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Brands, Drive More Blog Traffic with These 5 Video Ideas

Posted on March 8, 2019 by Hosting

The post Brands, Drive More Blog Traffic with These 5 Video Ideas appeared first on HostGator Blog . 5 Ways Brands Can Drive More Blog Traffic with Video Video content plays an integral role in people’s lives. According to a Wyzowl survey , respondents said on a typical day they watch 1.5 hours of video. Take advantage of this trend by adding video content to your blog. Explain how to cook a new recipe or earn their trust with a heartfelt confessional. It’s time to use video content to benefit your corporate blog. Here are five ways to drive more blog traffic. 1. Grab Attention Between breaking news and cute puppy GIFs, it may seem downright impossible to gain any attention from your audience. Video helps break up the monotony of text and adds a new flare to your blog. Before you spend countless hours shooting a video, it’s vital to understand what actually grabs your visitors’ attention. Do the research to learn what content appeals to them and how you can insert your own brand personality to the mix. Also, think about what emotions you want viewers to feel. Kimbe MacMaster , former manager of content marketing at Vidyard, explains: “Video is the most powerful way to evoke emotions online. It’s King because it offers a slew of attributes above and beyond traditional content like tone of voice, face expressions, and music, to name a few.” Stay away from superficial tactics to draw people to your video content. (So, no throwing a toilet off a five-story building.) Doing absurd stunts or saying ridiculous phrases will leave your audience confused and possibly upset. Instead, share a unique story about your brand , employees, or customers. Grabbing (and maintaining) your visitors’ attention starts with video storytelling.   2. Boost Engagement Enticing people to visit your blog is one hurdle to jump, but keeping visitors engaged requires another level of strategy. To avoid high bounce rates , your brand must continually captivate your audience’s time. Video is one solution to grow your engagement. Effective video marketing centers around information and entertainment. Today’s consumer enjoys learning something new and having fun in the process. Your short-term goal may involve getting the person to smile or laugh in the first 30 seconds of your video. By doing so, the viewer becomes comfortable and more willing to continue watching. In the video below, content unicorn Brittany Berger introduces her audience to the idea of repurposing content. The description even includes a link to a free download for viewers to further their engagement with her. Your team can execute a similar technique by driving YouTube viewers to your blog. It will inspire new visitors to explore about your brand, and you’ll have another high-quality traffic source.   3. Explain Concepts The Internet is a hub of information for people to learn everything from how to build a rooftop patio to how to pass a Calculus class. Using video to explain concepts is a surefire way to drive more visitors to your blog. “How-to videos catch viewers with prime buyer intent. They have a problem they want to solve or something they want to learn. It is up to you to show them how to do it…For example, explain to consumers how to tie a tie or show home cooks how to make certain recipes for your ingredient,” writes Anton Eliasson , director of marketing at Shakr. Retailer Lowe’s uses video to show its customers how to complete home improvement projects. In this example, the viewer learns the steps to building a raised garden bed. When creating how-to videos, think about your audience’s level of expertise. You may decide to segment your videos into beginner, intermediate, and advanced. Avoid forcing every little detail in your video. It’s perfectly okay to link to supplemental material, like a guide or checklist.   4. Answer Questions In this moment in time, online search engines help people find directions to a local grocery store, purchase movie tickets for the weekend, and recreate unicorn cakes with detailed recipes. If someone wants answers to their burning questions, most people respond with “Google it!” This simple response offers your brand an opportunity to create content for people seeking answers on search engines. Your videos will stand out if they offer immediate value. When creating a Q&A video, provide clear and concise answers. A long-winded response will only annoy your viewers and send them to another blog. Start with common questions answered by your customer support team. Don’t be afraid to think outside the box to differentiate your Q&As from the competition. AT&T gets creative with this format by posing a question and then answering it with a video. These short, original videos work well on social media channels.   Quick! What’s ∞ x ∞? Answer: https://t.co/6O3dGoCFHX #GalaxyNote9 pic.twitter.com/EvY0vSVuvw — AT&T (@ATT) August 9, 2018 You also can experiment with unrelated product questions. Enlist the help of your employees to answer silly questions about your brand culture. A little variety offers an appealing charm.   5. Build Trust People buy from companies they trust. Establishing trust means showing a genuine interest in your audience’s interests. Video makes it easier to build that authentic connection. Unlike text, video can translate into an intimate experience for viewers. If it’s an interview between experts, your audience can see the sentiment behind their words. So, how can your brand mix trust into your video production? For starters, be honest with your audience. Steer clear from using any misleading or false information in your content. Plus, disparaging your competitors isn’t a good idea; it only emphasizes your brand’s weaknesses. It’s also important to respect your viewers’ time. It shouldn’t take five minutes to explain the main point of your video. Nathan Ellering , head of marketing demand generation at CoSchedule, agrees: “Length is an important element of video (and definitely ties into distribution). Shorter videos tend to perform better. And if you do it right, you can create one video and share it in multiple different channels.” Try asking your loyal customers to participate in your video content. Their sincere experiences will be relatable to blog visitors, too.   Earn More Blog Traffic Video marketing is a powerful way to attract visitors to your blog. Video content holds readers’ attention, builds trust with your audience, and opens doors to more engagement. Upgrade your blog with video today. Get started by turning your current blog posts into videos. Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

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4 Best Free WordPress Themes for Photography Blogs

Posted on March 5, 2019 by Hosting

The post 4 Best Free WordPress Themes for Photography Blogs appeared first on HostGator Blog . A well-designed blog is a must, by definition, for photo bloggers, but professional photographers and Instagram addicts can benefit from having a photo blog, too. That’s because a blog that’s set up to show off images does more than connect bloggers and fans. A regularly updated blog also helps pro photographers keep their portfolio current and helps them rank better in search results. And photographers with a following on Instagram can use a blog to reach a wider audience with their images and build a list of prospects who may want to buy prints, products, or how-to know-how. To create a photo-friendly blog, you’ll need a theme that’s designed with images in mind. Here are four of our free favorite WordPress themes for photography blogs. 1. Camer Camer is an image-grid based theme from Blogging Theme Styles . Images on Camer’s pages only display text when site tap or mouse over them, which keeps visitors’ focus on your work, not your words. Camer’s layout for computer screens features a full-width text header above a 4-column image grid. On phones, Camer displays images in a single column. The free version of Camer is designed to work with Gutenberg, the new modular editor for WordPress that’s meant to make it easier for users without web design backgrounds to create and update their websites. Camer’s free version includes an unusually wide array of design options, such as five page templates, thirteen sidebar position options, a built-in menu for social media feeds, and more.   To get tools to let you adjust the width of each section on your pages, plus additional layouts, page templates, and sidebar positions, you can upgrade to Camer Pro ($49).   2. Himalayas Himalayas from Theme Grill is one of the most popular single-page themes around, and it’s a great option for photo bloggers who want to keep their site simple while showing off their best work. The full-width banner slider is followed by a blog section with featured images and text snippets and a portfolio section that’s all images with mouse-over/tap text display. There’s a built-in call-to-action button so you can invite your visitors to sign up for your newsletter, contact you to book a sitting, or visit your online store. Services and portfolio widgets help showcase your work, too. The pro version ($69) is WooCommerce compatible and includes Google fonts along with font size, color palette, and slider options not available in the free version.   3. Image Gridly Photographers can display their work and their words with Image Gridly from Superb Themes . The name probably gives away that the layout for this theme is an image grid. Unlike Camer (above) Image Gridly overlays titles on the lower third of each image, so users can see text related to each photo without having to tap or mouse over. Image Gridly’s desktop display includes a full-width banner photo with a three-column image grid below it. On smartphones, Image Gridly’s display has a full-width banner followed by featured post images displayed in a single column. Image Gridly’s free version is a great choice for showing off photography, but it lacks some of the features that other free themes include, like tools to customize the theme’s appearance, Google fonts , and speed and search optimization. Upgrading to the premium version (starting at $26) adds these features and tools.   4. Juliet Juliet is a minimalist, image-heavy, feminine theme from Lyra Themes that’s a solid choice for photo bloggers who enjoy writing about their work. It’s designed as a fashion blog theme, but the full-width image header followed by a 4-column row of featured images from different blog categories works for other types of photography, too. Juliet is responsive, WooCommerce compatible, and lightweight for fast image load times . The free version also gives you options for image and text logos, overlay colors for the banner, background color and image, sidebars, headers and footers, and two different skins. Although the free version has enough features to get most photo bloggers off to a strong start, the pro version ($35 plus $8/month for support and updates) has a lot to recommend it, like a lookbook template that could make a great portfolio tool, additional video display options, Jetpack-powered social media sharing tools, and an email subscription widget.   Picturing Your Ideal Photo Blog Theme Each theme publisher offers a live demo so you can see how their designs look and work on computers, tablets, and phones. However, it’s a good idea to try out the themes you like with your own blog content before you commit to one theme. As you try them out, ask yourself a few questions: How does the theme look with your content? Does the overall design of the theme work with the overall themes and mood of your photos? For example, a soft-looking theme like Juliet might be a great showcase for portrait photography but not so much for shots of brutalist architecture. Do you want to make money with your blog ? If you plan to sell prints of your work on your site, display ads, or set up a customer service chatbot to connect with potential clients, does the theme integrate easily with the tools you’ll need to use? How quickly does your site load with the theme installed? Images can dramatically slow down page load times, which can lead to lower search-results rankings, more bounces, and less traffic overall. Ideally, each page on your photography site should load in less than 3 seconds. Once you start using a theme, keep an eye on your blog’s bounce rate, the average length of time visitors spend on your site, and whether conversions are increasing, falling, or staying flat to get a sense of whether your theme is helping visitors get the most from your content. You can also listen for feedback from your visitors to see what they think of it. Do the images display properly for them? Can they navigate around the site easily? Use their questions and comments to get a clear picture of where the theme is working for you and where it may need improvement. Then, optimize your photo blog with these essential tools . Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

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Your 2019 Website Redesign Checklist

Posted on February 22, 2019 by Hosting

The post Your 2019 Website Redesign Checklist appeared first on HostGator Blog . The beginning of the New Year is a good time to make resolutions and commit to the work that often gets pushed aside during the busy year. For a lot of business owners, that includes redesigning your website. The website that was bright and shiny and looked just how you wanted it to a few years ago probably isn’t pulling its full weight anymore. Every website owner should periodically revisit their website’s design to look for opportunities to improve. How to Tell When It’s Time for a Website Redesign Taking on a website redesign project requires a commitment in time and money, which makes it easy to find excuses not to do it. But there are few compelling reasons that are good enough to squash those excuses and move forward in 2019 with a website redesign.   It’s been years. Web design best practices change. Just because your website was intuitive to visitors five years ago doesn’t mean it is now. And if you haven’t done a thorough update in a few years, you’re likely missing opportunities to get more out of your website based on current trends in SEO (search engine optimization), UX (user experience), and new technology. If your last website design project was years ago, at the very least you should do a thorough review to figure out if your website is currently meeting your needs or could use a makeover .   You’re not getting as many visitors as you’d like. If you’re not seeing much traffic, you should both step up your online marketing and look for ways to strengthen your website. A website redesign presents the opportunity to analyze any weaknesses in your current website and spot missed SEO opportunities, so you can create a version that will perform better in search and bring in more visitors.     Your visitors aren’t sticking around or returning. Getting visitors to your website doesn’t matter much if they immediately click away and never come back. A good website is designed to get visitors to stick around, click through to additional pages, and keep coming back for more. If your visitors aren’t doing that now, you’ll want to reconsider your website strategy and look for ways to redesign your pages to encourage longer and repeat visits with useful content and compelling CTAs (calls to action).   It doesn’t work on mobile. One of the top sins of web design in 2019 is having a website that’s awkward or difficult to use on mobile. Too many people do their web browsing on mobile devices now for you to get away with providing a bad mobile experience. If your website is hard to use on a small screen, visitors will click away and the search engines will punish you in the rankings. This is probably more urgent than any other item on this list. If your website isn’t mobile friendly , a website redesign project is imperative.   Your business strategy has changed. For business websites, a New Year means revisiting your business plan and considering if your overall strategy and goals need to change. Anytime your business embarks on a new strategy—developing a new unique value proposition (UVP), introducing a new product, deciding to target a new demographic, etc.—your website needs an update to bring it in line with your new approach.   You’re tired of the website you have. Really, this is a good enough reason on its own. If you’re no longer happy with the website you have—maybe you want different colors, think the design looks outdated, or have recently come across a few websites with designs you like more—that’s a good enough reason to change your website so it better matches what you really want.   10 Steps to Include on Your Website Redesign Checklist When launching a website redesign, you can cut down on a lot of guesswork and risk by spending time on research and planning. Here’s a ten-step checklist to help you get your website redesign right.   1. Clarify your goals. Before you start working out the details of your website redesign, define what you want to accomplish. Every website will have some main overarching goals, such as making sales or developing an engaged community. In addition, you may have a number of smaller goals that help you achieve your main ones, like increasing traffic or getting people to sign up for your email list. Write out a list of the main goals your website ought to achieve, and determine the priority levels of each so you know what to focus on in your website redesign. Where possible, assign specific metrics to track to each goal so you can better measure your success once your new website is up.   2. Analyze your website metrics. Dig into your website analytics to gain a clear understanding of what about your current website is working, and what isn’t. Your analytics will reveal insights about who your audience is, how they find your website, and what they do once there. Look for trends in the data that suggest the types of topics, CTAs, and design elements your audience responds to. And confirm that the audience you’re attracting now is the one you want to reach—otherwise, your website and marketing may need to take a different approach to get in front of the right people.   3. Develop a persona. While you definitely want your website redesign to produce a website you like, that’s actually less important than making sure your website appeals to your target audience. For your website to work for the people it’s really for, every decision about the website’s design needs to put them top of mind. A buyer persona is a basic sketch of the type of person you most want to reach. It typically includes demographic details, a description of their interests and online behavior, and notes on their common questions and problems. A persona lets you picture the person you’re building your website for, so it’s easier to get inside their head and make sure you center their experience in your approach to the design. 4. Do keyword research. Keyword research is both a crucial step in optimizing your website for the search engines, and a useful way to gain knowledge about what your audience is looking for and the language they most commonly use. Using the terminology your customers use is a helpful way to make the website more user friendly for them, and increases the chance that your site will show up in the search engines for the terms they’re looking for. For on-site optimization, choose a relevant, unique primary keyword for each page of your website, along with a couple of secondary keywords. Work them into the URL, title tag, headings, alt tag, and website copy—but always naturally, don’t try to force them in. Lots of keyword research tools are available to help identify the best keywords for each of your website’s main pages, and many of them are free. If you do content marketing, keyword research is also a valuable resource for finding the topics your audience cares about.   5. Do a content and SEO audit. A successful website redesign doesn’t require starting over from scratch—you can still use a lot of the pages you already have, but look for ways to make them better. A thorough SEO and content audit will reveal opportunities to make the content you already have on your website go further and get better results. In particular, in reviewing your current website, look for: Web pages that aren’t well optimized for search now Web pages that lack a clear CTA, or have one that isn’t getting results Opportunities to improve your site structure so it’s more intuitive for users through more useful categories or a clearer menu Successful content that can be repurposed into different formats Successful content that can be updated to better drive visitors to take the actions you want Underperforming content that can be improved upon for better results Broken links or other issues contributing to high bounce rates Content that no longer supports your goals, that your website is better off dropping While your content has little to do with your website’s visual design, incorporating it into your website redesign plan will ensure your new design supports your content—a crucial feature of a strong design.   6. Develop a style guide. A style guide is a helpful tool for clarifying the general look you want your website to have. If more than one person will be involved in your website redesign, it will keep everyone on the same page when it comes to the website’s primary design elements. Even if your website redesign will be completed by one person, it makes it easier to ensure each web page communicates a consistent visual brand. Your style guide doesn’t have to be something complicated. It can be as simple as defining your color scheme, choosing your typography, and addressing formatting choices. You can also include choices about the images to use, the button colors and styles to go with, and the proper icons to use (and not use). Whatever you decide to include, a simple style guide will serve as a handy reference point as you work to helps you achieve visual consistency throughout the site.      7. Find the right designer or website builder. With your basic research and strategy in place, the next step is deciding how you’re going to create you new website design. Your main two options are hiring a web designer or choosing a website builder. Each option has its advantages. Most notably, a web designer allows you more flexibility and control, while a website builder provides convenience and affordability. Whichever you’re leaning toward, take some time in this step to research your options. Hiring a web designer that’s a good fit for what you want is crucial to the overall success of your website redesign process. And choosing the best website builder for your needs will make the designing process easier and ensure you have all the features and functionality you need.   8. Consider UX. UX is the term used to describe design that centers the user experience. In other words, thinking through how your visitors will interact with your website in order to spot issues that may be confusing or difficult for them. For example, if a significant number of your visitors come to the site looking for kids’ products, then making sure you put a link to the Kids category of your website right in the menu makes it easier for people to find what you’re looking for. Other factors that influence UX include making sure your text and buttons are in colors that are easy to see, your fonts are easy to read, and your links are well sized for people on mobile. Before you settle on your new website design, go through it looking for any factors that could make it difficult or confusing for your visitors to take the actions you want them to take.   9. Prioritize the mobile experience. A mobile friendly website is a requirement in 2019. When you’re considering your website builder options, take into account whether they offer responsive templates that make creating a mobile friendly website easy. Or, when you’re interviewing designers, ask about their experience creating responsive websites. Double check how all your design elements look and work on mobile devices. A too-small button or link can make a website that otherwise seems fine basically unusable on mobile. You can’t treat mobile as an afterthought any more, it ought to be top of your mind throughout the website redesign process.   10. Do user testing . When you’ve finally got everything else on this list checked off and your website seemingly finished—don’t publish just yet. You’re never going to be as good at seeing your website the way your visitors will as someone who comes to it with fresh eyes. So find some customers or friends to help you test out your website. Ask them to complete a few main actions on the site, like making a purchase, filling out a form, or navigating to a particular product. Encourage them to do so on different types of devices and in different browsers. And make a note of anything they have trouble with, so you know what changes to make before you go live.   Launch Your New Website! Once you’ve checked off all ten steps, your new and improved website is ready for the public. Publish it to the web, but keep a close eye on your website analytics to see how it fares. You never want to assume a website redesign will accomplish everything you hoped. Track specific metrics based on your stated goals to see what’s working, and continue to make small tweaks to the design as you go based on what the data tells you. Your redesign is a great way to make your website go further in 2019 and beyond, but when it comes to website maintenance, your work is never entirely done.   Ready to transform your website? Contact HostGator’s Web Design team today. Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

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7 Things You Can Do with Gator Website Builder

Posted on January 28, 2019 by Hosting

The post 7 Things You Can Do with Gator Website Builder appeared first on HostGator Blog . Choosing the right website builder can be a little overwhelming. You’ve got a lot of options and reviewing the different features in each can lead to as much confusion as it does answers, especially if you’re new to building websites and don’t really know what you’re looking for. To help you out, we’ll explain seven useful things you can do with our new Gator Website Builder in clear terms anyone can understand—no confusing jargon for beginners or vague references to features you don’t really understand, just simple explanations of actions you can take once you invest in Gator. 1. Choose from hundreds of mobile-friendly designs. Part of what makes website builders easy to use is that you can start from a template—that’s a design that gets the basic structure and style of your website in place. Then all you have to do is change what’s there to bring it in line with what you want. Gator provides over 200 templates that have been designed by professionals that each: Are responsive , which means that the template can adapt to whatever browser or device size your visitors come from. You don’t have to do anything extra to make sure your website is mobile friendly, since you’ll be starting with a responsive design. Adhere to web design best practices. You don’t have to learn all the tips for what people respond to best in a website, because our designers have already done that and made sure your website design incorporates what works. Are useful for common website purposes . Whether you’re starting a small jewelry eCommerce business, building a website for your auto shop, or launching a photography blog , you can find a template designed with your purpose in mind. Having a good template to start with goes a long way to making the rest of the process of building your website easier. Gator has you covered on that front.   2. Personalize your website’s style and color scheme. With Gator’s intuitive editing software, you can easily change out the colors of your template to bring them in line with the color scheme you have in mind. Changing colors is as simple as clicking on the element you want to change, clicking on the color icon in the menu, and choosing your color. You can change the general layout of the page by clicking on “Change Design” and selecting from the options provided. You can change the background image, add in visual effects, or even bring an animation component in with the Style section. And you can move different parts of the page by clicking on the element you want to move, dragging it to the place you want it to be, and dropping it there. Even though you start from someone else’s design, you can quickly and easily make the website’s look and style your own with these intuitive features.   3. Load unique images, media, and copy. The other easy way to make the website your own is to add your original images and media to the site. Loading your own logo, photographs, or images you designed yourself is easy enough. You can use them to replace images already in the template, or drag them to the spot you want them to be in. You’ll also need to update the placeholder text in the template with words that accurately reflect what your website is all about and why your visitors should care. Simply highlight the text that’s there and type in new words. Or, to add text where there the template doesn’t have any yet, choose text in the Elements section of the menu and select either heading (for larger text that will introduce a section of the page) or paragraph (for smaller, longer blocks of text that provide more detail).   4. Easily find free stock photos. Images are a crucial component of any website. Not only do they make your web pages look better, but they play a big role in how people interact with them—to the degree that 80% are more likely to read your content if you include an image and they’re 64% more likely to remember what they read. But finding good, affordable images to use for your website can be a difficult and time consuming process. And it’s even more challenging if you’re hoping to stick with images you can use for free—unless you use Gator. Gator comes with dozens of stock images included. Each time you want to add an image to a page, you’ll have the option to click on a tab that says Stock Images, and browse photographs that are divided into useful categories. Easy access to a variety of high-quality images can make your life much easier when designing a new website.   5. Create and manage a blog. Blogs are useful for all sorts of websites. If you’re building a personal site, it’s a good way to share your thoughts with the world. For business sites, blogging is a powerful marketing tool. And for anyone who wants their website to be easy for visitors to find, it’s one of the best ways to help your website show up more often in Google . For anyone using Gator, adding and maintaining a blog is simple. You can choose your blog design and add new posts in the same menu you use for the rest of designing your website. Consistently writing really great blog posts that your visitors will love will still take time and work, but the technical side of things is taken care of when you use Gator.   6. Set up a store. Not everyone building a website needs eCommerce capability, but if you want the ability to sell products or services through your website and securely accept payment, then these features are a must. In Gator, a simple upgrade enables you to list your products, include a shopping cart, and set up a secure checkout experience for your customers. If you want your website to start making you money fast, Gator provides all the functionality you need without requiring any special skills.   7. Track your visits and visitor actions. If you want your website to be successful, you should pay attention to how people interact with it. Gator puts useful website analytics right in the same dashboard you use for the rest of your web design and management, including: The number of people who have visited your site How many of them are visiting for the first time (unique visitors) How many different page visits you got (which tells you how many visitors went to more than one page while on your website) And how many visitors clicked away soon after coming to your website (your bounce rate ) That information will help you understand if your website is doing what you want it to . If you’re not getting as many visitors as you want, you can figure out the best online marketing strategy to make it easier for people to find you. And if people aren’t sticking around or taking the actions you want once they’re on the site, you know to change up how your site looks or what your pages say to see if you get better results.   Get Your Website Going with Gator Website Builder Gator provides advanced capabilities accessible with a beginner’s level of knowledge. And it’s not only affordable, with plans starting at $3.95 a month, but it also comes with web hosting included in the price. That saves you time and trouble, while helping you get your awesome new website up ASAP. Build your website with Gator now. Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

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Benefits of Using Web Hosting

Posted on November 29, 2018 by Hosting

The post Benefits of Using Web Hosting appeared first on HostGator Blog . If you want to get a website online, then you’re going to need web hosting . Without a web host, there’s no way for your visitors to actually access your website. Still, if you’re just getting started with building a website , you might be wondering exactly what web hosting is, and how it can benefit you? Besides the obvious benefit of being able to have a website, of course. Below you’ll learn how web hosting works , the distinct benefits of web hosting services , as well as the overall benefits you’ll receive when you decide to use a quality web host for your site. What is Web Hosting? Essentially, web hosting is a service offered by hosting companies. They host your website’s files so that they’re accessible on the internet. Think of it like this. You’ve got a ton of different files on your computer, and if you want to access them you just open up the file. But, if you wanted to show this file to someone else they’d have to be in the same room, of you’d have to send them the files. In this metaphor, your web hosts act as the sender. All of your site’s files are stored on your hosting company’s server. Then, whenever a visitor types in your domain name, the server sends these files to the web browser. Your website is just a collection of different files and media elements, like photos. So, you rent a space on a web server and store all of your files there. Your web host will also provide you with things like server maintenance, support, email accounts, and lot more. They’ll also provide you with tools that allow you to easily manage your server, even without technical skills. Once you’ve purchased hosting, uploaded your site’s files to the web server, and pointed your domain name towards your hosting account, you’ll have a website accessible to anyone in the world. There are multiple forms of web hosting available to you. Even though there are many types of hosting, not every style will be suited for your website. Review the following list to determine what type of web hosting you need.   Shared Hosting Shared hosting is the most popular form of hosting, and probably the best fit for most website owners. One of the biggest advantages of shared hosting is that it’s incredibly cheap. If you have little to no budget, you can still make shared hosting work for you. The reason it’s so affordable is that you’re sharing server resources with hundreds to thousands of other sites. So, instead of paying for the entire server yourself, you’ll be splitting the check. Not only is shared hosting is very easy to use, but since it’s oriented towards beginners, it’s one of the simplest hosting environments to set up.   VPS Hosting VPS hosting is a very different style of hosting. It uses a technical process called virtualization to create a virtual dedicated server. However, it still pulls resources from multiple physical servers that you’re sharing with other people. The biggest benefit of VPS hosting is that you have access to much greater levels of server resources. So, your site performance will improve across the board. Plus, you have the ability to scale your server resources up or down as you see fit.   Dedicated Hosting With dedicated hosting , you’re renting an entire physical server. This means no sharing of resources with other users. As a result, the costs of dedicated hosting will be much more expensive. But, having an entire server completely to yourself offers you incredible levels of performance and storage. Plus, you have the ability to completely customize your server to help get the most out of your website. Dedicated server hosting probably won’t make sense for most website owners until they’re getting massive volumes of traffic.   Cloud Hosting Cloud hosting is unique in that you’re using virtual hardware. Your entire hosting environment lives in the cloud. This relatively new style of hosting has immensely grown in popularity for a few reasons. To start, it’s cost-efficient. With cloud hosting, you only pay for the server resources you actually use. So, if your traffic is variable month by month, you won’t be paying for a high level of server resources when you don’t even use them. It also has incredible reliability. If a cloud server cluster isn’t functioning properly, your site will be moved to another server on the network. Essentially, cloud hosting offers you the ultimate in flexibility and cost-effectiveness. Plus, it has incredible uptime and can offer you unparalleled performance.   Managed WordPress Hosting The final type of hosting you’ll come across is WordPress hosting . It’s exactly like it sounds: hosting for WordPress websites. The most common form of WordPress hosting is WordPress managed hosting. With this, you’ll get a server environment that’s 100% optimized to run on WordPress. This has the advantage of being more secure, helping you get the best performance out of your site, without having to handle any technical maintenance tasks yourself. With WordPress managed hosting you’re essentially hiring a team of WordPress experts to manage your server for you, and help you get the best levels of performance possible. If your site runs on WordPress and you’re out of the initial growth stage, then investing in this style of hosting is a great idea.   The Benefits of Web Hosting Services The right kind of web hosting plans can offer your site a lot. Without the proper web host, you run the risk of having a site that loads slowly (or not all), ruins your chances of ranking, and a lot more. However, choosing a high-quality host can help you avoid the tragic fate above. There are many reasons why web hosting is important ; it’s a service that is high-quality, reliable, and professional . Here’s a list of the largest benefits a rock-solid hosting provider can provide for your website.   1. Improved Site Performance When it comes to succeeding online your site’s performance matters a lot. In fact, you only have a few seconds to capture your visitor’s attention before they leave your site and never return again. If your site takes forever to load, then your visitors aren’t going to stick around. Not only that, but your site’s performance also affects your search engine rankings. With slow loading speeds your site will measure poorly in user experience metrics, which can influence how high your site ranks in search. With a high-quality web host, loading speeds won’t be an issue for you. Now, you could have a very high performing host and your site could be optimized poorly, but once you fix your website’s slow loading times, you should find your site loads incredibly fast.   2. Outstanding Technical Support If you’re providing products or services through your website, then you realize the importance of timely and helpful customer support. Your hosting company should be no different. Imagine you’re in the middle of a big launch; everything is going fine until your site mysteriously goes offline. What do you do now? Every moment you’re offline is costing you sales. Hopefully, you can turn to your hosting provider’s support staff and they’ll be able to bring your site back online as quickly as possible. If you don’t have the technical skills yourself, then your hosting provider will be like the technical team member you never had.   3. Domain-Associated Email Address If you want to look professional, then you’re going to need a branded email address that uses your domain name. For example, if your domain is “newdomain.com”, then you’ll want an email address that says “mark@newdomain.com”. If you’re reaching out to customers and clients via email, the last thing you want is to use your regular Gmail address. When you use a quality host service provider you’ll have the ability to create your own domain-specific email address. Some hosts limit you to one, while others will allow you to create an unlimited number of domain-specific email addresses. This allows you to look professional when reaching out to people via your website. Most hosts also have a number of email management tools built-in as well. For instance, you’ll be able to check, send, and receive emails, as well as set up email forwarders, so you can manage your emails from your preferred email provider.   4. Improved Website Security Website security is something that a lot of website owners never think about. Although having a 100% secure website is nearly impossible, you never really know where the next threat is going to come from. You can still take steps to ensure your website is as secure as possible . The foundation of your website’s security begins with your host service provider. After all, this is where all of your site’s files are going to be stored. A quality host will have multiple levels of security in place. For starters, you have the actual physical datacenter, which will be protected. Then you have any necessary firewall protection on the servers themselves. Finally, depending on what kind of web hosting services you have, you’ll have security measures in place that protect your site from other sites using the same server. As you can see that’s a lot of steps to secure your site. Then, you have everything you can do on top of that to secure your own website. This will involve things like locking down your login screen, installing spam software, changing up user permissions, or even installing one of many security plugins to help enhance your existing security. Hopefully, your host also has regular website backups in place. You might not ever need to use them, but if your site does get hacked, you can just restore to a previous version of your site, instead of having to start over from scratch. These can also come in handy if you accidentally take down your site by editing any of the core files. Instead of having to troubleshoot every little thing, you can just restore your site from a previously saved backup.   5. High Reliability and Uptime When you’re trying to find the right hosting company, you’ve probably come across the term uptime. It’s actually incredibly important. Your site’s uptime is how often your site will actually be online. You’re probably thinking, “I want it online all the time,” and that’s a natural response. However, most hosts have a clause in the hosting contract that specifies the percentage of time that your site will be online. For most hosting companies this number is 99.9%. That small percentage of time when your site is offline is when things like server repairs, updates, and maintenance are done. If you’re choosing a host because of its high uptime, you’ll want to make sure this claim is valid. The online reviews that speak to downtime will say a lot, and so will their guarantee. Some hosts will even offer payment credits for any time that your site is offline outside of the guarantee. Regardless, a hosting company with high uptime can be very beneficial to your bottom line. After all, people can’t buy your products or services when your site is offline. As you can see, the right web host can bring a lot of benefits to your website. While the wrong host will only make your success online that much more difficult.   Closing Thoughts Beyond the main benefit of helping you get your website live on the internet, web hosting carries a lot of other benefits as well. Hopefully, you have a better understanding of how you can take advantage of these by choosing a high-quality hosting provider. Keep in mind that the type of hosting you settle on should be what’s best for your current website needs. You can always switch packages, or upgrade your hosting in time. Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

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