Speed is important, not just from an SEO point of view, but also from a UX and PPC point of view.
In fact, PPC is always a great way to get management/client buy-in.
By reducing page speed, you increase the quality score and reduce CPC, reduce CPC and a client see an improvement straight away.
What is the best host for speed?
That is a great question, there are lots of great hosts out there which can offer great improvements.
I have tried many over the years.
My two preferred are Google and Amazon, but its a real skill set getting these set up.
But when I came across Cloudways it made my life so much easier.
They act as a middle company and do most of the leg work, so it becomes like most other hosts.
One-click install for WordPress.
Plus there are some great other features like their own caching plugin.
Worst hosts for page speed
Hosts improve/get worse all the time so I don’t really want to call out one host over as that could quickly date the article.
However, I want to give a few things to avoid
- Shared hosting (this can really slow down your site if someone else is having a traffic surge etc)
- Check the IP addresses they use aren’t blacklisted (use a service like http://www.spamhaus.org/lookup/)
- If it’s too good of a price it’s usually for a reason (for a long time I was using $5 dollar hosting) and while it did the job, the sites were slow to load.
- Uptime – no host will guarantee 100% uptime, but you want to go with one that guarantees 99.9% uptime. You will need to monitor that they are sticking with their promises but its usually a good sign.
Signs of a good web host company?
So I have covered who I use for all my sites and what to avoid, let’s cover what to look for:
- Free trial – the longer the free trial the better host (usually).
- 24/7 support including live chat – Live chat with cloudways is really helpful and can usually answer my issues there and then (so no waiting for email support to get back to you. After all, if your site is down or an issue you want it fixing straight away
- Is Scalable – after all as your business grows you want to quickly and easily grow your server to meet demand
- Uptime – covered this above. You want to pick one that is 99% uptime.
I hope you find this useful, let us know in the comments below which is your favourite web host.