Kickstarting Your Blog Archives - The A2 Posting https://www.a2hosting.com/blog The Official Blog for A2 Hosting Tue, 11 Jun 2024 14:51:28 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.3 Essential Features to Look for in Blogging Platforms https://www.a2hosting.com/blog/blog-hosting-platforms/ Tue, 11 Jun 2024 14:51:28 +0000 https://www.a2hosting.com/blog/?p=13594 If you’re looking to start a blog, the first and most important step is to choose the right platform. Whether you want to build an audience, monetize your content, or …

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If you’re looking to start a blog, the first and most important step is to choose the right platform. Whether you want to build an audience, monetize your content, or showcase your portfolio, the platform you pick can make all the difference.

As a beginner, you’ll want a blog hosting platform that’s simple and user-friendly yet powerful enough to grow with you. But with so many options out there, how do you choose the perfect one?

In this article, we’ll cover the top features you need to look for in a blogging platform, compare popular options like WordPress, Squarespace, and Wix, and discuss the benefits of hosting with a dedicated provider. 

Choosing the Right Blogging Platform: What to Consider 

From cost and customization to control and scalability, each of these elements plays an important role in the success and growth of your blog:

Price

Balancing cost with features is crucial when selecting a blogging platform. While there are plenty of free and cheap options available, not all of them offer comprehensive tools or flexibility. 

If you’re a beginner, you’ll want to prioritize your budget, but also keep in mind that you may need to upgrade as your blog grows. Look for platforms that offer scalable pricing options, so you can adjust your plan as needed without breaking the bank.

Themes and Templates

By choosing a responsive and professional-looking theme, you can make a great first impression on your readers. 

Setting up your website is much easier if you have access to pre-built themes and templates. Instead of starting from scratch, you just need to choose a theme that fits your niche and customize it to match your branding. Platforms that offer a wide range of customization options, including the ability to change colors, fonts, and layouts, will be your best bet. 

When your blog grows, you may need to add new pages or sections. Being able to reuse templates simplifies this process, allowing you to maintain a consistent look and feel across your site. 

Content Editor

The content editor is where you’ll spend most of your time creating and formatting your blog posts, so choose a platform with a reliable editing system. 

WordPress is a popular choice for its user-friendly editor that’s perfect for beginners and experienced bloggers. With a wide range of formatting options and customization features, WordPress makes it easy to create engaging and visually appealing content. 

Storage

When you start blogging, you’ll need plenty of storage for all your multimedia content. That’s why it’s important to choose a platform that offers scalable storage options so you can upgrade your blog’s storage capacity without having to switch to a different platform. 

To ensure scalability, opt for a platform that offers Solid-State Drive (SSD) and Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) storage options. These types of storage offer faster performance, which can help your blog load faster and improve the user experience. 

Security Features

To protect your content and your readers’ information from threats like data breaches and malware, you’ll need to adopt some essential security measures. 

For starters, a free Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate is a must-have for every blogger. This certificate encrypts the data between your blog and your readers’ devices, ensuring that any sensitive information is protected.

Another essential security feature is protection against DDoS attacks, which can overwhelm your blog with bot traffic, causing it to crash or become unavailable. By having security measures in place to prevent DDoS attacks, your blog remains accessible, even during high-traffic periods. 

Security features also play a crucial role in building trust with your readers. If your blog isn’t secure, it can damage your reputation and discourage readers from visiting your site. 

SEO Features

Once your blog is live, you might find yourself wondering how to attract the right visitors. That’s where Search Engine Optimization (SEO) comes in. 

SEO is all about optimizing your blog to rank higher in search engine results, which can bring you more traffic. But SEO can be a bit tricky to navigate, especially for beginners. 

That’s why you should choose a blogging platform that offers SEO features, such as customizable meta tags, SEO-friendly URLs, and sitemap generation. These features can help you optimize your blog for search engines and improve your visibility online. 

Scalability

When you start a blog, there’s no way to tell how much it’ll grow or how much traffic it might receive. Therefore, it’s crucial to choose blog hosting platforms that prioritize scalability and can easily accommodate more traffic as you grow. 

Opting for scalable hosting solutions means you’ll never have to worry about website downtime or losing visitors due to other technical issues. 

Extensions and Integrations

Extensions and integrations can really take your blog to the next level, as they allow you to add new features and functionality. 

One of the great things about platforms like WordPress is their vast ecosystem of plugins. These plugins cover every functionality you can imagine, from SEO and analytics to eCommerce and social media. Some useful plugins for bloggers include:

    • Rank Math: Optimize your blog for search engines, making it easier for readers to find your content. 
    • Akismet: Protect your blog from spam comments, ensuring a clean and user-friendly experience for your readers.
    • Jetpack: Optimize site speed, bolster security, and enhance your blog’s functionality with features like improved search capabilities, social media sharing, and customizable content delivery. 

Analytics

Analytics offer valuable insights into your audience’s behavior, giving you the power to make data-driven decisions about your content strategy. 

By using analytics to track your blog’s performance, you can identify trends and patterns using real-time data, such as which types of content are most popular and which times of day your audience is most active. 

Many blogging platforms, including WordPress, provide robust analytics support and integrations, allowing you to track your blog’s performance easily. 

Monetization Tools 

Monetizing your blog can be a great way to earn income from your content. For instance, you can display ads on your blog to earn money based on clicks or impressions, or collaborate with brands to create paid posts. 

One of the most straightforward ways of monetizing your website is to set up an eCommerce store. For example, if you’re using WordPress, you’d achieve this by installing the WooCommerce plugin, which integrates with various payment gateways and other extensions.  This way, you can easily sell products and services directly from your website and set up different pricing structures, such as one-time payments and subscriptions.

Exploring the Top Blogging Platforms

To help you find the perfect platform for your blogging needs, we’ve put together a list of the best blogging platforms and highlighted their unique features. 

WordPress

WordPress Homepage

WordPress Homepage

WordPress is a popular platform for bloggers of all skill levels. Its extensive range of themes, plugins, and customization options cater to various blogging needs, making it a versatile choice for building a WordPress site. Additionally, the platform’s large community provides constant support and updates. 

Top features: 

  • Extensive Plugin Library: Enhance your blog’s functionality, security, and design with a wide range of plugins. 
  • SEO Tools: Boost your blog’s visibility in search engine results. 
  • Blogging-Specific Themes: Choose from a variety of professional-looking themes designed specifically for blogging.
  • Community Support: Seek help and guidance from a large community of users whenever you need it.
  • Easy Content Management: Manage your blog’s content with ease, thanks to WordPress’ user-friendly interface.

Drupal

Drupal Homepage

Drupal Homepage

Drupal is the top choice for bloggers who need advanced customization. Although it may have a steeper learning curve than other platforms, developers favor Drupal for its scalability and adaptability, making it ideal for large projects and growing blogs. 

Top features: 

  • Advanced Content Management Capabilities: Use Drupal’s powerful tools to manage your blog’s content with ease. 
  • Customizable User Permissions: Collaborate with multiple authors by adjusting user permissions to suit your needs. 
  • Scalability for Growing Blogs: As your blog grows, Drupal manages high traffic volumes without affecting performance. 
  • Robust Security Features: Protect your blog with advanced security features and enjoy peace of mind. 

Joomla

Joomla Homepage

Joomla Homepage

Joomla strikes a balance between WordPress’s ease of use and Drupal’s complexity. It’s perfect for bloggers wanting more flexibility than what WordPress provides but without diving into Drupal’s intricacies. With its user-friendly interface and strong community support, Joomla is a reliable choice. 

Top features: 

  • Flexible Content Management System (CMS): Easily manage your blog’s content, thanks to Joomla’s versatility. 
  • Built-In Blogging Features: Enjoy convenient blogging features right out of the box.
  • Customizable Templates: Joomla offers thousands of high-quality templates so you can create attractive designs without touching a single line of code. 
  • Multilingual Support: Reach a wider audience with built-in multilingual capabilities.
  • Powerful User Management Options: Manage multiple users with ease and control.

Wix

Wix Homepage

Wix Homepage

Wix is famous for its drag-and-drop simplicity, making it perfect for beginners or those who aren’t as familiar with technical aspects. It offers a variety of stunning templates and integrated features, simplifying the process of setting up a blog. However, keep in mind that its customization options are more limited compared to other platforms. 

Top features: 

  • Intuitive Drag-and-Drop Editor: Wix’s user-friendly interface makes it a breeze to edit your blog’s layout, fonts, colors, and imagery.
  • Integrated Blogging Tools: Use Wix’s built-in tools to share your content on social media and automatically notify your email subscribers when you post.
  • SEO Features: Boost your blog’s visibility and reach the right people with advanced SEO tools built directly into your site. 
  • Mobile Responsiveness: Ensure your blog looks great on all devices.
  • Reliable Hosting Services: Wix offers advanced security monitoring, automatic setup, and a 99.9% uptime guarantee. 

Squarespace 

Squarespace Homepage

Squarespace Homepage

Known for its beautiful designs and user-friendly interface, Squarespace is a great choice for bloggers who value aesthetics and want a polished, professional-looking website without having to worry about the technical details. However, you may find its customization options are more limited than other platforms. 

Top features: 

  • Stunning Templates: Take your pick from a variety of customizable templates designed specifically for blogging.
  • Integrated Analytics: Get insights into who’s visiting your blog and how it’s performing with built-in analytics.
  • Social Sharing Features: Share your content on social media with ease.
  • eCommerce Functionality: Monetize your blog by offering custom merchandise, creating subscriber-exclusive content, and selling digital services. 
  • 24/7 Customer Support: Get help whenever you need it with Squarespace’s reliable customer support.

Weebly

Weebly Homepage

Weebly Homepage

Similar to Wix, Weebly is an easy-to-use platform that offers a drag-and-drop functionality. It’s perfect for beginners and small-scale bloggers who prioritize simplicity and ease of use over advanced features. However, it’s not as flexible or customizable as other platforms. 

Top features: 

  • Drag-and-Drop Website Builder: Customize your blog easily by dragging elements like text, images, and videos onto your page and dropping them exactly where you want them.
  • Blogging Features: Schedule posts and engage with your audience through commenting options.
  • Integrated SEO Tools: Improve your blog’s visibility and reach the right people.
  • Mobile-Responsive Designs: Ensure your blog looks great on all devices.
  • Reliable Hosting Services: Weebly’s free, dedicated hosting infrastructure ensures that your site loads fast and gives visitors a great experience.

Ghost

Ghost Homepage

Ghost Homepage

Ghost is a minimalist platform designed specifically for bloggers and publishers. Its clean interface and focus on content make it perfect for writers who want to prioritize their writing without getting distracted by complex features. 

Top features: 

  • Markdown Support: Write without distractions using Markdown.
  • Email Newsletter Features: Grow your email list with built-in newsletter tools.
  • Membership and Subscription Options: Monetize your blog with membership and subscription options.
  • Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) support: Improve your blog’s loading times. 
  • Automatic Content Backups: Keep your content safe with automatic backups.

Substack

Substack Homepage

Substack Homepage

Compared to other blogging platforms, Substack is a unique choice because it’s mainly designed for newsletter publishing. With its straightforward setup and integrated payment options, Substack is perfect for bloggers who want to monetize their content through email subscriptions. However, it doesn’t let you customize your website like other blog hosting sites. 

Top features: 

  • Integrated Payment Processing: Easily monetize your content through subscription-based payments.
  • Customizable Email Newsletter Templates: Engage your readers with professional-looking newsletters.
  • Audience Engagement Analytics: Track your newsletter’s performance and audience engagement.
  • Content Gating: Offer premium content to paying subscribers.
  • Social Media Integration: Share your content easily on social media platforms.

Why WordPress is the Recommended Choice for Most Bloggers

While you can’t go wrong with any of the platforms we’ve covered above, WordPress is the ideal choice for most people, especially beginner bloggers. It offers the best balance of features, affordability, and user-friendliness compared to WordPress alternatives like Drupal and Joomla. 

Here are a few reasons why WordPress is the best platform for beginners and experienced bloggers alike: 

  • Blog-Specific Themes: A blog’s design is the first thing that captures a reader’s attention, so you’ll want to ensure it looks good. WordPress offers a wide variety of customizable, high-quality themes specifically designed for blogging. You can even design your own theme by selecting patterns to create your homepage layout and pairing it with premium colors and fonts. 
  • Vast Plugin Ecosystem: WordPress offers thousands of free plugins to enhance your blog’s functionality and improve the user experience. From anti-spam protection to SEO optimization, there’s a plugin for almost every need. Plus, you have the option to purchase premium plugins for even more advanced features. 
  • Native Gutenberg Editor: WordPress’ intuitive Gutenberg block editor makes it easy to create and format your content, even if you don’t have any technical experience. You can personalize every aspect of your blog to suit your preferences. 

Gutenberg Editor

WordPress Gutenberg Editor

The Role Your Hosting Provider Plays in Your Blogging Set-Up

While blogging platforms like Wix, Weebly, and Squarespace automatically host your website, others like WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla require a separate hosting solution. This means you’ll need to buy a plan from a hosting provider, which will offer allocated server space to install your preferred blog hosting platform and set up your website. 

Though this might seem like an extra step, it’s actually an advantage, and it’s one of the reasons why we recommend choosing platforms like WordPress. 

Hosting providers specialize in optimizing server performance, ensuring fast page loading times, reliable uptime, and robust security measures. By hosting your blogging site with a reputable provider, you can get effortless integration, automatic updates, and dedicated support, freeing you from technical hassles and allowing you to focus on creating content. 

When you choose a hosting provider, you also get additional features and services tailored to bloggers, such as one-click software installation, domain registration, SSL certificates, automated backups, and advanced analytics tools. These features streamline the blogging process, enhance site functionality, and improve user experience, which contribute to the success and growth of your blog.

Another major consideration is scalability. As your blog grows, you’ll begin to receive more traffic, and your website should be able to handle it. Using a hosting provider with tiered plans ensures that bloggers can scale their resources up or down as required, ensuring that the blog can handle increased traffic without experiencing downtime or slow loading speeds.

“Hosting is a vital aspect of blogging that should not be overlooked. A reliable hosting provider can make a world of difference in terms of site speed, security, and user satisfaction.” 

– Corey Hammond, A2 Hosting

Host Your Blog with A2: Premium Hosting at Beginner-Friendly Prices

Blog Hosting page

A2 Hosting Blog Hosting Page

With A2 Hosting, you can bring your blog to life without worrying about the technical details. 

Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced blogger, our shared web hosting plans are more than powerful enough to meet your needs, and they start at extremely low prices. If you’re set on using WordPress as your CMS, consider our managed WordPress hosting, which includes pre-installed WordPress and various WordPress-specific features such as the A2 Optimized plugin, which offers features such as CAPTCHA, image compression, and caching. 

Take a look at some of our standout features: 

  • Blazing-Fast Speed: Our Turbo Server options offer faster loading times, which are crucial for your blog’s success and SEO ranking. While new bloggers may not need a Turbo plan right away, it’s a great upgrade for sites experiencing high traffic.
  • Always Reliable: We offer a 99.9% uptime guarantee, so you can count on us to ensure your blog is always accessible to your readers. 
  • User-Friendly Dashboards: We make managing your blog a breeze. With cPanel offered on all managed plans, you can easily manage your emails, domains, and software installations. You also get a proprietary dashboard called TurboHub, which allows you to check your site health, get personalized recommendations to optimize your site, and manage plugins.
  • Regular Security Updates: We offer free SSL certificates to help you build trust with your readers, and we regularly update our servers with the latest security patches to protect your blog against potential threats and vulnerabilities. 

And, if anything goes wrong, our 24/7/365 in-house Guru Crew will be on hand to support you. 

One of our satisfied customers, Jairo A., said, “The customer service at A2 Hosting is amazing. Whenever I have a question, I can find the answer within minutes. The experience has always been pleasant, and I can’t recall a time when my server was down or had a problem. My website has always been up and running even in the middle of an outage, something none of my other competitors can do.”

Ready to start your blogging journey? Check out A2 Hosting’s blog hosting solutions today! 

Experience Reliable Hosting with our 99% Uptime guarantee .

Blog Hosting Platforms FAQs

Can you make money as a blogger? 

Absolutely! Many bloggers earn a living through their blogs by monetizing with ads, sponsored posts, affiliate marketing, or selling their own products or services. It takes time and effort to build a successful blog, but with dedication and a clear strategy, it’s possible to make a profit. 

What’s the difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com?

At their core, both are blogging Content Management Systems (CMS), but there are distinct differences between WordPress.org and WordPress.com. WordPress.org is a self-hosted platform that offers more customization and flexibility, while WordPress.com is a fully-hosted platform that’s easier to get started with but has limited features. With WordPress.org, you have more control over your blog’s design, functionality, and monetization options. 

Which platform is best for blogging?

The best blogging platform will depend on your specific needs and goals. WordPress is a popular choice due to its flexibility, customization options, and a large community of users and developers. Other options include Wix, Squarespace, and Ghost. 

What is the best website to host a blog?

WordPress powers more than 40% of websites, so it’s a highly recommended choice. To host a WordPress blog, you’ll need to choose a hosting provider that offers reliable and secure hosting services.

With A2 Hosting, you can pick between shared web hosting and managed WordPress hosting. Managed WordPress hosting is a great choice if your site receives a lot of traffic and you prefer a hands-off approach to backend management.

Are there free blog hosting sites?

Yes, there are free blog hosting sites like Blogger, Medium, and WordPress.com. However, these platforms have limitations in terms of customization, monetization, and control over your blog’s design and functionality. A2 Hosting offers affordable hosting plans that provide more control and flexibility, as well as the ability to monetize your blog and grow your audience.

What blog platform has the most traffic?

WordPress is the most popular blogging platform and has a large community of users and developers. This means that there are more resources and plugins available to help you optimize your blog for search engines and drive traffic to your site. 

A2 Hosting offers managed WordPress hosting plans that make it easy to set up and manage your self-hosted WordPress blog. Our hosting plans are also optimized for WordPress to ensure fast loading times and reliable performance.

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Build a WordPress Site in 3 Easy Steps https://www.a2hosting.com/blog/build-a-wordpress-site-in-3-easy-steps/ Fri, 16 Feb 2024 17:16:41 +0000 https://www.a2hosting.com/blog/?p=13455 Thanks to WordPress, creating a website has never been easier!  Whether you’re a budding blogger, a small business owner, or someone with a passion project, WordPress provides a user-friendly and …

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Thanks to WordPress, creating a website has never been easier!  Whether you’re a budding blogger, a small business owner, or someone with a passion project, WordPress provides a user-friendly and customizable platform to bring your website to life.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through the process of building a WordPress site in three easy steps, so you can share your ideas with the world.

Step 1: Choose a Hosting Plan and Domain Name

The foundation of any successful website is a reliable hosting plan and a memorable domain name. Here’s how to get started:

Selecting a Hosting Plan:

Research Hosting Providers: There are numerous hosting providers available, each offering different plans with various features. All hosting providers are not the same so make sure to do your research to find the best fit for you. Hosting companies should be evaluated on the following criteria:

  • Speed and performance
  • Ability and track record to keep your site secure.
  • Scalability to grow with you as needed
  • Cost effective

 

WordPress is the most extensible and widely used platform on the web, so it’s important to choose a hosting partner for your WordPress site that knows what they’re doing. Both A2 Hosting and WordPress were established 20 years ago and from our inception, our focus has remained the same: providing our customers with the ultimate hosting experience. Renowned for our speed and reliability, we offer plans to fit various budgets and the flexibility to scale as your website grows. By choosing A2 Hosting, you ensure you have reliable and fast hosting to set your website up for success. Don’t just take our word for it– check out what other customers have said on TrustPilot and see why our customers choose us!

Choose a Plan: Hosting plans typically come in different tiers, catering to various levels of website traffic and requirements. If you’re just starting, a shared hosting plan is usually sufficient. As your website grows, you can upgrade to more robust options.

At A2 Hosting, we have plans for all different levels and budgets: from shared, to VPS, to Dedicated Servers. For super easy setup, choose Managed WordPress hosting. These plans are geared towards WordPress users and offer fast and easy setup for WordPress sites.

Table outlining hosting plan options.
Which type of Hosting is Right for You? Visit A2 Hosting to learn more about each plan.

Register a Domain Name:

  • Brainstorm Domain Names: Your domain name is your online identity – make sure to choose one that reflects your website. The best domain names are memorable and would be relevant to your website content.
  • Check Domain Availability: Use a domain search tool to ensure that your desired domain name is available. If your first choice is taken, get creative with variations or consider using different domain extensions (.com, .net, .org, etc.).
  • Complete the Registration: Once you’ve found an available domain name, complete the registration process.

By the end of this step, you’ll have secured a hosting plan and a unique domain name which will lay the groundwork for building your WordPress site.

Step 2: Building Your WordPress Website

Install WordPress and Create Site:

Before you start building your site you will first need to install WordPress. If you have selected a plan like our Managed WordPress hosting plan, the installation is done for you. Otherwise follow the instructions here to get started.

In addition to installing WordPress, If you want to take the hassle out of setting up a new site, all our managed plans come with a quick site launcher preinstalled. It will guide you through building and launching your site and allow you to get started in minutes! Choose the type of site you want to build, its goals, your design preferences and the pages you want to build. You can even choose from thousands of responsive WordPress templates right in the launcher.

Choosing a Theme: 

Login to your WordPress dashboard and go to the ‘Appearance’ tab and select ‘Themes’ Here, you can browse through a variety of free and premium themes. Make sure to choose a theme that aligns with the purpose, style, and functionality of your website. Once you’ve found the perfect theme, click the “Install” button, followed by the “Activate” button. Your website will now have a new look based on the selected theme.

Screenshot of WordPress showing how to navigate to the themes section.

Select and Install WordPress Plugins:

WordPress plugins are like apps for your website and can add extra features and functionality to your site. To explore the plugin library, navigate to “Plugins” in the dashboard and click “Add New”.  You can also use the search bar to find specific plugins you want to install and activate.

WordPress screenshot showing the plugins section.
Navigate to “Plugins” in the dashboard to add new plugins

Whether you want to enhance SEO, add a contact form, or integrate social media, there’s likely a plugin for it. Here are some of our favorites:

  • Forms – Ninja Forms, Gravity Forms
  • SEO – RankMath, All in One
  • Page Builder – BeaverBuilder, Guten, Elementor

 

Once you find the plugins you want to use, you will want to make sure you look over the customization settings as most plugins come with options that allow you to tailor your site and optimize performance.

Step 3: Set Your Website Up for Success!

Elevate your WordPress site with these proactive measures for a seamlessly optimized and secure website. Here are some things to look at and adjust to ensure your WordPress site is operating at its best:

  • Performance: Make sure to utilize things like page caching and image optimization, as well as Minify CSS,HTML & Javascript. Optimizing your site is important and will greatly improve your site performance, create the best user experience, and will help improve your search engine rankings.
  • Regular Updates: It is important to keep your WordPress core, themes, and plugins up to date. This helps secure your website if you have the latest security patches. This also ensures that you have all new features available.
  • Regular Backups: Set up automatic backups of your site for peace of mind.
  • Utilize TurboHub: We have created a WordPress Dashboard for our WordPress users. This makes it easier for people to make many of the optimizations above as easy as a click! It’s now offered on all shared and managed WordPress plans.

 

Congratulations! You now have a WordPress site!

In conclusion, opting for our managed WordPress hosting provides a seamless and efficient solution for website owners. By auto-installing WordPress, the initial setup becomes a breeze and by utilizing TurboHub, it simplifies the process of implementing crucial optimizations for your WordPress site.

Get started today with managed WordPress hosting!

By following these easy steps, you’ve successfully built a WordPress site from the ground up! As you navigate your WordPress site, experiment with different themes, plugins, and customization options to make your site truly unique. Happy WordPressing! 

 

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What Is Free Migration in Hosting? https://www.a2hosting.com/blog/what-is-free-migration-in-hosting/ Thu, 02 Jun 2022 13:00:43 +0000 https://www.a2hosting.com/blog/?p=12996 Migration, in the world of web hosting, is the process of transferring files, databases, and emails from one server to another. It’s a necessity for any business that wants to …

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Migration, in the world of web hosting, is the process of transferring files, databases, and emails from one server to another. It’s a necessity for any business that wants to move to a new host – or for any individual who is unhappy with their current provider. 

Fortunately though, there are plenty of hosts like A2 Hosting that offer free migration assistance. This guide takes you through everything you need to know about website migration – from picking the right host, to actually completing the move. So whether you’re planning your first website migration, or just want to be better prepared for when the time comes, read on!

What is free migration in web hosting?

Web hosting migration is the process of transferring your website from one host to another without negatively affecting search engine rankings or changing your website’s appearance or functionality. 

When migrating a website, you can either do a full migration or a partial migration. In a full migration, you migrate all of your website files, databases, and other content. In a partial migration, you migrate parts of your website (for example, just emails).

A migration does not affect the existing published site. The web host essentially copies your data over to the new server: the information is duplicated, not removed from your existing server. This creates a mirror version of your website. 

To make your site active on the new host, you update the domain’s name servers to point to the new web hosting server. The entire process can take only a few hours to a couple of days, depending on how complicated the migration is. 

Why would you want to migrate your website from one host to another?

There are many reasons you might want to migrate your website to another host, including:

  1. You need better performance. Sometimes web hosting providers don’t work out. Your site isn’t performing well and you’ve tested your code for errors, but at the end of the day, you know that the problem is your web host. In this case, you’ll want to consider moving to a host who can provide faster website speeds.
  2. You need better support. Have you ever had a time when you’ve called a company’s support team, only to be placed on hold for an hour or transferred multiple times without receiving a solution? We’ve all been there. Some providers have better support than others. At A2 Hosting, we provide 24/7/365 support on live chats, tickets, and phones. Not everyone does that. 
  3. You need a less expensive plan. In the web hosting world, it’s industry-standard to purchase a plan at a lower rate. But when the contract expires, the plan price increases. If you need a cheaper plan, switching hosts might be the way to go.

There are, of course, other reasons to move from one web host to another, but these are the most common. 

Whatever your reason, when you’re considering making the switch to a new web host, you definitely want to consider cost. Some web hosting providers charge a fee to migrate your website (typically it’s around $25). 

You’ll want to ask any prospective host how much the migration may cost. The best hosts, like A2 Hosting, can do it for free.

The web hosting migration process

At A2 Hosting, we offer free migrations for your entire website. The migrated content includes:

  • Website files
  • Emails (note that we do not guarantee the entire transfer of mailboxes, as it can be incredibly time-consuming)
  • Databases
  • cPanel settings for cPanel-based accounts.

A migration takes around 24-48 hours to complete, but the site is not down during the process. Your site stays live on your old server until you choose to point the domain name servers over to the new host. 

If you’re not sure how to migrate your site, here’s an inside look at the migration process:

  1. Purchase a web hosting package from our website. If you’re not sure which plan to buy, please consult our guide or contact our sales team here. 
  2. Log into the A2 Hosting customer portal.
  3. Click Support, and then click Migrations. The My Migrations Tickets page appears.
  4. Click Request a Migration.
  5. Provide the requested information. If you aren’t sure how to fill out some of the fields, you may need to contact your current hosting provider for this information.
  6. Agree to the Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policy, and then click Continue to Step 2.
  7. In the Choose Service box, select the service to migrate your content. 
  8. Click Continue to Step 3.
  9. Provide the requested information, and then click Submit Migration Request.
  10. We notify you when the migration is complete. The entire process takes around 24-48 hours. 

Important: We highly recommend testing your website on our servers before changing your domain’s name server settings. To do this, you can use the shared URL for your account. The shared URL enables you to view the site without using the account’s domain name. For more information, please see this article.

Wrapping up

We know that moving your website to a different host can be daunting. A2 Hosting is committed to making the process as easy and painless for you as possible, so we have put together this guide on how to migrate your site with us in a few simple steps! Have questions? Contact one of our sales representatives today- they are standing by ready to answer any question or concern you may have about migrating your website to us. With over 20 years of experience in web hosting, our team knows what it takes to make sure all of your files are transferred successfully from one platform onto another with minimal service disruption. If there is anything else we can do for you while helping transition your website to our servers, don’t hesitate to reach out!

Related Articles:

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3 Tips for Embedding & Adding Video into Your Website https://www.a2hosting.com/blog/incorporating-video-into-your-website/ Fri, 08 Apr 2022 04:35:58 +0000 https://www.a2hosting.com/blog/?p=10511 Modern websites are multimedia-rich experiences. The days when you could get away with pages full of text and no images or videos are gone. If you shy away from using …

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Modern websites are multimedia-rich experiences. The days when you could get away with pages full of text and no images or videos are gone. If you shy away from using video on your site, you’re missing out on a fantastic marketing opportunity.

However, if you know how to incorporate video into your website, you can use it to maximize engagement and drive conversions. With the right approach, video can act as a powerful Call To Action (CTA).

In this article, we’ll talk about some of the latest video content trends, and then go over three tips to incorporate videos into your website. Let’s get to it!

What the Latest Video Content Trends Are

It’s likely that many of your users spend a significant part of their day watching videos on one platform or another. On average, users consume around 100 minutes of video per day. If you can seize even a fraction of that time through your content, it can help increase conversions.

If the primary goal of your videos is to drive sales or conversions, shorter is usually better. Despite the massive amounts of video content that customers consume, it’s safe to say that attention spans are getting shorter. At the end of 2019, up to 66 percent of video ads were approximately 30 seconds long. Although that might sound short, there’s a lot that you can say about a product or service in half a minute.

Thanks to the rise of social media stories and platforms such as TikTok, users are getting increasingly comfortable with shorter video ads as a part of their online experience. Moreover, there’s massive interest in User-Generated Content (UGC). If you can get consumers to share their experiences with your products or services in video format, that’s a huge marketing win.

There’s also a growing interest in educational videos. If your website focuses on online learning, video is a channel that you can tap into to expand your audience.

3 Tips for Incorporating Video into Your Website

If you’re ready to start incorporating videos into your website, there are several factors that can help you maximize their effectiveness. Let’s look at three tips you can use to make the most of your video strategy.

1. Add an Intro that Highlights Your Brand

If you go to your favorite YouTube channel right now and open a random video, we’re willing to bet it has an intro:

An example of a logo before a video.

The goal of intros isn’t to pad video length, but to take the opportunity to reinforce brand awareness. An intro can accomplish that in several ways, including:

  • Reminding you of the brand’s name
  • Showcasing the brand’s logo
  • Reinforcing the brand’s style and the type of content it focuses on

In this case, your website or business is the brand. Even if your videos are only 30 seconds long, adding a short intro that includes your name and the site’s logo can only benefit you. This is particularly the case when users end up watching those videos outside of your website.

Depending on which video marketing tools you use, adding intros to your content might be easier than you think. A lot of tools provide you with templates that you can use and edit, as well as the ability to upload your logo and incorporate it into the video.

2. Choose a Performance-Oriented Hosting Provider

If you plan on uploading videos directly to your server, you should use a performance-oriented web host. A lot of websites choose the cheapest hosting provider they can find, which often translates to slow loading times and a frustrating User Experience (UX).

If visitors have to spend minutes waiting for a video to load, and then wait for it to buffer every two seconds, they are much less likely to watch it in full. Even worse, that poor user experience can reflect badly on the rest of your website.

To ensure the best video experience, we recommend avoiding shared web hosting. At the very least, you’ll want to use a Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting plan, which in most cases provides better performance as well as dedicated resources for your website.

3. Create Videos that Target Your Website’s Audience

You probably have a pretty good idea of who your website’s target audience is, such as:

  • Where your users are visiting from
  • The average age of your audience
  • What their interests are and what content they want to see or read about

This information is critical for video creation. You can have an amazing idea for a marketing video, but if it doesn’t speak to your website’s audience, it won’t get the results you want. In other words, the video won’t get you conversions.

When you’re working on video content for your website, it’s important to consider whether it’s something your audience will be interested in. If the video provides or promises solutions and answers to questions they might have, it will likely succeed in its goal.

Conclusion

Knowing what the latest video content trends are is a solid starting point for creating your own media. Your website is the perfect channel to deliver those videos because it already has a built-in audience, some of whom may appreciate a different kind of content.

If you’re not sure how to approach video creation, you can start off on the right foot by keeping the following three tips in mind:

  1. Add an intro that highlights your brand.
  2. Choose a performance-oriented web hosting provider.
  3. Create videos that target your website’s audience.

Do you have any questions about how to incorporate video into your website? Let’s talk about them in the comments section below!

Image credit: Pixabay.

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What Is a Fully Qualified Domain Name? https://www.a2hosting.com/blog/what-is-a-fully-qualified-domain-name/ Wed, 23 Feb 2022 17:40:26 +0000 https://www.a2hosting.com/blog/?p=13006 Who runs the world? Domain names! Domain names literally put names on the internet. They help us identify websites and access them easily. But do you know what a fully …

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Who runs the world? Domain names! Domain names literally put names on the internet. They help us identify websites and access them easily. But do you know what a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) is? In this post, we’ll go over what FQDNs are, how they work, and some common uses for them. We’ll also show you how to create one for your own website. Let’s get started!

What is a Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN)? 

A Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) is a domain name consisting of three parts: the hostname, the domain name, and the top-level domain. The hostname is the specific computer or device on the network that you want to use the FQDN for. The domain name is the section of the FQDN that uniquely identifies your network. The top-level domain is the highest level of classification for domains and is assigned by ICANN. For example, when you type “www.google.com” into your web browser, “www” is the hostname, “google” is the domain name, and “.com” is the top-level domain. 

Different computer types use different terminology for FQDNs like network names or full computer names. 

Why should I use an FQDN? 

FQDNs indicate unique addresses on the internet. If you don’t have an FQDN, you don’t have an accessible website. They’re required for installing SSL certificates, imperative to the security of your website. 

Apart from having an accessible website, FQDNs are also useful to have a discoverable computer on an internet network, like when you need to access a computer remotely. This is common in an office to track a computer’s activity. 

Also, FQDNs help you access domain services like FTP (File Transfer Protocol) and email. For example, if you want to connect your domain name’s email to an email app on your phone like Gmail or Apple Mail, you need to know the FQDN for the mail server, which is typically something like “mail.yourdomainname.com.” 

Here is an example of an FQDN:

  1. www.a2hosting.com
  2. mail.a2hosting.com
  3. ftp.a2hosting.com

How to find your FQDN

If you’re not sure how to find your FQDN, please review the following links: 

Find your FQDN for Windows OS (operating systems).

Find your FQDN for macOS.

 

When you generate a domain name, it should contain three parts. The first part is the hostname which identifies the specific computer or device on your network that will be using this FQDN. The second part of an FQDN is the domain name and it uniquely identifies your company’s network. Finally, there is the top-level domain (TLD) which classifies domains as either generic or country-code TLDs such as .com for commercial purposes. If you need help viewing any of these components within your own FQDN contact our support team today!  

Related Articles:

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The Key Benefits of Using Jetpack for Your WordPress https://www.a2hosting.com/blog/the-key-benefits-of-using-jetpack-for-your-wordpress/ Fri, 04 Feb 2022 14:56:25 +0000 https://www.a2hosting.com/blog/?p=13015 When you start building a website in WordPress, you’ll often be presented with numerous options on how to get things going. For starters, you need to set up a contact …

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When you start building a website in WordPress, you’ll often be presented with numerous options on how to get things going. For starters, you need to set up a contact form, submit your blog for search engine rankings, and ensure security measures are in place so users can navigate your site safely.

Although this may seem overwhelming at first, there’s a WordPress plugin that provides you with all of these aspects under one roof. With the Jetpack WordPress plugin, you don’t need to install several plugins to get the features you want, since it offers nearly everything you need for your starter website.

What are the key features of Jetpack that make it unique?

Key Features of Jetpack

One of the best things about using Jetpack is that you can seamlessly integrate Jetpack to meet your needs. These are the main features of the Jetpack plugin:

  • Content Delivery Network (CDN): A slow site could be cause for search engines to penalize your rankings. With a CDN, you can help your website load faster while saving on your server’s resources. The great thing about this Jetpack feature is that it’s free and provides users with unlimited CDN bandwidth.
  • Social media sharing: Using Jetpack for WordPress can provide you with social media features such as share buttons that let your visitors share your content in just a few clicks.
  • Lazy loading images: Jetpack has a lazy loading image feature that displays photos while a person scrolls rather than presenting them with a blank div. The feature is beneficial for websites that use a lot of images but don’t want to compress them, which can lower photo quality. This can solve many image loading problems.
  • Shortcode embeds: The Jetpack shortcode lets you embed content from your social media straight to your website. With this feature, you can embed these components by copying and pasting URLs within the visual editor.
  • Automated spam blocking: With the Jetpack WordPress plugin, you can save time by automatically setting it to block and remove spam. This feature allows your site visitors to browse without being distracted.

How Can Jetpack Benefit WordPress Users?

Are you still asking the question, “Do I need Jetpack for my WordPress site?” If so, then let us share with you a few benefits that the plugin has to offer for WordPress users.

It Enhances Website Functionality

One of the best things about the Jetpack WordPress plugin is that it offers many features in one place. This means that you don’t have to install a new plugin every time you want to add functionality to your website.

It Increases Website Traffic

A website that doesn’t drive traffic is useless with today’s standards. Using Jetpack for WordPress is great because it helps improve traffic to your site once it recognizes that it’s lacking in that department.

Through its Publicize feature, you can automatically have it push out new blogs that you publish to your social media pages such as on Tumblr, Facebook, and Twitter. This will help drive traffic from your social channels to your website.

It Provides Excellent Security

Nothing is more important for users than the security a website offers and this is exactly what the Jetpack plugin provides.

Its Protect feature offers fortified security by identifying and blocking any suspicious IP addresses from potentially harming a website. It also stops repeated login attempts that have failed to stave off cyberattacks.

It Offers Centralized Site Management

Running and managing several WordPress websites can be extremely time-consuming. Fortunately, the Jetpack WordPress plugin lets you streamline the site management process through a feature that lets administrators manage several sites from one interface.

Specifically, users can update all of the themes and plugins they have in each WordPress website simultaneously with just a click of a button.

Conclusion

The WordPress plugin known as Jetpack is one of the top add-ons users can get if they want to make managing their WordPress websites easier. Not only does the plugin offer better site functionality, centralized management, and improved security, but it also helps drive much-needed traffic.

At A2 Hosting, we offer the services of our experts to handle the administration aspect of your WordPress website. Getting a Managed WordPress account from us means that you can leverage numerous features, one of which is having a free Jetpack profile.

Talk to our sales team today if you would like to learn more.

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New Managed WordPress Enhanced Security Features with A2 Hosting https://www.a2hosting.com/blog/enhanced-managed-wordpress-security-features/ Mon, 24 Jan 2022 10:51:52 +0000 https://www.a2hosting.com/blog/?p=12973 WordPress is the same age as A2 Hosting, and with 18 years of experience and hard work, it has become one of the most popular CMS on the internet. That …

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WordPress is the same age as A2 Hosting, and with 18 years of experience and hard work, it has become one of the most popular CMS on the internet. That being said, with excellence still comes room for error. It is important to note that all CMS systems and websites do get hacked and need to constantly update and improve their security systems and features to avoid any cyber security threats that they will face. To aid in this task and combat any security issues we made sure that website security was a top priority in the launch of A2 Hosting’s new Managed WordPress plans.

Looking to learn more in-depth about the security included with all these plans? Below is an explanation of the different security tools and features included and how this can help you make sure your website is safe and secure.

The Importance of Security on Websites Using WordPress

When there’s a huge demand for a script or CMS, there’s a good chance that hackers and attackers will be keeping an eye on websites using it. At any one time, there could be hundreds or thousands of attacks happening on the internet. This makes WordPress websites a target.

As such, hackers will always be scanning WordPress websites for vulnerable areas. This means website owners who don’t properly prepare and secure their WordPress sites may be at risk. This is why you need to keep the security on your website in tip-top shape! Below are the features we offer at A2 Hosting on our Managed WordPress plans to help ensure your security success.

Managed WordPress Security Features

A2 Hosting’s new Managed WordPress plans now come with a selection of enhanced security features that have been designed to support our users such as HackScan Protection, Reinforced DDoS Protection, and KernelCare. We’re including a complete breakdown below of three of the main tools we will be including in the plans and the different security features they provide our users:

WordPress Toolkit

We include different levels of cPanel’s WordPress Toolkit on all of our WordPress plans. Below are some of the main security perks:

  • 1-Click Hardening: Used to scan existing and new sites for settings that may be potentially vulnerable.
  • Automatic Hardening: This can keep your site safe through the auto-application of the industry’s best practices in security.
  • Mass Hardening: Scans all your sites for vulnerable settings while securing every site with just a click.
  • Security Rollback: In rare cases, security updates may create compatibility issues on your website. This feature will allow you to quickly revert the changes made.
  • Mass Updates: This allows you to execute updates for all of your website’s WordPress themes, core, and plugins.

Jetpack Security

We will also be including the popular Jetpack Plugin. This plugin comes with a multitude of security features including:

  • Automated Spam Filtering: Protects your site by keeping spam content away.
  • Brute Force Attack Protection: Works to keep your website safe by blocking unsafe login attempts from distributed attacks and malicious botnets.
  • Free Daily Malware Scans (Included with our Fly & Sell Plans): This feature automatically checks your site for vulnerabilities such as malware. You’ll also receive immediate alerts if Jetpack finds problems to be addressed quickly.

A2 Optimized

All of our plans also come with our plugin, A2 Optimized. We’ve focused on various security measures with A2 Optimized, which include the following:

  • Deny Direct Access to Configuration Files and Comment Form: This allows you to protect your configuration files by creating a Forbidden error to bots and web users who try to access WP configuration files.
  • Lock Editing of Plugins and Themes from the WP Admin: This prevents exploits to use the built-in editing capabilities of the WP Admin.
  • Login URL Change: With this, you can hide your wp-login and wp-admin pages, blocking off hackers from entry through brute force attacks.
  • Regenerate wp-config salts: WP salts and security keys help to secure the site’s login process along with the cookies that WordPress implements to authenticate users.
  • ReCAPTCHA on Comments and Login: Used to increase site security while decreasing spam by adding a CAPTCHA to the login screen and comment forms.
  • Unused Themes & Inactive Plugin Notifications: Themes and plugins with security flaws can still have an impact on the site. Having these notifications can help you better manage other features on your site for improved security.

cPanel Security Features

There is also a wide range of improvements to cPanel’s Security. This includes:

  • Directory Privacy: Blocks users who want to open a folder that you’ve designated for protection. They will first need to enter a username and password for access.
  • Free SSL Certificate (Free RapidSSL On Sell plans): This allows you to secure pages on your website so that details such as credit card numbers, logins, and more are sent encrypted instead of plain text.
  • Hotlink Protection: Stops your images from being used on other sites.
  • Imunify360: A comprehensive security suite for real-time and proactive website protection. It provides an all-in-one security solution that features a Web Application Firewall, an Intrusion Prevention and Detection system, a Network Firewall, Patch Management, and Real-time Antivirus protection.
  • IP Blocker: Blocks a range of IP addresses to stop hackers from getting access to your site.
  • Leech Protection: Stops users from publicly posting or sharing passwords to restricted areas of your site.
  • ModSecurity: Provides real-time monitoring for incoming threats and blocks malicious connections before reaching your WordPress website and applications.
  • Patchman: This scans your account for any outdated WP malware scripts, vulnerabilities, and applications. It will then fix any vulnerabilities without doing damage to the site.
  • SSH: Provides more secure file transfers.
  • Two-Factor Authentication (2FA): If turned on, it will require the app on your smartphone to provide a unique security code that you must input apart from your password when trying to log into your account.
  • Virus Scanner: Configurable scan of your account to identify any security threats.

Need Help? Ask Our Guru Crew

If you need support or just have a few WordPress Hosting questions, you can count on our expert Sales team! Working 24/7/365, our friendly and knowledgeable staff are more than happy to address any concerns or issues. You may also reach them via email, phone, or live chat, so you can get the answers you need when you need them.

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What is A2 Optimized (and how does it help your WordPress site)? https://www.a2hosting.com/blog/what-is-a2-optimized-and-how-does-it-help-your-wordpress-site/ Mon, 17 Jan 2022 22:26:13 +0000 https://www.a2hosting.com/blog/?p=12966 You might see the name “A2 Optimized” and think, “it sounds like something that could help my site, but I’m not exactly sure how or why?” Optimized is a verb …

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You might see the name “A2 Optimized” and think, “it sounds like something that could help my site, but I’m not exactly sure how or why?” Optimized is a verb that’s tossed around in web hosting circles. You’ll see articles like “Auto-Optimizing Your Favorite Software” or “How to Optimize Your Website’s Performance.” But what does it mean other than, “it’ll probably help my site perform better?” To answer this familiar question, we’re going to review what A2 Optimized WordPress is and why it helps your WordPress site.

What does it mean to “optimize” your website?

Optimizing your website is the process of using tools, strategies, experiments, and analyses to improve your website’s performance with the end goal to drive more traffic to your website, increase conversions, and grow revenue. 

You may have heard of SEO or search engine optimization. SEO is only one aspect of optimization (albeit the most critical). 

Optimization combines a variety of dimensions for optimal website performance like

  • SEO
  • Your website’s content and landing pages
  • Analytics
  • UX (frontend)
  • Web development (backend)

What is A2 Optimized?

A2 Optimized is a WordPress optimizer. It combines various ideal WordPress configurations to enhance website performance and increase security.

Performance-enhancing

A2’s motto is “our speed, your success” and A2 Optimized is no exception. Our plugin enhances speed with:

  • Page caching – storing copies of your web pages in a temporary storage location for quicker access.
  • Object caching – storing database query results in a temporary storage location for quicker access.
  • Minifying (minimizing code) for HTML, CSS, and Javascript) in your web pages and script files.
  • GZip data compression – takes chunks of data and makes it smaller.
Secure

Secondly, A2 Optimized is secure by:

  • Denying direct access to configuration files.
  • Preventing bots from submitting to comment forms.
  • Cutting off the file editor in wp-admin.
  • Preventing plugins and themes from wp-admin tampering.
  • Disabling other bot-targeted services like XML-RPC.

A2 Optimized configures difficult settings so you don’t have to. If you’re not technically savvy, installing the W3 Total Cache plugin may prove challenging. But when Memcached is enabled for WordPress, A2 Optimized automatically installs the plugin for you. 

A2 Optimized combines the best caching features and enhanced security configurations making it the ideal WordPress plugin. And an extra bonus, it’s free and just as easy to install as it is to uninstall, so give it a try today to see if it’s right for you! 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Is A2 Optimized free?

Yes, it is! 

Can I use A2 Optimized with any host?

Absolutely! A2 Optimized works with any WordPress-supporting host. However, A2 Hosting provides some of the fastest servers in the business, and also includes additional tools to speed up your site on our servers. 

Will A2 Optimized make all of my sites faster? That’s a guarantee?

A2 Optimized does speed up sites the majority of the time, but not all plugins and themes are created equal. 

If your site is slower after enabling caching in A2 Optimized, ensure you’re using the best plugins for your website by speaking with a developer.

Can I use A2 Optimized with WordFence?

A2 Optimized is compatible with the majority of features in WordFence, but we recommend disabling caching and logging in WordFence. Otherwise, if page caching in A2 Optimized is enabled, some WordFence features may not respond.

Related Links:

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Managed WordPress vs Shared Web Hosting: What’s the Difference? https://www.a2hosting.com/blog/managed-wordpress-vs-shared-web-hosting-whats-the-difference/ Mon, 17 Jan 2022 16:01:26 +0000 https://www.a2hosting.com/blog/?p=12745 If you ask, our sales team will tell you “what’s the difference between Managed WordPress vs Shared Web Hosting?” is one of their most commonly asked questions. With just under …

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If you ask, our sales team will tell you “what’s the difference between Managed WordPress vs Shared Web Hosting?” is one of their most commonly asked questions. With just under 40% of the internet powered by WordPress, it’s no wonder users everywhere are curious for answers. 

This year, our new WordPress plans are getting a makeover with new features to boost it above and beyond our other Shared Hosting packages. Keep reading to learn what sets them apart. 

What’s the difference between Managed WordPress vs Shared Web Hosting?

To boil it down, Managed WordPress plans offer services and performance tweaks specific to WordPress whereas Shared Web Hosting plans are generalist plans that host anything from WordPress to Drupal. But Shared Web Hosting and Managed WordPress hosting are more similar than they are different. 

You see, both plans are managed and come with 24/7/365 support on phones, tickets, and LiveChats and both plans are on shared servers. 

To summarize, 

  • Shared Web Hosting plans share resources with other sites on the same server.
  • Managed WordPress plans offer additional WordPress-specific services and tweaks to performance in a shared environment.

Why Use Managed WordPress Plans?

Managed WordPress Hosting offers WordPress-specific services, performance optimizations, customizations, and other valuable add-ons and performance tweaks including:

  • Jetpack: Jetpack is an all-in-one WordPress plugin. Even the free version of Jetpack is powerful. They have 1-click site speed optimizations to increase your SEO, brute force protection by blocking unwanted login attempts from malicious botnets, and automated spam filtering. 
  • Less users per server.
  • Faster plans (with 4x more physical memory than our Shared Hosting packages)
  • A2 Optimized and LSCache settings to speed up your website. 
  • WordPress Toolkit for easier site management.

Why Use Shared Hosting Plans?

Web Hosting Pricing

Shared Web Hosting is an affordable option to hosting your website. It’s especially beneficial for new or lower traffic websites. With a typical shared hosting plan, to keep the costs low you’re sharing the server with other users. This means if something happens to one site on the server, your site may be affected. Luckily here at A2 Hosting, we don’t overload our servers with thousands of users on one server. This mitigates that risk. 

The Pros and Cons of Managed WordPress Hosting

WordPress image

Pros of Managed WordPress Hosting

  • Server architecture finely tuned specifically for WordPress 
  • Auto-testing any new updates to find potential issues before the updates go live.
  • Automatic updates for WordPress. 
  • Built-in server-level caching
  • Free Jetpack license for your primary domain
  • Site staging 
  • cPanel
  • LsCache, one of the fastest caching agents on the market
  • A great in-between plan if you aren’t ready to upgrade to a VPS yet

Cons of Managed WordPress Hosting

  • Managed WordPress plans are inherently more expensive due to more features
  • Stricter limits/caps on resource usage
  • Limited to hosting only WordPress sites 

The Pros and Cons of Shared Hosting

With everything, there’s a pros and cons list. Here are a few for Shared hosting:

Pros of Shared Hosting

  • Less expensive way to host WordPress
  • The ability to host unlimited websites
  • Still has significant performance perks like our Turbo Boost and Turbo Max plans
  • Easy to seamlessly upgrade within the Shared ecosystem
  • Site staging
  • cPanel

Cons of Shared Hosting

  • Can be slower than their Managed WordPress counterparts 
  • Jetpack isn’t included
  • Lack other performance-tweaking WordPress customizations

Which plan is better for WordPress?

There isn’t a single answer for this question. Only you know what’s best for your website and your needs. The best way to decide is to analyze what you need. Which plans will help you get to where you need?

To help you decide, consider the following:

  • Are you going to host websites other than WordPress? If so, the decision is easy–stick with Shared Web Hosting packages. 
  • Do you need all of the WordPress-specific customizations or is your site simple enough to get by on a Shared Web Hosting plan?
  • What is your budget? Shared hosting plans are less expensive, but Managed WordPress plans have additional power and features that may be worth the investment. If the features sound nice enough to pay a little extra every month, consider it.
  • Do you need automatic updates? WordPress updates automatically on our plans. Installing the latest versions of software means your site is as secure as possible. If you don’t need automatic updates, Shared hosting packages may be the better choice.
  • How much traffic do you have? If your website is small and discreet, starting out on a Shared server is probably the best option, at least for a while. You can always upgrade to a Managed WordPress plan at any time. Smaller is always better to start. Then, scale up your needs as your business grows.

 

Also, consider this: the Managed WordPress plans are the best in-between plan if you need more resources than a Shared hosting package, but less than a VPS. If you’re unsure, as always, contact our sales team today to find out which plan is best for your needs. 

Whatever plan you decide is best for you, it’s a personal decision and we support you either way.

Related Articles: 

 

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A2 Hosting Launches Next-Generation Managed WordPress Hosting https://www.a2hosting.com/blog/a2-hosting-launches-next-generation-managed-wordpress-hosting/ Mon, 17 Jan 2022 15:21:36 +0000 https://www.a2hosting.com/blog/?p=12950 Blazing-Fast, Managed Turbo Servers Increase WordPress Website Speed and Security   Ann Arbor, MI—January 17, 2022—A2 Hosting, a provider of high-speed web hosting solutions, announced the availability of its new and …

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Blazing-Fast, Managed Turbo Servers Increase WordPress Website Speed and Security  

Ann Arbor, MI—January 17, 2022—A2 Hosting, a provider of high-speed web hosting solutions, announced the availability of its new and improved portfolio of Managed WordPress plans. Modernizing its prior WordPress offerings, the new plans run on the company’s high-performing Turbo servers and introduce advanced features and tools—innovations that collectively increase website speed and security as well as ease of management for customers. The plans are available in four distinct packages to support various business requirements from single or multiple website deployments to basic corporate or eCommerce site configurations. 

“Last year, 70 percent of businesses chose to invest more in their digital presence. In parallel, over 60 percent of websites currently use WordPress as their content management system,” said Bryan Muthig, CEO, A2 Hosting. “We have a highly regarded track record of staying in step with our customers’ wants and needs which is why we released an extensive WordPress survey. The results guided us in creating our new Managed WordPress solutions that maximize, secure, and simplify the use of WordPress.” 

Run, Jump, Fly, Sell

As stated above, A2 Hosting’s WordPress experts developed the four different levels of WordPress plans based on feedback from current and prospective customers. All plans include cPanel’s WordPress Toolkit for easy site management. The tiers are defined as: 

  • Run: The first tier plan is for WordPress beginners and hobbyists to quickly and easily get sites up and running. Run best fits the needs of users who are beginning on WordPress and need a strong foundation optimized with security and features that can be built on.
  • Jump: The second tier plan is designed for professionals whose businesses need more resources and/or have up to five websites to host. Jump includes extras like Jetpack’s Daily Backup License and 250 GB of NVMe performance storage.
  • Fly: The third tier plan is designed for experienced web professionals and developers who host a number of sites for themselves and their customers. Fly provides users with unlimited websites, unlimited NVMe storage, and free daily malware scans with Jetpack’s Security Daily License. 
  • Sell: This tier is specifically crafted for eCommerce professionals, with WooCommerce pre-installed and optimized. Sell is also bundled with a premium RapidSSL certificate and a site seal to demonstrate enhanced security to customers. This plan is ideal for buying and selling using WordPress.

 

Advanced Plan Features and Benefits

The new Managed WordPress plans are supported 24/7/365 by A2 Hosting’s in-house Guru Crew. This team provides hands-on assistance with server and plan maintenance. The plans take a focused approach to help users increase their success rates with the popular CMS: 

  •  Security Enhancements

Also included is extensive security, including features like a web application firewall, real-time antivirus protection, a network firewall, and patch management that detect, fix, and protect these hosting plans. The Fly and Sell plans also include Jetpack Daily Secure that addresses specific WordPress vulnerabilities through malware scans, brute force protection, automated spam filtering, and more to remove the guesswork from deploying the most secure website possible today. 

  • Speed Optimization

The plans are hosted on A2 Hosting’s Turbo servers. The servers’ integrated NVMe storage, advanced LiteSpeed caching, and A2 Optimized plugin (which uses Memcached and TurboCache to accelerate website performance) to increase server speeds up to 20x faster than stock installation with 204% of standard disk performance.

  • Managed Server Benefits

All plans come with complete server management. This includes features like 24/7 server maintenance, security, resource upgrades, malware scanning, and more. 

  • WordPress-Specific Site Management Tools  

The plans also include newly introduced tools designed to aid and automate the speed and security of WordPress websites. The tools offer daily back-ups and malware scans, site speed scores, 1-click optimizations, optimized CSS, and other features. They are also bundled with cPanel’s Deluxe WordPress Toolkit, which helps users easily manage, update, back up, clone, stage, and secure WordPress websites.  

A2 Hosting’s New Managed WordPress plans are currently discounted, ranging in price from $11.99 to $41.99 per month.  

About A2 Hosting

Recently awarded Leader in Web Hosting for Summer 2021 by G2 and Best Cheap Dedicated Web Hosting by Digital.com, A2 Hosting, Inc. is a high-performance hosting services provider located in Ann Arbor, MI. The company delivers ultra-reliable solutions and 24/7/365 US-based support from its Guru Crew team. Since 2003, A2 Hosting has offered innovative, affordable, and developer-friendly hosting for small- and medium-sized businesses as well as web development agencies worldwide. Customers seeking the fastest hosting options in the industry can host websites of any size on A2’s Turbo Performance server platform featuring page load speeds up to 20X faster compared to competing solutions. To learn more, visit https://www.a2hosting.com.

 

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Press Contact:

Heather Ailara

211 Communications

+1.973.567.6040

heather@211comms.com

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