Web hosting is not something that most business owners give too much thought to, especially when it comes to our brand. It\u2019s something that usually falls into the black hole of \u201ctechy stuff\u201d that we either differ to someone else or choose the cheapest option.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But as we build our brand, web hosting becomes pretty important for a few reasons – it affects your google search ranking, it affects the customer experience, it supports your sales (or not).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Your web hosting could be damaging your brand if slow loading speeds or unreliability is negatively impacting the user experience of your website<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The first thing to remember about Google is that they want the same thing that you do – happy customers. <\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Any algorithm that Google release is designed to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n And to help and not harm!<\/p>\n\n\n\n OK, so before I dive into web hosting and customer experience, you have to remember that all customer experiences are brand experiences<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Remember, your brand is not what you say it is<\/a>, it\u2019s what they<\/em> say it is (as Marty Neumeier so eloquently put it). How your customers experience your brand is more important than how you see your brand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So how exactly does web hosting affect the customer experience? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Simply put. Nobody likes to wait, and slow website loading forces your customers to wait. This is not good. It\u2019s frustrating for your customer and it can disrupt an otherwise enjoyable or on-brand customer experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I work with a lot of healers<\/a>, doctors<\/a>, yogis<\/a> and therapists. Often their goal is the same – to relieve suffering, offer a moment of calm or respite and bring joy back into people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Poor and unreliable website hosting can mean your site is slow to load or, worse, it fails to load at all, causing stress and frustration for your clients at a time when they might need you most.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If all someone wants to do is to book a session with you, sign up to your program or download the free guide they\u2019ve seen you talking about on social media, and your website won\u2019t load properly, that experience is one that has caused stress and frustration – and that customer will associate those feelings with your brand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Web hosting might feel like a tiny, insignificant part of the customer experience and overall brand experience, but actually, it is a foundational part of your website and brand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Remember: Google wants what you want – happy customers <\/p>\n\n\n\n The latest google algorithm release focuses on Core Web Vitals<\/a><\/strong> which look at Page experience<\/a> focusing on 3 key areas: website loading speed, interactivity, and visual stability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Slow web hosting affects page loading speeds and can make your website slow to load and respond. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Web users are impatient, and people won\u2019t wait around for a slow website to load. They\u2019ll assume the website is broken and go somewhere else. Users don\u2019t like this, and neither does Google.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Google will actively start to give search preference to sites offering a better user experience. So if you have 2 sites that are equally valuable in content and design but one loads faster, it is the faster loading site that will rank higher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although Google has previously stated that website speed was not a ranking fact, this is no longer true: Poor web hosting = Slow site loading speed* = lower Google search ranking.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n * other factors like large and uncompressed images, animations and videos can also affect your site loading time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can check how fast your site loads by using a free service like GT Metrix<\/a>. (Google\u2019s page speed checker<\/a> tends to be a little harsh and is actually not quite as accurate).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Whilst there are design changes you can make to improve your site loading speed you might find that none have the desired impact. \u201cI\u2019ve seen people making lots of website tweaks to try and improve their website speed to little effect, and then they upgrade their web hosting and suddenly they see green scores across the board!\u201d Chantal Marie-Laurence Edouard-Betsy, 1Daywebs.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Online users are impatient, demanding almost instantaneous response times, easy and intuitive user journeys. So your website must be well-designed and also backed up with lightning-fast response times and loading. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you have an unreliable web host which leaves your site constantly crashing or down for maintenance it affects<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your customers don\u2019t see your web hosting. They only see (or don\u2019t) your website. So if your site is slow and unresponsive, your customer sees you as being slow and unresponsive. It\u2019s a direct reflection of your brand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I was introduced to an incredible pilates teacher through an article I read in the Sunday Times magazine. She was local to me but had worked with Hollywood A-lister\u2019s Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci and was making a name for herself in the industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Emily Blunt credited her with getting her \u201cin the best shape of my career\u201d, and the article spoke about how mere mortals like myself could access the same sculpted perfection through the Zoom classes she was offering in lockdown for just \u00a315. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I was sold. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As were thousands of other prospective customers who, in our collective rush to achieve Emily Blunt level fitness, had managed to crash the website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I checked back the next day and managed to book on. I\u2019m sure thousands of others didn\u2019t. In fact, I know they didn\u2019t because I attended for a few weeks and the number of attendees stayed firmly around the 30+ mark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What an opportunity lost. All those prospective customers with their goldfish-like attention spans (actually, that\u2019s unfair. Goldfish actually have far longer attention spans than most digital users).<\/p>\n\n\n\n What went wrong…<\/p>\n\n\n\n The instructor in question had been working with a PR agency to promote her work through the British media. Unfortunately, nobody at the agency had thought to check that the tech was in place to flex when demand surged in response to this promotion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Her web developer managed to set her up on better hosting, but not before her website crashed for an entire day, and she missed the opportunity to capture all these new leads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That one oversight could have cost her business thousands of pounds in revenue. The Sunday Times Magazine is the UK\u2019s most-read quality newspaper supplement, with 1.16 million readers every week. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n At just one \u00a315 class a week, an average customer is worth \u00a3780 a year to that business. Factor in the potential lifetime value of all of those people that could have become loyal customers and you might start to get an idea for the cost of that mistake. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And let\u2019s just put this into perspective, for most small businesses – the solution to this problem (cloud-based web hosting) costs between \u00a320-50 a month. Larger businesses with more traffic will pay more but, then the gains are even greater.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you have a Squarespace, Showit, Shopify or Wix website, then your web hosting is included in your website cost and you can\u2019t change it. If you have a WordPress website, you can choose your own hosting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Paying more for your web hosting might feel uncomfortable if you\u2019re used to paying under $5 a month, but quality, fast-speed hosting is available at an affordable rate aand it’s well worth the investment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Without a doubt, private cloud-based servers deliver the best website speeds, <\/strong>but they can be expensive. For most small to medium-sized businesses, managed cloud hosting offers an affordable solution that delivers faster website speed at an affordable monthly cost. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Shared website hosting is cheap but generally performs very poorly in terms of website speed. If you are actively trying to optimise your website, shared hosting is not recommended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\n
How web hosting affects the customer experience <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
How web hosting affects your google ranking <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
How do I check my web hosting speed?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
How web hosting supports your sales<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
When poor web hosting can damage your sales: A case study<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Types of web hosting – and which one is best?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
Which hosting is best for website speed?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n