages you may get from specialized hosting.
- Kill Crashes – A website that is down can’t be of any use to your clients or customers. In an ideal world, there would be no down time. Unfortunately, the best you can hope for is landing a hosting provider with a proven record of the least amount of down time. The promise you have to make for next year is that you will always keep your eye out for hosting providers who have better track records than your current one. Considering all other factors are better (or the very least, equal,) you shouldn’t hesitate to jump ship as soon as possible – because crashed sites can do serious damage to your business and reputation.
And there you have it! It’s a lot to do at once, so take each resolution and tackle it head on individually – just be sure to keep all resolutions to better your annual performance.
Still need some help? Check out our Top 5 Web Hosting Services of 2017 for an easy place to shop, compare, and get the most out of your hosting dollars.
