How to Add Hosting to WordPress – Step-By-Step Guide
Have you ever been frustrated with your blog and wondering, “Why can’t I grow my blog the way I want to?” You might be wondering how to add hosting to WordPress. Before you begin adding in any kind of hosting, you should first determine why you’re looking to add hosting in the first place.
There are three good reasons to consider adding hosting to your WordPress site. The first reason is simply because it is highly recommended by WordPress itself. The digital marketing agency, WP Engine, even lists “better performance, reliability, and affordability” as reasons why you might want to add hosting for your blog or website.
The second reason is because it makes your life easier; having a web host will cut down on a lot of the routine maintenance that is required to keep your blog or website up and running smoothly. Third, and probably the most important reason to consider adding hosting is security. The more control you have over your content, the less likely it is that someone else will use it against you. With an entire website to look after, you need to make sure that it is as safe as possible. Only then can you begin letting your creative juices flow again.
The Advantages Of Hosting
There are many advantages to hosting. Here are just a few:
- Flexibility – The more flexibility you have with your hosting plan, the more you can do with your site. You don’t need to have your own hardware to use with WordPress. You can run the software from just about anywhere. This makes it pretty easy to get your site online no matter where you are.
- Reliability – When you have your own hosting provider, you know that your site’s performance will be good because they are taking care of the server. In addition, your web host will have all the necessary backups and recovery procedures written down beforehand, so if anything goes wrong, they can help you get back up and running within minutes.
- Scalability – Your hosting provider can grow with you as your site grows. Whether you’re starting a blog or business site, they can help you get the most out of your investment. Plus, they can always provide you with more resources as your site gets bigger.
- Affordability – As a student, you probably don’t have a lot of money to spend on unnecessary expenses. Why should you spend hundreds (or even thousands) of dollars on a domain name and hosting separately when you can get both for cheap from a reputable company?
- Freedom – The more freedom you have with your hosting provider, the more you can do with your site. You don’t need to rely on a specific plan to make your site work the way you want it to. You can change what you need with a few clicks of a button.
- Maintainability – If your site becomes too complex to maintain or if you ever decide to make some major changes, you can contact your web host to get help. They will be able to walk you through the steps and get your site up and running smoothly again.
- Efficiency – The overall performance of your site will dramatically improve with your own hosting. Instead of going through a third party, you will save time and resources as your site scales.
How Do I Choose A WordPress Hosting Plan?
Before you begin choosing a hosting plan for your blog or website, you need to consider a few things. The first is domain privacy. A lot of reputable companies offer this feature, which helps prevent your domain from being used for spams or malicious activities. You can also use a free email service such as Gmail to collect emails from your site’s visitors. Having a separate email for your site is a good idea because it will stop your existing emails from being used by spammers. If you are running a business, you should also think about obtaining a merchant account with your credit card. This will help you accept online payments for your products and services.
WordPress’ Recommended Hosting Providers
WordPress recommends the following hosting providers for its users:
- Artesia
- Bluehost
- Cloudways
- Dreamhost
- GoDaddy
- Iwantmyname
- InMotion Hosting
- Interhost
- Leviathan
- Media Temple
- Nanobox
- OneandOnly
- Outback Hosting
- Rackspace
- Scale.com
- SlimDomain
- SpaceFabio
- SunsetHosting
- Surge.com
- UnlimitedMedia
The Difference Between Shared And VPS Hosting
There are two different types of hosting for your WordPress site; shared hosting and virtual private servers (VPS). With shared hosting, all the sites on a single server. This server is shared with other customers and you are all sharing the resources (such as storage and processing power) of the server. In order to provide high performance, most shared hosting plans allow only a certain number of sites to be hosted on a single server.
For example, Bluehost offers a shared hosting plan that allows users to launch up to five websites with the standard package. This means that, while you are limited to five sites, others on the same shared hosting plan can have as many sites as they want.
With virtual private servers, also known as VPSs, the services are provided on a dedicated physical server that is leased from a third party. The customer has total control over the server and can install whatever applications and services they want. Because the server is dedicated to the customer, there are no limits as to how many sites you can host on a VPS.
The advantage of a VPS is that it is completely separate from other customers on the same server, which prevents performance from being negatively affected by other sites. Plus, the customer has full control over the server and can install whatever applications and services they want. This makes it pretty easy to have the appearance of a completely different site by tweaking a single line of code.
Features To Look For In A WordPress Hosting Plan
As you are choosing a WordPress host, you need to be sure that they have the features you are looking for. Here are just a few things to keep in mind: