by Analytics Insight
February 18, 2022
Reap the benefits of managed WordPress hosting to drive engagement in WordPress sites
WordPress is the most popular content management system (CMS) that powers 43% of all websites. As a self-hosted platform, many site owners settle for standard web hosting, regardless of whether they run a personal blog, portfolio, or even an eCommerce site.
However, many hosting providers offer managed WordPress hosting services. Compared to standard types of web hosting, managed WordPress hosting offers a variety of benefits and specialized features that are tailored to powering WordPress sites.
If you use WordPress to build your website, continue reading about nine reasons why you should choose managed WordPress hosting over regular web hosting.
1. Easy WordPress Setup
With a WordPress hosting service, you will get an automatic setup and basic plugins installed. Some providers also have a WordPress tutorial to help users configure their hosting account and website.
This is a good starting point before further managing your WordPress site. It cuts several steps and streamlines the configuration process, decreasing any guesswork you might have, especially as a beginner.
If you run multiple WordPress websites, managed hosting helps you organize them from a single account. As a result, you don’t have to go back and forth between different setups and hosting accounts.
2. WordPress-Tailored Technical Support
Since WordPress is known to have a slightly steep learning curve, you might encounter some technical challenges. Therefore, opting for WordPress hosting can be beneficial in guiding you through website development and troubleshooting.
That’s because WordPress hosting offers specialized technical support teams that are experts in this CMS. Having this resource at your disposal can save you time when configuring or troubleshooting technical issues. As a result, you’ll have more time to focus on search engine optimization and marketing strategies.
3. Automatic Website Backup and Updates
It is important to keep your website updated to help prevent cyberattacks and optimize performance. With regular hosting, WordPress itself automatically updates minor changes, but site owners are responsible for initiating major updates.
On the other hand, managed hosting means you will get automatic updates. Generally, this includes PHP updates, and some web hosts also provide automatic theme or plugin updates.
Additionally, many hosting companies provide automatic daily backups for their managed WordPress hosting service. As a result, you won’t have to install specific plugins or deal with file transfer protocol (FTP) accounts or phpMyAdmin to conduct backups.
4. Better Security
As an open-source CMS, WordPress is vulnerable to attacks. Therefore, it takes a conscious effort to secure your WordPress website. With a managed hosting service, you will have a support team to help with that.
WordPress hosting plans typically come with an SSL certificate to encrypt your website. Some providers even add a website application firewall to filter and monitor website traffic. In terms of your administrator account’s security, managed hosting often has built-in features to strengthen password enforcement, enable two-factor authentication, and limit login attempts.
You can also apply these security measures using WordPress plugins on standard web hosting. However, it takes time and effort to set it up yourself and might not be as effective as the strong website security tools offered with managed hosting.
5. Optimized Website Performance
Optimizing a website requires thorough analysis and continuous monitoring of its overall performance. This includes server uptime, loading speed, features, and the website’s rank in search engine result pages (SERPs).
A managed WordPress hosting provider helps you monitor all the technical aspects and can recommend actions to improve your website. For example, websites on WordPress hosting run on WordPress-optimized servers with the latest software to ensure optimal performance.
That way, you can focus on creating quality website content and do your part in maximizing site performance using search engine optimization (SEO) strategies.
6. One-Click Staging Environment
Some WordPress hosting providers include a staging environment in their managed hosting plans, while others offer it as an add-on feature. The staging environment works as a duplicate of your website to test any changes and identify errors before applying them to the real one.
If you often experiment with your website or handle a lot of clients’ WordPress websites, this feature can be beneficial to ensure a safe website testing environment.
Furthermore, managed WordPress hosting providers can offer suggestions and tools to help create an ideal workflow when making changes to your website.
7. Strategic Data Center Location
Generally, a hosting service provider has multiple data center locations. Using managed WordPress hosting, you can pick your desired data center location – depending on the location of your target audience – to improve website loading speed.
Some hosting providers also offer a content delivery network (CDN). It refers to a network of servers and their data centers located worldwide that provides fast delivery of internet content. Integrating a CDN improves your website’s loading speed and even security to help prevent DDoS attacks.
8. Scalable Platform
Once your website grows, you’ll need more hosting resources. In some instances, you might need to migrate the website to a new server, costing time and money. On the other hand, managed WordPress hosting enables easier website scaling.
For example, some WordPress hosting providers use cloud technology to ease the resource upgrading process. Meanwhile, others provide a migration service to transfer fast-growing websites to a more advanced server.
9. Developer-Friendly
If you are a website developer, managed WordPress hosting can help you easily maintain and oversee multiple websites by cutting time setting up basic plugins, security measures, and performance tools.
Additionally, some providers give you the option to flush website cache, run different versions of PHP in various website and staging environments, and access error logs.
Some managed hosting service providers also give you Secure Shell (SSH) access in a more advanced configuration. It provides strong encryption for website owners to operate systems and applications in another computer within a particular network protocol. In contrast, regular shared web hosting doesn’t typically grant this access.
Furthermore, managed WordPress hosting might include Git and WP-CLI access so site owners can apply advanced changes to their websites.
Conclusion
Managed WordPress hosting can be a beneficial solution for beginners and even experts. Although it may cost more than a regular hosting service, having the extra resources, support, and optimized servers make it worth considering.
To recap, here are nine reasons to choose managed WordPress hosting:
- Easy setup
- Specialized technical support
- Automatic backups and updates
- Better security
- Optimized performance
- One-click staging environment
- Strategic data center locations
- Scalability
- Developer-friendly
However, note that every hosting company provides different hosting resources and features. So, it’s important to research which WordPress hosting solution best suits your website’s needs.
