While service providers offer the same range of hosting solutions (shared, VPS, dedicated servers and the cloud), no two hosts are the same. This means there are significant differences in the quality of web hosting and in the features and tools available to customers. Given that reliable web hosting is essential if businesses are to maintain an online presence, protect their users’ data and provide customers with excellent experiences, choosing a low-quality hosting solution can have far-reaching consequences. In this post, we take a detailed look at the hidden impact of bad web hosting.
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Downtime dangers
Web hosting related downtime can be caused by several factors, including server failures, network or software issues, cyberattacks and overloaded servers. When these problems occur and websites go offline, it can significantly affect a business’s reputation and its income. Even short periods of downtime can result in lost sales, increased bounce rates and a loss of customer trust.
In addition, search engines see frequent downtime as a sign of unreliability, and this can lead to poor ranking in search results. For some businesses, downtime can also disrupt internal operations and increase customer support costs.
To avoid choosing an unreliable web host, businesses should look for a provider that offers guaranteed uptime levels of 99.9% or more and which backs this up with a Service Level Agreement (SLA). Hosts will only offer these high uptime guarantees if they are confident in their ability to keep their customers’ websites online and this means they will have invested in robust infrastructure, redundant data centres and IT expertise.
The importance of speed
Slow-loading websites can negatively affect both user engagement and conversion rates. In an age when users expect sites to load instantaneously, frustrated visitors will quickly abandon sluggish sites and take their custom elsewhere, often never returning. Site speed is also a key ranking factor for search engines, which means poor performance can result in lower rankings and consequently, even fewer visitors.
Moreover, a slow-loading site can affect how customers perceive a business. They may see it as unprofessional, reducing the likelihood of them making a purchase or enquiry, or even see it as untrustworthy or non-secure.
While slow loading times are often caused by factors unrelated to a web host (e.g., too many plugins or data-heavy images), hosting-related speed issues can be the result of outdated hardware or limited bandwidth. For faster loading times, look for a host that provides high-speed Intel Xeon CPUs, SSD or NVMe drives, unmetered bandwidth and optimised servers.
For more information, read: How Hosting Choice Affects Website Performance and Core Web Vitals
Security shortcomings
Given the growing threat of cyberattacks, website security is vital. Hacking and malware attacks can result in downtime, data loss, data theft and software corruption and lead to websites being taken over and used for malicious purposes, including theft from customers.
The impact of a cyberattack can be catastrophic, many businesses fail as a result, while others suffer financially, lose customers and risk fines for non-compliance with data protection laws like GDPR.
Web hosts need to invest heavily in security tools and expertise to protect their customers and this is why many free and budget providers lack adequate security measures, leaving their customers vulnerable to attacks.
Good web hosts will implement a range of security measures, including firewalls, intrusion and malware detection tools and DDoS protection. Additionally, they will offer SSL certificates, data encryption, automated backups, spam, phishing and malware email filters and state-of-the-art tools like Imunify360.
Keep up to date with security, read: Essential Security Measures to Protect Your Digital Operations
Hidden impact on SEO
SEO is vital for online visibility, and good performance in search results can drive considerable traffic to websites, boosting sales. While there are many ranking factors that search engine algorithms take into account, hosting plays a crucial role.
Aside from frequent downtime, slow loading times and poor security, which can lead to lower rankings, a poorly optimised hosting environment can also cause crawling issues. This can prevent all a site’s pages from being indexed by search engines, making them invisible to searchers.
Beyond properly configured, high-performance infrastructure, good hosts will also implement other measures that help boost speed. For instance, to overcome the performance issues associated with WordPress, a quality WordPress hosting solution will include WP Accelerated, a feature that comes with built-in caching, Apache and NGINX, HTTP/2, code minification and database and image optimisation.
WordPress user? Read: How to Choose the Right WordPress Hosting Plan for Your Business
Long-term costs
While it might seem an economically savvy choice, poor web hosting can have long-term consequences that far outweigh any potential savings. Low-quality hosting often results in increased maintenance costs due to the lack of technical support, revenue losses because of downtime or slow loading, and potential penalties for security breaches.
Another consideration is the impact on growth. Low-quality hosting providers often make it difficult to scale up or move to a bigger hosting solution when businesses need more storage or to handle a growing number of visitors. Good hosting providers, on the other hand, will make upgrading simple, helping businesses grow and succeed.
Conclusion
Choosing the right hosting provider is a crucial decision that can significantly impact a business’s success. With a reliable host, companies can avoid downtime, slow loading times, security risks and poor search engine rankings. As a result, they are better placed to increase revenue, improve their reputation, boost user engagement and eradicate unforeseen expenses.
Looking for high-quality hosting? Rated 5-Stars by thousands of customers, eukhost’s state-of-the-art infrastructure, innovative hosting solutions and industry-leading technical support means we can cater for all business needs while ensuring high performance, reliability and security. For more information, visit our homepage.
