Conduct a Web Hosting Audit for a Better Website |
Posted: January 8, 2025 |
Website has the ability to impact your business sales through brand awareness and accessibility. However, most people when considering a website for themselves ignore a fast yet a trustworthy web hosting platform. A quality Web hosting helps in understanding issues such as security loopholes, cost effectiveness and performance metrics. If you want to conduct a detailed web hosting audit, then follow the steps shared below: Check your Hosting Plan Check the hosting plan that you want to use. Is it fit enough for your website requirements? Can you scale it if needed. Things to Check Type of Hosting: Understand the hosting type. There are different types such as Shared plans, Virtual private servers, dedicated servers and a cloud hosting option. Resource Allocation: Check the storage, CPU/RAM allocation and the available bandwidth. Scalable: Isyour hosting plan able to handle the traffic fluctuations? What to Do?
In case your site is going through a slow loading process or a downtime, make sure to upgrade to a better plan that offers better resources. You can also try out a managed hosting company. 2. Check Website Performance
A fast website is important for retaining users and also has a positive impact on the site's SEO. There are performance testing tools that you can use to check the website's improvement areas. Which Tools to Use?
There are different online tools using which you can check your website's speed performance such as Google PageSpeed Insights Pingdom Website Speed Test GTmetrix Factors to Focus Website Page Loading Time: Make sure the website's page loads in a minimum of 3 seconds. Server Response Time: This needs to be less than 200ms. LCP or Largest Contentful Paint: This is a must for a quality user experience. What to do? You need to reduce image sizes, turn on browser caching and enable a Content Delivery Network for decreasing the page loading time. 3. Check Security Standards
A safe hosting option keeps your site from unwanted viruses And cyber security issues. Factors to Focus
SSL Certificate: Make sure the hosting provider includes SSL certificates for encryption of data. It has also become a ranking factor as far as a website's SEO is concerned. Security Firewall: Check if the hosting provider have the built-in firewalls Automated Backups: Does your Hosting provider include an auto backup option? DDoS Protection: Check for the DDoS protection and make sure the hosting provider includes it under the plan.l you are going to use for your website.
What to Do? Always sign up for the hosting provider that promises high-quality security features including SSL certificates, DDoS protection along with regular backups. 4. Check Website’s Uptime and Downtime Always emphasize your website's uptime since the downtime would badly affect user experience and its digital presence. Factors to Focus
Using Tools: There are different tools such as Pingdom to check for website's uptime as well as downtime. Uptime Guarantee: Also check your hosting provider's guarantee for uptime. It must be 99.99 or even 100%. What to Do? In case, the website is experiencing a consistent downtime, consult with your hosting provider or change to another option that offers a better uptime guarantee. 5. Consult with Technical Team Don't forget to check for a friendly and responsive customer support team. Since you may need to raise issues with them in the near future and this would help you from unnecessary downtimes and unattended issues. Factors to Consider Do they offer a 24/7 support network? What communication channels are available: chat , phone and email? What is the average response time? What to Do? Check your hosting provider’s response time by sharing some issue. 6. Calculating the Hosting Costs Always check for the best costs offered in the market. Compare with the different competitors providing similar options. Factors to Consider Renewal Cost vs. Starter Cost. Features such as backups, email addresses, SSL certificates, DDoS protection etc. Scalability. What to Do? Change to an yearly plan or a bundled offer to avail some discounts in the long run. 7. Check website’s compatibility Make sure the hosting platform’s environment is compatible with the technologies your website wants to use. Factors to Consider Must be compatible with the current PHP version. Must support CMS such as WordPress or another popular one. 1-Click installation: Make sure there is a 1-click installation for plugins and databases. What to Do? Always work with the latest PHP version compatible with the CMS of your website to enhance speed and safety. 8. Evaluate Redundancy and Disaster Recovery in case of an Emergency A hosting redundancy helps in keeping a website online even when the server goes down. Factors to Consider Redundant server framework Data Recovery Features Disaster Recovery in case of an emergency What to do? Always opt for hosting options that offer Redundant data centers for increasing hosting’s reliability. Wrapping Up
A website hosting audit sounds and seems like a technical process, however it's very critical to your website’s performance. Calculating the hosting plan, checking its performance and analysing the security features, you can enhance your website’s speed, reliability and the user engagement along with their experience.
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