Posted in: Hosting, SEO, Web Development, Wordpress

In the world of hosting there are many options to choose from when it comes to a solution for your WordPress website.

One hosting solution option is the lovely shared hosting account. This typically brings to mind horrible images of flying monkeys running amuck without regard to what they destroy or the resources they use. These servers are built for everyone which means that your WordPress website will work okay, but not perform at its best. When living in an apartment, sometimes your neighbors can get loud and you can’t even hear yourself think. If your server neighbor has a spike in traffic, that spike can cause your site to slow down as well. With a slow site comes bad SEO, and bad SEO decreases visits and well, you get the point.

Next, you have servers, such as cloud servers, called VPS (virtual private servers) and Dedicated Servers. A good deal of knowledge is required in order to run these servers correctly and you’re pretty much on your own when it comes to managing them. Remember that time when you went to talk to Suzie on the playground and your best friend who said he would go with you backed out at the last minute only to leave you there with no confidence and then you peed your pants out of fear? Well yeah, you get the point. Most VPS offerings out there are not great at setting up a WordPress-specific environment and they require knowledge of cPanel and other technologies. These services also tend to up-charge you for backups, SSL, or even malware removal.

Lastly, are the DIY options, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS). Being very robust for the average blogger or business owner, this option is a gigantic time suck. Just like the time you went to go change out the transmission on your 4×4 truck and quickly realized, you’re not a freaking mechanic. If you’re not someone who is very fluent in managing servers, command line Linux, SSH, and a few other tech language acronyms, then it’s best you keep away. These systems are pretty darn powerful, but with that power comes responsibility, and who has the time for that when you have widgets to sell and blogs to write?

Now the part you’ve been waiting for: the above hosting options are like eating pancakes with peanut butter. They, like pancakes with peanut butter, look appealing, and may even taste good, but most people are allergic to peanuts and gluten and then you always need a glass of milk, but you also happen to be dairy intolerant. Basically, these services are good for only a small portion of WordPress sites, for the highly skilled or for those who have massive amounts of time on their hands. Ultimately, it’s best to stick with a managed service.

So then you ask, what’s this about Managed Hosting? Well, it’s hosting on Red Bull and it allows you to do what you do best, run your blog or website without having to worry about all the technical know-how. Managed WordPress hosting is a hosting service that is specifically built for WordPress, and normally comes with the following additional features:

WordPress specific support
Malware detection and removal
DDos (denial of service) and intrusion protection
Site staging and cloning (how can we live without this)
Daily automated backups
CDN (content deliver network, see “A dummies Guide to Content Delivery Networks ”)
Caching tools
Easy SSL installation
Easy restore (you will need this)
Scalable
Free website transfers

With all of these features, you’re free to run your business. You don’t have to become a hosting expert or worry about whether or not your hosting platform sucks because with managed WordPress hosting, it doesn’t. Some of the very important features are the DDOS prevention and malware scans. In this day and age, it’s not a matter of whether or not your site gets attacked, it’s when, and you want to be ready. These services help in preventing attacks or cleaning them up before Google finds out, and trust me, you don’t want Google to list you as a hacked site!

Surprisingly, standard hosting accounts don’t include backup or restore options, and if they do, it’s at quite a hefty price! Having the option to backup or restore work is one of the most helpful tools when it comes to maintaining a functional website. For example, you decide to update some of your plugins and find out that something happened and your site is now broken. Panic sets in, just like the time you broke the vase your mother got from her dead grandmother. Wouldn’t it be great to have a button that can take you back in time? Well that’s an option with managed hosting. You simply take a couple breaths and click restore. Now all is right with the world and your mom won’t hate you for life.

One of the most appealing aspects of Managed WordPress hosting is the server itself. The hardware and software behind your site is optimized to work for and with WordPress. This allows WordPress to run more effectively, thus allowing your site to be the best, kind of like building your house on a solid foundation. With the server comes a great deal of WordPress-specific knowledge from the support team, which is also a massive benefit. You basically have a team of experts at your disposal, and an environment that allows you to sleep at night.

So this brings us to our conclusion: Pancakes with peanut butter can’t be consumed by most of your users because we have all become allergic to peanuts and gluten. This is comparable to shared hosting, VPS or DIY options; they are not fit for everyone and everything.

Instead, stick with something that will leave you satisfied, maybe a little sweet something like gluten free pancakes with maple syrup or if you’re dangerous, pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream. If you’re serious about your business and its online presence, don’t get stuck with peanut butter in your mouth and get WordPress managed hosting.