For any business, one of its most important assets is its existing customers and in particular, those customers and clients that remain loyal to it. That applies every bit as much to web hosting companies as it does to any other type of business. The reason it is particularly important to web hosting companies is that once they gain a customer, by the simple fact customers tend not to change web hosting companies that often, each one generates long-term, recurring income.
That is all good and well if a hosting company is providing a great service. However, once its levels of service and the performance of its hosting start heading south, then it is difficult. That brings us to the current hosting service that you are using for your business website.
The main question to ask yourself is whether you are happy with the performance of your web hosting service. If so, then the rest of this post might not apply to you at this moment, but it will still be useful for you to continue reading. We say that because your web hosting service’s performance may start to dimmish in the future. If so, you need to know what the five main signs of that are, and if they appear, it could be time to consider an alternative web hosting service.
Sign #1: The Uptime Of Your Website Is Below Or Barely Meeting Your Web Hosting Service’s Minimum Guarantee
All web hosting services provide a guarantee as to the minimum percentage of time that your website will be live. This is generally above 99%. If you get increasing reports that your website is “down” then check your hosting stats and if your web hosts are not meeting their guarantee, it is an indicator that they are failing you.
Sign #2: The Time It Takes For Your Website’s Pages To Load Is Increasing
Page load speeds are vital for many reasons including user experience and SEO. If your hosting service is no longer able to provide servers that can load your website quickly, then the time has almost certainly come for you to switch to a faster web hosting company.
Sign #3: Your Web Hosting Service Does Not Offer The Additional Services You Require As Your Website Develops
As your business grows, so might the size, complexity, and functionality of your website. As it does so, you may want to be able to add certain software, programming, and coding to your site. If your web hosts are not compatible with these, or cannot accommodate the add-ons you need to use, then find a web hosting service that can.
Sign #4: The Fees Your Web Hosting Company Charges Are Increasing By Amounts That Are Unjustified
Web hosting companies are well within their rights to increase their fees, for example, due to inflation within the economy, but they should not do so to an unreasonable extent. One benefit of having choices is you can look around to find the most cost-effective web hosts if your current one’s fees are increasing by absurd amounts.
Sign #5: Customer Support From Your Web Hosting Company Is Becoming Unacceptably Deficient
A sure-fire sign that a web hosting company is going in the wrong direction is if its technical and customer support is becoming lax and not fit for purpose. It is also a clear sign that the time has come to find a web hosting service that truly cares about its clients.