WordPress is one of the most popular Content Management Services (CMS). With it, you have the option of simply using WordPress to build your website or you can go with a managed WordPress solution. Managed WordPress web hosting provides you with a pre-built WordPress installation as opposed to just an empty space on a server. It also offers convenience making it even easier to run a WordPress website.
However, not all managed WordPress hosting are the same, and this mainly depends on the provider. Some providers offer poor setup and functionality in comparison to what you could do yourself. While others can be extremely restrictive in an effort to prevent you from moving away from their platform.
It can sometimes be quite difficult to tell the difference between a secure WordPress Hosting company and downright rip-off. Check the list below for the characteristics of a reputable and reliable managed WordPress provider. Before we start, let’s review what Managed WordPress is.
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What is Managed WordPress?
Managed WordPress hosting occurs when the hosting provider handles all the basic administrative tasks, which include the installation of WordPress, security, speed, WordPress updates, daily backups, scalability and website uptime. When you opt for managed WordPress, it will save you time, and usually offers better performance.
When thinking of managed WordPress web hosting, it isn’t really about a type of plan as much as it is a description of the service you’ll receive. While most hosting plans will leave you with the majority of the work, a managed WordPress plan takes the responsibility for keeping your site functioning efficiently online.
Features of A Good Managed WordPress Web Hosting Provider
1. Website Uptime
One of the first concerns you should have is the uptime the managed WordPress service provides. Downtime is the enemy of all websites. Your site going offline when search engines are crawling it, while visitors are trying to access it or make a purchase will result in bad SEO. You will also lose potential customers and revenue. Ensure that your managed WordPress service provider offers a 99% uptime.
What’s the purpose of this? Uptime gives you a guarantee that you can ask for a refund should your website be down more often than the guarantee specifies. It will not make up for the loss of visitors, revenue or SEO. However, knowing a managed WordPress service provider guarantees their uptime is a good sign. It simply means that they will provide high uptime on a regular basis, or else they stand to lose money.
2. Security to Safeguard Website
WordPress is a big target for hackers based on its popularity and use to power websites ranging from personal blogs to major business sites. That is why it is important to ensure that the provider of your managed WordPress hosting has high-level security protocol in place to safeguard your website. As a result, WordPress has many regular updates geared towards protecting you from possible vulnerability in the back-end code. And, many web hosts provide these automatic updates to their customers to bolster security.
While that is significant, it is only the ‘tip of the iceberg’ in terms of security features available with a trustworthy managed hosting provider. Check for other security features including DDoS detection, firewalls, SSL certificates, 24/7 uptime monitoring, and regular malware scans. The best managed WordPress service provider should also be open about their security protocols.
3. Frequent Updates
When using fully managed WordPress web hosting, there are times when updates are not always as straightforward as they are with a self-managed WordPress plan. Therefore, it’s essential that the managed WordPress service provider ensures that WordPress and all other related software are updated regularly for you. Also, check that the service provider also mentions doing automatic updating procedures on their website. Hosting.co.uk can offers and deploys the latest software and security updates within hours of release.
If the hosting company does not update the software for you, take the hint and simply move on to a different managed WordPress service provider. Outdated software will leave your site vulnerable to security breaches, downtime and lower your SEO score.
4. Backups and Migration
When you opt for a fully managed WordPress service, you’ll find that backups aren’t as easy to do as they are when you are self-hosted. That is because this task now becomes the responsibility of the hosting provider. Therefore, you need to ensure that the managed WordPress service does regular daily or weekly backups of your website. This will relive you of the pressure of trying to figure out how to back up your WordPress using a plugin. Additionally, find out if the managed WordPress service offers migration tools to facilitate the transfer of an already existing WordPress site to their servers.
5. Round-the-clock Support
There’s a great chance that you may continue to require customer support with your WordPress site. Ensure the hosting provider offers 24/7/365 support. The support you receive should be friendly and knowledgeable, with a minimal wait time to get in contact with someone whether via chat or phone. Don’t wait until after you make the plunge, test out the managed WordPress Provider’s support yourself by doing a test call. Also, make sure that the managed WordPress service provider has a large and helpful knowledge base available so that you can learn how to carry out various task in WordPress by yourself. That way you won’t always need to call support just to figure out how to do what you want on your WordPress site.
Conclusion
Fully managed WordPress web hosting is a great way to get the most out of one of the best CMS’ available. That’s because you don’t have to shoulder all the work involved in running your website. Seeing that managed WordPress is more convenient and accessible without having to do all the work, may persons go that route. However, since you are relinquishing most of the responsibilities you have to ensure that the service provider you use is trustworthy and reliable. You will be safe and guaranteed the best managed WordPress plans if you follow the guide above with the key characteristics of a secure WordPress hosting company, like us at Hosting.co.uk.
