Hosting a WordPress Theme on GoDaddy: What You Need to Know
Many people choose to go with GoDaddy to host their websites and blogs because of their convenience. The provider gives you a free domain and automatically hosts your website for you. Plus, they offer a money-back guarantee if you meet the terms and conditions. Let’s take a look at how hosting with GoDaddy works and whether you should choose them to host your WordPress website.
Key Facts About GoDaddy
GoDaddy is a publicly-traded company (NYSE: GMCR) that provides domain name registration, web hosting, email marketing, and an abundance of marketing tools to businesses worldwide. The domain name and hosting alone is free, but you can upgrade to take advantage of their other products. For a while, they offered a free domain for new customers, which is the reason why they’re so popular.
You’ll find a lot of information about GoDaddy online, so let’s dive into what matters most.
Features
One of the reasons why people chose GoDaddy was their abundance of features. For starters, they provide you with a free domain. In addition, they offer web hosting, which is great for people who are looking to build a website quickly and don’t want to go through the hassle of setting up a server. They also provide you with free backups, free domain privacy, free site security, and a whole lot more.
While this is a fantastic set of features, keep in mind that they do come with some downsides. One of the main downsides is that there is no phone support available, which you’ll have to deal with via live chat or email. In some instances, they don’t provide the same level of service as other web hosts, particularly if you’re hosting a large website. Another downside is that if you have a business that’s focused on online marketing, then you might want to look for a different web host. That way, you can take advantage of the various tools that are made specifically for SEOs (search engine optimization).
Security
GoDaddy provides a money-back guarantee if you meet the terms and conditions of their service. In other words, if you install WordPress and take care of the basics (e.g. getting a password and changing it regularly), then you won’t be charged for the service. One of the best things about this policy is that it ensures you’ll be covered should anything happen to your website due to a hack or virus.
However, keep in mind that the security measures they provide aren’t the best, particularly if you’re hosting a large website or blog. For instance, they use a shared hosting plan, which provides you with limited resources (e.g. space on disk and bandwidth). Should you need additional resources (e.g. more storage and/or more bandwidth), then you’ll have to pay for those separately.
Uptime
Last but not least, we have the downtime. GoDaddy is one of the most prominent web hosts, which means their service is extremely popular. However, that also means they get a lot of traffic, which in turn brings a lot of stress to their servers. This is why they have a very high average uptime of only 86 percent (as of September 2020), which puts them at number eight on the DJ Indicator’s list of top ten web hosts. If you need a service that’s extremely reliable, then consider hosting with another provider or looking for another host that provides a money-back guarantee.
WordPress Hosting
Among the millions of websites and blogs created and hosted on WordPress, there are a few standouts. One of the reasons why WordPress is so highly-regarded is that it’s one of the most popular blogging platforms. In fact, as of September 2020, there were over 800 million sites and blogs built on WordPress. This makes it the most popular content management system (CMS) in the world. In 2020 alone, there were over 300 million articles published on WordPress blogs around the world.
Since WordPress is such a popular CMS, hosting a WordPress site on GoDaddy is very easy and convenient. All you need to do is visit the WordPress website, click on the Get Started button, and follow the on-screen instructions. Doing this will put you on the right track to having your very own WordPress site in no time. Plus, you’ll have all the benefits of a reliable web host with 24/7 support via live chat or email.
To give you an idea of how easy it is to get started with WordPress on GoDaddy, here’s a short video tutorial from WordPress.com explaining how to do just that.
In summary, GoDaddy provides a fantastic set of features and an abundance of security and reliability should you choose them for hosting your WordPress site. However, if you want to take advantage of their other services, then you may want to look for a different provider. Otherwise, you’ll simply be charged for the features you use.