Hosting a WordPress Website in India
The growth rates of both the Internet and E-commerce in India are incredible. According to Statista, online markets and E-commerce in India grew by 17.5% and 22.4% respectively from 2014 to 2018.
This makes the country a viable choice for online businesses. However, setting up a website in India isn’t as straightforward as one might think. Hosting a WordPress website in India can be a challenge because of the numerous restrictions the country places on internet content. In order to host a website in India, you must first find a way around these restrictions
Fortunately, there are ways to do this. In this article, we will discuss five techniques for hosting a WordPress website in India.
Use a VPN to Unblock Websites
One of the first steps to take if you want to host a website in India is to try and unblock websites. Internet restrictions in the country are extremely widespread and cover almost all areas of internet usage. However, you can use a VPN to unblock websites in India. A VPN is a virtual private network that encrypts all of your internet traffic. This makes it much harder for internet service providers (ISPs) in the country to block or censor any websites that you visit. The best part about using a VPN in India is that it hides your true location from websites which often results in the content being displayed more clearly. This makes it easier for Indian users to access content that they might deem inappropriate. Using a VPN in this way is totally legal and requires no additional permissions from the government.
The most popular and highly recommended VPN software for unblocking websites in India is PureVPN. This software has gained a lot of praise from users in the country because it is very easy to use and allows for all the basic functions to be performed with minimal effort. The software also offers great security since all of your internet traffic is encrypted which prevents third parties from viewing your activities. If you are looking to host a WordPress website in India and are struggling to find a VPN that works on the platform, then this is the solution for you.
Find a Content Hosting Provider in India
Another way to get around website restrictions in India is to find a content hosting provider. A content hosting provider is where your content (such as a WordPress website) is stored after you upload it to the website. The best part about this approach is that you don’t need to set up any servers or purchase any expensive software to get started. You also don’t need to worry about bandwidth since the provider will take care of all of that for you.
The first step to finding a content hosting provider in India is to use a VPN to locate content repositories that are actually located in the country. Once you have located the content, you can contact the provider directly to get a price quote for hosting services. You should look for a provider that has a good reputation in the country and offers a reliable service. Remember, the more reputable the company, the more likely it is that they will have servers located in the country.
Use a Dedicated IP Address
Another great way to get around website restrictions in India is to use a dedicated IP address. A dedicated IP address is a unique IP address that is only given to you. This means that any and all of your internet traffic is diverted to you exclusively. Since your traffic is diverted to you, it becomes much more difficult for ISPs in the country to block or throttle your activity. The dedicated IP address approach has a couple of advantages. First, it makes it much harder for ISPs to block your activity because all of your traffic is coming from a single location. Second, it prevents your activity from being throttled by the ISP since all of your activity is being monitored. This makes it difficult for ISPs to perform traffic shaping which is often used to limit bandwidth or speed during periods of peak load.
The disadvantage of using a dedicated IP address in India is that you cannot use dynamic DNS to update your IP address. This means that you will have to update your IP address manually whenever you change networks or locations. This is not a huge deal since you can always use a VPN to locate and connect to a server that has your preferred IP address. The effort to set up a dedicated IP address is minimal and it pays off in spades.
Use Cloudflare
A third option for getting around website restrictions in India is to use Cloudflare. Cloudflare is an ultra-modern content delivery network that was designed with the Indian audience in mind. The company has many resources dedicated to the country and the majority of its employees are active daily in removing server blocks and getting websites unblocked. This is great news for content providers in the country who want to keep their sites free from the large amounts of meddling from ISPs.
This is why Cloudflare is such a popular choice amongst content providers in the country. The service is relatively easy to set up and does not require any specific permissions from the government. What’s more is that all of your content is served from secure servers which prevent it from being tampered with by anybody. Using Cloudflare to serve your content means that you don’t need to worry about bandwidth since the service will take care of all of that for you. You can also use their free plan to set up a very basic website with limited functionality.
The disadvantage of using Cloudflare in India is that all of your content is tied to their platform. This means that you cannot use the service to host any content that you have created independently. Instead, you will have to upload all of your content to Cloudflare before you can use their DNS services.
Use Name Servers
A final option for getting around website restrictions in India is to use name servers. A name server is where your domain name is registered and it is a place where all of your website’s DNS records are stored. To use name servers in India, you will need to purchase the domain from a reputable domain seller that has servers based in India. The best part about name servers is that you don’t need to actually host your content in the country. You can use a free service like OpenDNS to set up name servers which will allow you to access any website that you want without restrictions.
The disadvantage of using name servers in India is that you cannot use dynamic DNS to update your IP address. This means that you will have to update your IP address manually whenever you change networks or locations. You also cannot use a VPN to unblock domains since the DNS servers are not in the same country as the VPN.
Choosing where to host your website is not easy. The good news is that you don’t need to pick just one option. Instead, you can use a VPN to protect your anonymity and unblock websites while using a content delivery network like Cloudflare to serve content from locations where it is legal to host.