For any business seeking to grow with an advanced online presence, choosing the right host for your website is a vital concern.
But as soon as you set foot — or rather, Google search — into the wide world of web hosting, things tend to get overwhelming right out of the gate.
Managing a website is more than just having a home for your domain. And even once you narrow your hosting choice down to something like WordPress, there is still a multitude of options to take into consideration.
WordPress is a popular choice for business sites, offering a plethora of features and incredible versatility. But along with that adaptability comes responsibility.
That responsibility is one of the main reasons why many entrepreneurs turn to managed hosting.
What Is Managed Hosting?
Hosting packages take a variety of forms. A good place to start is the absolute necessity: a home for your website, accessible to the public, with room for all of your basics.
After that, the options start to open up, and you can start to construct your unique package of choice, by adding services and features.
Those services and features take the onus of responsibility off your hands, to a certain extent. That’s what makes it a managed hosting package.
Managed hosting differs from one provider to the next, depending on what the provider is able to offer and their particular audience. But the goal of all managed hosting is ultimately the same: to relieve some of the responsibility and transfer it to the managers.
Typical transfers of responsibility include the considerations of overall site management and maintenance, performance, and security.
This breaks down to the technical aspects of a WordPress site, rather than focusing specifically on the content. The host of your choice houses your site on its server. Technical considerations like updating and maintaining best-performance plug-ins and backing up your content are now the responsibility of your host.
By sharing this job, it also gives you the resources you need in order to keep your site at top loading speed and handle any sudden spikes in traffic.
This type of support is typical of many hosts, and when done well, it basically fulfills the function of a dedicated IT department, removing much of the need for hiring extra help. The clear benefit of managed hosting shows up in the fact that you don’t have to worry about those technical aspects, both your own possible lack of knowledge or time and the financial burden of hiring it out.
This third-party service takes up the responsibility of maintaining technical aspects of your business site, from the lowest, most basic level, to the highest.
Ultimately, the goal of managed hosting is to leave you free to focus on the more important aspects of your business.
What Is Managed WordPress Hosting?
We’ve covered managed hosting packages in a more general way, but what about specifically managed hosting for WordPress?
The obvious benefit of choosing a dedicated managed WordPress hosting provider is their familiarity with the features and concerns of WordPress. Because of the wide range of resources that WordPress brings to the table, an expert in managed WP hosting will be more capable of leveraging the strengths of the software. They will also be conversant with potential security issues, and know-how to best build your site’s technical function around the framework of WordPress programming. This results in a faster site, using fewer server resources.
All of this sounds great, right? That means that you’re probably waiting for the other shoe to drop.
The main downside to managed hosting plans is that they can run a bit steeper, price-wise, than other types of hosting.
But as we’ve covered here, the benefits to choosing managed hosting really do outweigh the cost. Not only do you not have to worry about your own potential lack of expertise regarding WordPress hosting, the lower cost of managed hosting replaces the higher cost of hiring an independent IT resource.
And managed hosting frees up your time, so you can focus on more important aspects of your business than just technicalities. One of the main benefits is actually a reduction in business-related stress!
As experts in this field, we advise that you invest time in comparing managed hosting providers in order to ascertain which will be the best resource for you and your business. This includes educating yourself on the process from the ground up to the finished product, including site migration and site redesign.
At Jones and Jones Advertising, we’ve compiled the most helpful resources available in order to cut out all the legwork, and we can provide knowledgeable assistance in choosing the web hosting that fits the bill. Contact us today!