Checklist Before Selecting a Web Hosting for WordPress

web host checklist
Selecting a web hosting for a fully-fledged WordPress site is a crucial decision.

There are gobs of factors to consider while opting for a web hosting provider for your web business.

You need to ensure whether your selected web host is reliable, secure and fast or not.

Whether your website is small or big, make sure you choose a good host that can provide you all the necessary services and support to run a successful web business.

So, here, in this post, we will share a comprehensive checklist that every WordPress website owner should consider before choosing a perfect web host for them.

Let’s get started!

1. Analyze your business needs
You can’t start this process without analyzing your business/website’s specific needs. Make sure that what your website demands in terms of usability, scalability, and extensibility. With these concepts in mind, you should consider the Disk Space, Bandwidth and Processing capability of your site.

These aspects can help you manage your site in case your website starts driving a huge number of web traffic, or when your web business grows up. So, ensure that you use the maximum values for these three elements before selecting a web hosting provider.

2. Assess the WordPress hosting requirements
Since WordPress is a lightweight script, it can work pretty well with all the reliable web hosting companies. But, still, there are some requirements that every WordPress site owner should be aware of:

You host should support PHP version 7 or greater
MySQL version 5.6 or greater
Support for HTTPS

Plus, your web host should support for one-click WordPress installation option to let you get started with ease.

3. Choosing the good web hosting type for your WordPress
Since there are multiple types of web hosting options available on the web, make sure you choose the most suitable server for your WordPress site.

Below are the three different types of web hosting options that will help you make the final decision quickly and easily.

a) Shared Web Hosting
In shared web hosting, lots of websites share a single web server at one place. It is one of the most affordable types of web hosting, which is very popular among beginners. The shared hosting providers offer their services on the same server where multiple sites are served together.

This means there is a disadvantage of getting limited disk space and bandwidth that could cause a downtime. It can also make your site slow, which is not good for SEO. So, shared hosting is an ideal solution for those who have small website with limited requirements and for WordPress beginners.

(b) WordPress VPS Hosting
VPS (Virtual Private Server) refers to a virtual machine where you share the resources of a physical server with other “members. Since it is quite expensive as compared to shared hosting, there won’t be as many websites on a VPS system.

Plus, most of the VPS hosting systems are set up with reseller accounts so you can run multiple sites for your clients.

Under this, you will get more control, more privacy and more resources as compared to shared hosting. It is a perfect solution for mid-sized websites and intermediate users who want to scale up their site’s bandwidth as their web traffic grows.

(c) Dedicated Server Hosting
Dedicated is a great hosting plan for those who receives massive numbers of web traffic. Under this method, your website will be the host on a single server that allows you to leverage all the dedicated resources, personalized capabilities, performance-driven features and a lot more.

Although the cost of dedicated servers is high, you will get an opportunity to enjoy unlimited bandwidth and disk space feature.

(d) Managed WordPress Hosting
Most of the web hosting companies offer managed WordPress hosting to let you host your site on a well-managed server, dedicated only for WordPress sites. You don’t need to worry about anything under this type of hosting. They will optimize your site for speed, security, server space. They even offer regular backups and updates support to let you run a site, without any hassle.

4. Check the Security capabilities
No matter what type of site you are hosting, make sure your hosting provider offers you a safe and secure web environment. Having secure server capabilities let you run your site without a hint of a worry.

So, make sure you opt for a web hosting provider that can render you all the security-enabled features, offer regular updates, and protect your site from getting hacked.

Even, they also help you find the best third-party solutions whenever you try to download or install a theme or plugin. So, do a proper research in terms of security while choosing the best option for your WordPress site.

Tip: If you want a secure server environment, then opt for dedicated or VPS hosting servers. They are more secure as compared to shared hosting.

5. Look for performance-optimized solutions
Since speed is a crucial part of a successful website, you should check whether selecting a web hosting provider offers speed optimized solutions or not. Choose a web hosting provider that has at least T3 Internet connection.

Also, ensure that your web host helps you serve a web page in a matter of 3 seconds – web visitors abandon a website if it takes more than 2 seconds to load.

In fact, Google prefers fast loading websites while determining its ranking on SERPs. So, make sure that your web host offers you well-optimized performance capabilities to let you boost your page loading speed.

6. Ask for the Disk and Bandwidth Space they can offer
Although most of the websites use maximum 10 to 15 megabytes of space, it is always better to ask for some extra space. With an additional space, you can think of expanding your business across for your targeted web audiences.

So, ensure that your web hosting provider offers you unlimited disk space and unlimited bandwidth. You can also buy extra space from your web host in case your site unexpectedly driving a huge amount of web traffic. You can opt for Bluehost or Dreamhost if you want to enjoy unlimited server space for your WordPress site.

7. Technical Support
Being a WordPress beginner, you should always look for a web hosting company that can provide you powerful and 24*7 technical support – no matter what’s the main issue. The support team should solve all your queries related to WordPress installation, server management and other technical aspects.

8. Email Services
Always choose a web host that can render you full email services regarding your WordPress site. The email services including POP mailboxes, along with limitless email aliases. In fact, some of the reputed companies offer IMAP technology to let you control your messages the way you want.

Conclusion
Selecting a web hosting and most reliable web hosting solution for a WordPress site can be a real pain if you don’t carry a checklist with you. With the help of this checklist, you can choose the best option for your WordPress site with ease.

All you need to do is to analyze your business needs, check the WordPress requirements, choose the best type of web hosting server and ensure other crucial features before making the buying decision.

Author Bio
Catherrine Garcia is a passionate blogger and a freelance Web Developer. She along with her group of freelance developers, are experts of creating Websites on CMS.