When selling products or services online, your website is the foundation of your operation. It’s the interface through which you attract potential customers and clients, keep them engaged, and compel them to take steps toward reaching out, making a purchase, or signing up for future emails.
Is your web hosting and maintenance plan keeping you from reaching these goals? If so, consider upgrading.
Your web hosting and maintenance service should provide reliability, security, and scalability, growing with you and your business as it expands.
In this article, we share clear signs that it’s time to upgrade your hosting plan and give your site the resources it needs, now and in the future.
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Key Signs It’s Time to Upgrade Your Website Hosting Plan
“Your website is the center of your digital ecosystem, like a brick and mortar location, the experience matters once a customer enters, just as much as the perception they have of you before they walk through the door.”― Leland Dieno
Source: Pexels
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Your bounce rates are increasing
Your website performance is essential for maintaining high conversion rates and minimizing bounce rates.
According to Google Consumer Insights, 53% of mobile website visitors leave a web page when it takes more than just 3 seconds to fully load.
Additionally, 70% of website users have noted that site speed affects their willingness to buy from an online platform. Plus, website conversion rates drop by an average of 4.42% for every extra second of loading time required.
These statistics clearly show how important your website’s speed is for retaining and converting leads.
Slow loading times frustrate visitors, who may abandon your site before they can view your content or browse your offerings.
When your visitors bounce like this, you lose web traffic. More concerningly, you will also be missing out on valuable leads and potential sales.
Search engines like Google also consider your page loading speeds when ranking your website. If your site takes too long to load, your search rankings and brand visibility could suffer.
If your website is slow to load, your hosting provider is likely one of the culprits. Factors like outdated website hosting and maintenance technologies, sub-optimal server optimization, crowded servers, and shared hosting platforms can all affect your website.
If your loading speed is sluggish at best, consider switching to a website hosting plan that prioritizes speed. Many plans use performance-optimizing technologies and isolated container tools to increase loading times and enhance user engagement rates.
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You’re experiencing regular periods of downtime
Website downtime can limit your sales, drive away leads, and hurt your business’s reputation.
If your website experiences ongoing downtime and server resource limitations, consider upgrading your web hosting plan.
This issue is particularly common with shared hosting plans that allocate limited server resources to your site. This could be why your site goes down regularly or you receive warnings about exceeding your memory or CPU usage.
Source: Pexels
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You’re dealing with maintenance challenges
As your business and website grow, your site may become more complicated to optimize, manage, and maintain.
If you struggle to keep up with software updates, manage your site’s server administration needs, or rectify technical problems, you might need a website hosting plan designed to handle these tasks for you.
Many hosts offer website hosting and maintenance plans that include access to a team of experienced IT technicians.
These professionals can provide you with support to help you maintain your site. They may also handle everyday website management tasks for you. This gives you additional time to focus on other important business operations.
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You need a scalable website
Every eCommerce website’s ultimate goal is growth. When your traffic rates begin to rise, this increase in visitors could translate to more leads, conversions, and sales for your business.
As exciting as this prospect is, your website needs to be able to support this growth to ensure you can scale sustainably.
If your web traffic rates are climbing, consider opting for an upgraded hosting plan that offers flexibility and scalability.
Options like dedicated hosting and VPS (Virtual Private Server) that allow you to scale your site’s resources as needed are incredibly popular, with the VPS market expected to grow to $8.3 billion by 2026.
These hosting options ensure you can prepare for your business’s future growth and welcome more visitors without risking downtime or poor website performance.
Source: Freepik
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You need a more secure hosting solution
Data breaches have increased by more than 200% over the past decade and cost an average of $4.88 million. Cybercrime and data loss threats are growing yearly, making enhanced security features and frequent backups essential for eCommerce businesses.
Basic shared hosting plans don’t always provide the level of security needed to actively manage and mitigate these threats.
If you want to implement proactive threat monitoring for your website, upgrading to a managed hosting plan is a smart decision.
These plans often include strict and sophisticated security features like vulnerability scans, malware detectors, and firewalls. These features work together to keep your site safe and protect your visitors and customers.
FAQs
1. What are the signs that I should upgrade my website hosting plan?
If your website’s loading speeds are slow, you don’t have the time or technical skill to maintain it, or you need a more secure site, these are signs that you should upgrade your plan. Consider upgrading if you need a website that can grow as your business does.
2. Which website hosting and maintenance plans are the best for saving me time?
Managed web hosting plans are ideal for saving you time and effort. Most of these plans include complete website management services, which allow you to focus your time and energy on other tasks and projects.
3. Which hosting factors can impact my website’s loading speeds?
Factors like poor server optimization, overcrowded web servers, shared hosting platforms, and outdated maintenance systems can negatively impact your website’s speed and performance.
In Summary
“Websites promote you 24/7: No employee will do that.”– Paul Cookson.
Upgrading your website hosting plan can have notable benefits for your business and your visitors. The right plan can simplify your website hosting and maintenance responsibilities, increase your conversion rates, optimize your website’s security, and allow your site to scale seamlessly as your business grows.
It can also provide your leads with a faster, more reliable, and more secure experience, making the customer journey from your front page to the checkout memorable.
If your bounce rates are high, you’re experiencing frequent downtime, or you need a more secure, scalable, and easy-to-manage site, upgrade your website hosting plan for a more comprehensive solution.
Author Bio
A freelance editor, gamer, cat mommy, and self-care advocate, Ida Ohlsson enjoys simple pleasantries in life like an afternoon stroll or sipping morning tea while reading her favorite book. She takes pleasure in reading and writing topics that promote wellness and a healthy lifestyle.
