Frugality and cost saving are the two most commonly implemented techniques in today’s world of commerce. Apart from the usual increasing of sales and productions figures, businesses are implementing a third tactic – that of cutting expenditure wherever they can.
One way of reducing such costs is by reducing the wastage of resources. And one way businesses can reduce their costs is by making sure they don’t waste their hosting resources – after all money is money, and every single cent saved helps.
Therefore, let us look at 9 things to do that will help businesses save money on their hosting services:
- Reduce Disk Space Usage
Even when a hosting provider offers “unlimited disk space” it doesn’t mean it should be wasted. Files residing on a server take up space, and that in turn affects a website’s performance. Routine disk cleanings should be done to make sure files that are not being used (especially bulky image and media files) are deleted.
If there are files that were used for testing purposes, they should be deleted once the testing has been completed. Emails can quickly add up to take exorbitant space if they are not routinely cleaned out. If there is a need to keep backups of such files they can be downloaded and stored somewhere else. The same goes for unused theme files and templates.
- Reduce Scripts and Applications
Scripts and applications can greatly enhance the user experience; that goes without saying. But there should be an optimal balance between the number of such scripts and applications and the resources they use. After all, what is the use of having them all up and running if it kills the pages’ overall performance or loading times? Frustrated visitors will quickly move on if they are kept waiting more than they would care for.
Businesses should try to keep the number of scripts and applications to the bare and necessary essentials.
- Analysis Shouldn’t Interfere With Performance
Yes, businesses should monitor their websites’ performances to make sure they are doing the right thing and heading in the right direction. But the analysis tools shouldn’t take a bite out of the loading and performance speeds.
Whenever possible, analysis tools should be as light and less resource-intensive as possible. Otherwise, they will soon serve to show a drastic drop in the number of visitors.
- Separate Media Hosting
It is true that good websites offer as much information as possible to their visitors and that includes a video or audio file or two. But hosting those media files should never be done on the same server as the website itself.
Today when there are free media hosting sites out there that are optimized for sharing and embedding files it doesn’t make sense to place them on a web server.
Businesses that need to share such files can put them on sites like YouTube or ImageShack and embed links to them on their own websites.
- Reducing Page Sizes
The bigger a page on a website is the more bandwidth it consumes. And the more the number of user-visits on that page, the faster the bandwidth quota is diminished.
HTML is one of the lightest source codes a webmaster can ask for. A page with the most intricate of designs can be created without using more than a few hundred kilobytes. Even the most sophisticated of sites can be created with a couple of megabytes. With HTTP compression, they can be squeezed into smaller sizes.
- Denial of Uploading for Visitors
Business websites shouldn’t allow their visitors to upload images and videos to their sites. First, it doesn’t make resource usage sense (see point 5) and second, it could present a security risk to the website and the hosting provider as a whole.
- Hiding Comments
A popular article or blog post usually accumulates a large number of comments and at a rapid pace. If these numbers are allowed to continue to increase (especially when irrelevant and spam comments are allowed) they can be a huge drain on resources as they too load every time a page is called.
Comments should be disabled after a certain time. They can also be hidden unless the visitor specifically asks for them to be displayed to them.
- RSS Feed Outsourcing
One way businesses can stay in constant contact with their clients is by keeping them updated via RSS feeds. The only problem is, these feeds are bandwidth-intensive and can quickly drain allotted quotas.
Businesses should therefore opt for third-party RSS feed providers (FeedBurner is a good example).
- Looking for Coupons and Discounts
No business should be too proud to get down on the level of the masses and search for coupons and deals that will cut its hosting expenses. Web hosting providers usually have offers (even free ones, at times) and discounts that can be found with a little research. Providers even send out invites and emails asking their existing clients to take advantage of one promotion or another. While these emails may appear to be junk mail to those not using the providers’ services they should be carefully considered by existing clients.
These 9 points should help cut down on bandwidth and disk space usage if implemented directly. The cost saving, in the long run, will definitely be worth the time spent in doing so.
