Whether you’re stating your very first WordPress website, or already have a successful online presence, one of the most important elements for digital success is speed. Unfortunately, most WordPress hosting providers understand that this is one of the most desired attributes of a hosting service, so many of them falsely proclaim their speed.
When you’re scouring the marketplace for a functional and fast WordPress hosting provider, it’s easy to become overwhelmed by all the different marketing phrases proclaiming their solution is the fastest available. Because of this, it feels almost impossible to ensure that you find a WordPress hosting provider who actually lives up to its promise of lightening-fast page load times.
If you don’t feel like taking a change, and want to safeguard your investment, take a few minutes and read our tips on how to make sure you find a fast, reliable and secure WordPress hosting provider.
The Speed of Traffic – Current Website Visitor Quantities
One of the most important elements to consider when selecting a WordPress hosting provider is understanding how many daily and monthly visitors your site either currently has or is expected to have.
If this is your very first website, then you can expect your daily and monthly traffic to be relatively low. However, if you’re transferring an already-popular WordPress site to a new hosting provider, make sure you have these metrics handy.
So, why is it important?
Just like a highway, the more traffic that the roadways experience, the slower the average speed. However, if you take this same amount of traffic and transfer it from a two-lane highway to an eight-lane interstate, then traffic-flow will speed up. The same concept is true when dealing with website traffic.
When reviewing WordPress hosting providers, see what their limit is for bandwidth. Even those who proclaim to have “unlimited” bandwidth typically don’t mean actual unlimited. Make sure the hosting provider offers ample space for current traffic, as well as future growth. Also, review their upgrade options for traffic bandwidth. The last thing you want to encounter is being faced with a mountain of fees because you went over your monthly traffic allotment.
The Location of Performance – Physical Server Location
When an end-user requests your website, their browser must communicate with the physical web server. The further away the server is from your target audience, the slower the website performance.
If you’re mainly targeting a local audience, try and select a WordPress hosting provider with servers near this location. If your audience is global, make sure the hosting provider offers a CDN, or Content Delivery Network, option. Without going into much detail, CDN’s are a network of servers located throughout the world that store copies of your website. So, instead of retrieving your website data from a far-away server, a CDN automatically connects the end-user with a server that’s close to their physical location.
Final Thoughts on Choosing a Fast WordPress Host
Ultimately, it’s up to you to do your research to determine the fastest WordPress hosting provider for your unique platform. Check out online forums and perform a speed test, such as with Dotcom-Tool’s, from a website that’s hosted by your prospective hosting provider.
