What’s Slowing Down Your Website? 6 Hosting Factors You Might Be Ignoring
Reliable website performance is a huge factor when it comes to the user experience, and if your website has slow page load times, it can quickly drive traffic away.
Hosting has a bigger impact on this than many realize. Research shows that poor hosting accounts for 37% of issues with slow-loading websites, which shows just how many businesses are using the wrong hosting plans.
Knowing how hosting can impact website speed is key if you want to identify the source of the issue and make sure you avoid it repeating in the future.
How Different Types of Hosting Can Impact Speed
The hosting you choose can make a big difference to the performance of your website. Even if you spend months perfecting your website and optimizing it for the web, if you choose a hosting plan that is not suitable, it can cause havoc on your page load speed.
Below are some of the most common types of hosting plans so you can gain a better understanding of the differences between each of them…
- Shared hosting. Often used by small websites with low traffic, shared hosting involves multiple websites being hosted on the same server. Although it is typically the cheapest option, it can cause slow page loading if another site on the server experiences a spike in traffic.
- Dedicated hosting. With dedicated hosting, a business gets an entire server solely for its website. This provides full control and typically results in a more reliable performance. It’s a common choice for large businesses that get high volumes of website visitors.
- Docker hosting. Becoming a more popular choice, especially for more complex apps and development environments, docker hosting provides stability. It gives a business dedicated resources and the Docker container includes everything an application needs to run, including the code and all its dependencies.
- VPS hosting. Standing for virtual private server hosting, this option sits between shared and dedicated hosting. A server will be partitioned into sections and each site is allocated a specific amount of resources, removing the risk of site speed being impacted by other sites.
- Cloud hosting. Combining a network of virtual and physical servers, cloud hosting distributes resources according to the amount of traffic a site is experiencing. It usually comes as a more expensive option, but it’s more reliable. If one server goes down, the website will automatically move over to another to prevent downtime.
6 Ways Your Hosting Could Be Slowing Your Website Down
Often, people turn to the website itself if they are experiencing slow page load times, but the problem can actually lie with the hosting provider. There are multiple factors that could be contributing to the problem, so let’s discuss some of the main ones.
1. Location of the server
The physical location of the server can be a big contributor to the website speed you are seeing. Since data has to travel from the server to the device of the user who is accessing your website, if there is a significant distance between the two, it can cause the page load speed to increase.
If your traffic tends to be localized, this will be less of an issue, but if you have customers from all over, they may experience delays.
Many modern hosting providers have servers across different locations to tackle this issue. This means that when a user clicks on the website, they will be connected to the server that is nearest to their location.
2. Sharing server space with other sites
If you are using shared hosting, the performance of your website is affected by the other websites that are sharing the same server space. If one of these websites is experiencing a spike in traffic, it will have a knock-on effect and can slow down the loading time of the other sites since the resources are being used elsewhere.
Similarly, as your business grows and draws in more traffic, it can reduce the performance of your website. The more users you have, the more strain the server is put under and the slower the output.
Using cheap shared hosting packages typically increases page load time by 1 to 3 seconds – plenty of time to leave the user feeling frustrated and click straight off of your website. If you are finding poor loading speed to be an ongoing problem, it is a sign that it’s time to update your hosting plan to one that has dedicated server space.
3. Insufficient server resources
To avoid hindering website performance, a server needs to have enough resources to meet demand. The central processing unit (CPU), random access memory (RAM), and storage space all determine how quickly a request can be processed to run a web page, and if there is limited capacity, it can slow down the process.
If your website uses a lot of resources, whether that be from multiple plugins, large-scale databases, or complex scripts, it will require more power and can be a struggle for hosting plans that have limited server resources.
Your hosting must offer enough resources to manage your website traffic. This is essential for keeping fast page load speed and creating a positive user experience.
4. Traffic limits have been reached
If your site experiences a sudden surge in traffic, whether that is because of a seasonal event or a promotional campaign, your hosting plan could hit its capacity. This will result in slower site load times for visitors and can hinder the rendering of pages.
The limits of hosting plans differ; some are measured through bandwidth, whereas others may be measured by CPU usage. This is why it’s important to have a good understanding of your hosting plan and how unexpected spikes in traffic are handled – in extreme cases, your site may even become temporarily unavailable to visitors.
If this becomes a frequent issue, it can cause users to become frustrated and impact your overall brand reputation. Instead, it is worth looking into expanding your hosting plan to ensure that it can handle your site traffic.
5. No content delivery network
A content delivery network (CDN) is a collection of servers around the world where all of the static files from your website are stored. This includes images, videos, stylesheets, and scripts – all of the assets which are needed to load your site. When a visitor visits one of your web pages, the CDN will send their device a copy of these static files.
Without a CDN, all of these files will need to be sent from your hosting provider’s primary server. Although this is ok in small volumes, it can create noticeable holdups during busy periods and slow down the loading of pages.
Having a CDN implemented means the pressure on your server is reduced and website users can access your page content quicker, regardless of where they are in the world.
6. Hosting package has been outgrown
For many small businesses that are just getting started, the hosting plan they go for tends to be a cheaper option with limited resources. This is more than enough for websites that are only getting small amounts of traffic, but as the business starts to grow, it can quickly outgrow the hosting plan.
If you are reaching this stage, it is time to reconsider your options and change your hosting plan. Many providers offer the option to expand to a bigger hosting plan with more resources, but for those using shared hosting, switching to dedicated hosting will provide a more reliable solution.
Knowing When to Upgrade Your Hosting Plan
Whether your website has outgrown your hosting plan or your provider is not providing the reliable solution that you need, knowing how to pick the best type of hosting for your website can avoid the slow page load times that have been hindering the user experience.
As your business grows and website traffic continues to increase, ensuring you have enough server resources available and choosing a plan that contains the tools needed to maintain a fast website will take pressure off your shoulders and allow you to focus on other areas of your business.
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