Why is my website so slow despite network management measures?

Websites are an integral part of running a business today. Having a reliable, user-friendly site is critical for attracting and serving customers.

There are infinite ways to build, host and maintain a website. So does it matter where you host your business’ website?

As with anything in business, location is everything and it matters in web hosting, too. Why? Because having an engaging website that is fast, secure and dependable matters.

You may not be thinking that right now, if your website is live and seems to be running fine. But think back to any moments when your web site is down. Or think to the future of if your website did go down. A down website, quite frankly, can mean a loss of revenue.

Not only that, but if your website is slow, that could drive away customers who aren’t willing to wait for your site to load. Plus, if your website doesn’t load correctly that could cause customers to lose confidence in your services.

When thinking about launching or upgrading your business’ website, think about the customer’s point-of-view. Customers don’t think about the website they’re looking at traveling from a server in Mexico or everything that has to go right for the site to load on their browser. They just want it to work and work quickly.

That perspective makes it crystal clear why choosing a web hosting provider is so important to the success of your business.

What is web hosting?

web hosting service provides technologies and assistance needed for a webpage to be viewed on the Internet. Special computers – called servers – host, or store, websites and help funnel that information to a customer’s computer. Web hosting offers varying amounts of data transfers, storage, email, and other features.

Quality hosting also involves providing plenty of bandwidth to support the site, a fast network to operate the website quickly, a reliable system that can support every element of your website and airtight servers that protect any proprietary or consumer data.

On average, a web page has 20 elements on it. Every element of a website has to go from server to computer, and on a good day, it takes 1.5 seconds to load a site.

But the human brain makes decisions in seconds. So if it takes longer than that for your website to load, you may have already lost a customer. Since the Internet travels close to the speed of light, loading a website in 1.5 seconds isn’t impossible. A round trip on the Internet from Virginia to California is 90 milliseconds.

Setting high standards for your web hosting provider isn’t asking too much.

Things to think about when looking for a web host

Business owners should rank customer service among their highest priorities when selecting a web host. Having access to a knowledgeable IT professional from a big box hosting site may be an issue. With a larger web host, you may not know where your web site is actually housed (ZZ Servers has datacenters on the East Coast and West Coast, making it easier to serve clients anywhere in the country).

Business owners should also consider the type of hosting they may need: shared, virtual private server (VPS) or dedicated. The other factor is whether your hosting needs may change as your business evolves and grows. Web hosts don’t necessarily offer all types of hosting, so scalability is something to bear in mind.

A secure hosting site that guards your website against malware and external attacks is critical. A web host should also regularly back up your data and make it easy to restore in case your site is breached.

ZZ Servers offers shared hosting as well as VPS and dedicated servers to meet the needs of a variety of businesses from small to large, and any business with compliance requirements. Shared web hosting involves multiple websites hosted on the same physical server. ZZ Server’s VPS servers give customers root access control, while offering an unlimited number of domains, email and more.

Dedicated servers, which store only your website, are a great option for demanding applications, databases, mail and web servers.

Bottom line: having a web host that offers a reliable website that loads quickly could mean the difference between a customer choosing to make a purchase with your company or surfing the Internet for an easier website to use. That’s why web hosting matters.