How to choose a good web hosting? How to properly run a server?
How do you pick and drive your hosting?
There are a lot of articles on the Internet about how to run a website, how to get new leads, conversions. The discerning reader will find a large number of texts on how to optimize content, graphics. Users with a technical mind will improve the HTML structure or navigation of the website. I know this because, as a Poznan SEO expert, I am an author of such publications myself. This text will be about something that most Internet users overlook. The typical reader of this content is someone who likes to do everything themselves. Still, I will try to make sure that also those running large companies, having an IT, marketing department will find interesting information here
We are choosing hosting and the right place for your domain name
The first and basic information to take in is that the choice of where to host a website is very important. In Poland, on the one hand, the hosting market is huge. However, if you look into the matter, it turns out that the variety of choices of suitable servers is quite illusory. There will be no affiliate links or promotion of specific server houses. Whatever you decide on, it's worth working out some things:
- TTFB
I know this topic is trumpeting. In lapidary terms, TTFB is the server response time to the first query. I have a stroke of SEOwerk and my experience shows that it is worth deciding on the right hosting. If this parameter is ok or very ok, you already embrace the competition at the start.
- Hosting cooperation with different CMS
I remember to this day how much work it cost me to run the Joomla CMS on a certain pseudo-leading hosting. Hours spent on the support hotline convinced me that every day of cooperation with the then hosting was a fair loss. Check that your CMS will work properly on the server you've chosen. Also check that any integrations of external services will work well.
- If TTFB is already ok...
If already TTFB is ok and your CMS is working properly, lean on what is worth improving in the speed of the server. Submit your tips to the support service. You'll find out if your new hosting company is ready for cooperation or just for invoicing.
Let's assume that you already have the topic of choosing hosting covered.
It is worth giving an address, for your website. From the very beginning of dealing with e-marketing, I have met many domain traders. I've found only two places where keeping a domain makes sense. The right choice of where to store DNS data is crucial. It is worth taking care of this seemingly insignificant detail. Services like Cloudflare can help here, but they won't completely take care of things. .
PRO TIP
Once you've purchased hosting, add the date of your next payment to your calendar. Set a reminder. This is important so that your domain isn't lost and your CMS, once set up, works continuously. After this brief introduction, I assume that you have already made decisions about where you keep your domain. You store your files on a particular server.
So what's next? This is where the trap begins.
Quite a lot of entrepreneurs, see owning the WWW, as a fact. A more practical approach to e-business is similar to process management. In managing an e-business in the context of a server, several cyclical works are important.
- Security backup
At the very beginning of my path in e-marketing, I heard the expression "people are divided into those who do backup and those who know what they are doing." I laughed at that sentence. I encourage everyone, to make backups. Yes, the backups that hosting companies often write about are great. BUT. I can safely say that the metric of a backup's quality is its accuracy, accessibility and ease of restoration. A backup that affects the entire server (FTP and email) is not a good solution. Restoring such a copy will "mess up" all your folders, emails. Why do you need such turbulence? A few years ago, I faced an outrageous situation. The urgently needed restoration of data was scheduled by the administrator for the night hours.
A properly run backup system looks like this: Backup is performed at a set time in an automatic manner. Done
Restoring such a backup with a small site is a task for a few minutes at any time. I'm writing about this because it's important, and it can help you avoid the nerves and difficult situations I've had to face in a time crunch.
- Data management and relevant data selection
In many cases, the decision to buy a server is "over the edge." This means that if you need, for example, space for 2 GB, you buy 4 or more. In theory, there is nothing wrong with it. The large supply of server power is to serve your website. It's not space for your vacation photos (and yes, there have been times), it's not space for the /new/new-www subfolder and draft versions of your site. It's also not a space for archived pages. It's understandable that sometimes you need to share files like PDFs, marketing materials, etc. on your domain. Think about setting up a cloud on your subdomain then. Nextcloud, owncloud, or whatever. In such a solution, you have control over what you share and to whom, and your materials will not appear in the SERPs.
- Take care of updates on the server
Your CMS is great today, in six months there will surely be a ton of security vulnerabilities discovered. Take a look at the software documentation regularly. Keeping your Wordpress plugins up to date is not enough. Remember, an up-to-date version of PHP means not only a faster site, but also user security. And here again - remember about backups.
Don't panic. If a PHP version update causes an error on your website or some of its functionality, simply write down the description of the error, restore the previous PHP version and report the issue to the web developer.
- Databases
As an digital marketing manager I am not an expert in SQL or other such tools. However, there are sales, e-commerce systems that will cause your database to fluff up in your eyes. A big database means slow page loading, a drop in conversions and even an increase in page rejections.
If your SQL database is sizable - write to a web-developer to improve it.
- Take care to include only necessary content on the site.
Yes, I know that a few paragraphs above, I wrote about "vacation photo" type files. Here I am writing about e-mails. For some time I have been connecting my domains to Google services. This solution has many advantages. In fact, it all comes from the fact that on your server, there are stored materials related to the HTTPS protocol - in other words, materials accessible through the browser. All emails (and attachments) fly to Google's servers. In such a solution you reduce the load on your server dramatically. Google takes over your company's mail service. By the way, you get their entire suite of services - I'm most excited about the larger Google Drive.
When you don't have emails on the server - the trouble of migrating to another server goes away. This is quite funny. Migrations to another server, happen mainly to those who have not yet hit the article of this type. In case you have the determination to change hosting, the matter is trivial, precisely because you don't have to worry about emails.
