One thing I remember from grade school writing classes are the 5 (make that 6) W’s – Who, What, Where, When, Why and the runner-up, How? I recall completing my required essays and asking myself, did I answer these questions?

When it comes to writing your website content, the same questions apply. So harken back to your elementary years and ask yourself:

• Who is my company?
• What do we do or what do we sell?
• Where are we? (Digital or brick and mortar)
• When are we operating or open for business?
• Why do we do what we do? (Mission, purpose, story, etc.)
• And How? How can people get in touch with us, how can they buy, or how do we do what we do, if important.

If you are answering these questions in a straightforward, easy to find manner, then you are providing your visitors with the information they need. If they are not directly communicated on your homepage then they should be easy to find.

Let’s dig.

Let’s go a little bit deeper and answer those questions about who your CLIENT or CUSTOMER is. These questions will help you create a better strategy and understand your audience. 

• Who is my audience and target client? Who is visiting my site?
• What does my customer need from me? What solution do I provide them?
• Where or when does my service or product fall into their own processes or daily lives (depending on B2B or B2C)?
• Why should our client choose us? Why are we better than our competition?
• How can I or do I meet their needs? How can I get my visitor’s business? 

More tips…

Some other tips from my essay writing days that are good to still consider:

• Do not start all your sentences with the same word. For example, We do that… We do this… We don’t…
• Do not be too wordy. Guide your reader with a call to action.
• The word “that” is almost always unnecessary.
• Use active language (instead of passive).
• And not so much a grammar tool but an SEO tool, think about the keywords people will use to search your business and try to include them as much as possible without being redundant or sounding silly.

The following article is the second in a series exploring the topic of web hosting—specifically, Wordpress hosting. These articles are designed to help you determine your needs and make the best decision about your hosting solution. 

Part 1 of the series provided a general overview of web hosting, and discussed why you need it and what makes WordPress hosting different. In Part 2 below, we’ll review the different types of hosting services and give you some guidelines for determining the best fit for you. Part 3 will offer some advice on choosing the right WordPress hosting partner.

Do You Need WordPress-specific Hosting?

In part 1, we established that you’ll need hosting for your website, but does that mean you have to find a provider who offers “WordPress hosting?”

The short answer is: No.

WordPress has pretty minimal hosting requirements: PHP version 7 or higher, MYSQL 5.6 or higher -or- MariaDB version 10.1 or greater, and HTTPS support (SSL). Most hosting companies can handle those specifications and host a WordPress site. If they can’t meet all of them, then GruffyGoat recommends not using that particular host.

What makes WordPress-dedicated hosting desirable is that it’s optimized to run WordPress sites, which means that the server script is regularly updated to ensure stability, maintain a positive user experience, and integrate the most recent versions of any plug-ins or security updates. Simply put, quality WordPress hosting makes your WordPress site better.

A lot of the performance improvement of WordPress hosting really depends on the size and scale of your website. In fact, if your site is a small project with limited functionality (such as a personal blog), then you may not need a dedicated external host at all. You can simply host your site through WordPress.com—it’s free and easy to set up an account with them.

If your WordPress website needs to support a business or organization, however, there are a number of good WordPress hosting models available. In addition to free options, the two most commonly employed models are “shared hosting” and “managed hosting,” which we’ll get into below. There are alternative models as well for specialized organizations, but the model that will work best for you will depend largely on your needs, your budget, and your capabilities.

Here’s an overview of the most common WordPress hosting options…

Free WordPress Hosting

There are many free WordPress web hosts available online, but pretty much all of them offset the hosting fee by placing ads and banners on every page of your site. Your tolerance for that will determine if this is a good fit for you. Most businesses will not want to share marketing space with other companies, especially when the content of those external ads is out of your control.

Another downside to free hosting is that, unlike a dedicated hosting provider who charges a fee and has accountability to customers, the free web host is often simply renting excess server space to you. The host might not be that concerned with server performance and security, and their long-term service may not be reliable. Free hosts can (and do) fold up shop without warning, knocking their hosted sites off the internet until the site owners can find new hosts and transfer their files over. 

GruffyGoat does not recommend using free WordPress hosting.

Managed WordPress Hosting

WordPress is a popular platform, so some web hosting providers now offer managed WordPress hosting. With this model, your site not only lives on a WordPress-optimized server, but also benefits from a dedicated technical support team. 

Depending on the terms of your plan, these experienced professionals will monitor your site for performance, keep it secure and updated, maintain regular backups of the data, and even evaluate plug-in compatibility.

Managed WordPress hosting is pretty much hassle-free, which makes it ideal for small- to medium-sized businesses who can afford a higher recurring services fee but  not the operational expense of an in-house IT staff. 

Performance-wise, your managed WordPress site will typically gain…

• Faster speeds.
• Improved server-side caching.
• Superior security with regular server scans and updates.
• Test sites to preview changes before committing.
• And a lot more, depending on the plan you select.

The chief downside to managed WordPress hosting is the cost. It is more expensive than shared hosting, with monthly service fees ranging from around $25 for a single site at the low-bandwidth usage end to $100 or more for plans with multiple domains and high bandwidth limits.
GruffyGoat recommends WPEngine for high-quality, affordable managed WordPress hosting.

WordPress VPS Hosting

An alternative to traditional WordPress hosting models, a Virtual Private Server (VPS) partitions a physical server into multiple “virtual” servers, giving you dedicated space for your site with high levels of management and security similar to what you get when you own a private server.

VPS hosting is best for medium-sized businesses with sufficient in-house IT resources to manage the technical requirements. Be advised that it takes a fair amount of technical knowledge to make a VPS solution work on your own. Managed VPS hosting is also available, which is a good option for high-need, low-capability organizations.

WordPress Dedicated Server Hosting

Another alternative hosting model involves leasing a dedicated WordPress server from the hosting provider. Best suited for Enterprise organizations and extremely high-traffic, high functionality corporate sites, a dedicated server gives you and your IT staff full control of the server and site specifications. As with other hosting solutions, there are managed dedicated server services available if you do not employ a system admin or IT staff.

Which to choose?

When selecting the right WordPress hosting solution for your site, you must weigh the options against your needs: speed, reliability, security, maintenance, and cost are just some of the factors unique to your business that should impact your decision.

That’s why evaluating your hosting needs at the beginning of the website process can better inform the design and development phases, and ultimately save you critical time and money by aligning the development of the site to your hosting solution.

If you’re a serious website owner, then free hosting is not a real option; and if you don’t have sufficient budgets and IT resources, then VPN and dedicated server hosting options are probably not for you either. Shared hosting and managed hosting plans tend to be ideal choices for most companies because they are relatively simple to engage and deploy.

The good news is that there are lots of solid, reasonably-priced providers of shared and managed WordPress hosting solutions available. The “bad” news is that you’ll still have to search for one that provides a plan that meets your requirements.

More good news, though! Part 3 of this series will cover what to look for in a reliable web hosting partner.

The following article is the third and final entry in a series exploring the topic of WordPress web hosting. The series is designed to help you determine your needs and select the best hosting solution for you. 
Part 1 of the series provided a general overview of web hosting, while Part 2 examined the different types of hosting services, with guidelines for deciding on the right model to handle your site’s objectives. Part 3 below provides some advice for choosing a web host.

Where to Start? Focus on the Basics.

To find the right WordPress hosting provider, you must first know what you’re trying to accomplish with your site. Make a list of your website’s core features and the technical requirements that are critical to its operation. You’ll want to find a provider who can meet all of your requirements.

To narrow your search parameters further, your project team should know the answers to some basic questions about your site needs before approaching potential hosting partners…

Cost 

What is your monthly hosting budget? Is it sufficient to purchase the minimum hosting plan you need to meet your site goals?

This is a situation where you can’t cut corners and hope to get the best results out of your site. If you select a low-cost hosting solution that can’t handle your site’s traffic or support the latest WordPress features, then your site will underperform. 

Many hosting providers also offer promotional discounts for new customers, so be sure you understand when the promotional period ends and what your total costs will be over Year One and beyond. Discuss the terms of rapidly upgrading your account with your provider, should your site’s usage needs increase dramatically.

Performance

How many site visitors do you anticipate each day/week/month/year? How fast will your site pages load for users? What is your tolerance for downtime?

If your host’s servers frequently go down due to technical issues, power outages, or other problems, then you’re paying them to host a site that nobody can use. Reliable hosting providers can provide performance and uptime guarantee in their SLA. Choose a provider with a consistently high uptime percentage (99% or higher), particularly if you require high levels of performance.

Security

What are your data security responsibilities? What level of malware and antivirus protection do you require at a minimum? Does your site require a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) to encrypt communications?

If your site has ecommerce functions, or if it handles or transfers confidential information, then you want to choose a hosting provider that is rated highly for secure infrastructure.

Management

How will you incorporate WordPress updates? Who will handle your plug-ins? How will your site content be refreshed on a regular basis?

This is where your in-house IT capabilities will affect your decision. Find out what support options a hosting provider offers, and whether or not the support is specific to WordPress sites. If you have a system admin or support team who can handle the technical details, then a shared hosting plan might be your best bet. But if you lack the time or resources to manage regular site maintenance tasks, then a managed WordPress hosting service is for you.

Everyone’s site requirements are different, and you may identify other questions not covered here that are specific to your objectives. In any case, make sure the hosting provider can accommodate 100% of your needs in the plan they offer.

How Do You Choose a Provider?

There are a lot of hosting providers out there, and most of them offer similar services at similar price levels, so how do you know which is the best choice? Online ratings can be helped, but they are not always accurate. It mostly comes down to which provider has the reputation for giving customers the most service and performance for the budget.

The best advice we can give is to do your research, but avoid getting too far into the weeds, particularly if you’re new to website projects and/or don’t have a system admin to fall back on for advice. The most important thing is to choose a provider who can support your WordPress site, and help you keep it running quickly, reliably, and securely. 

Here’s a few final tips when making your selection…

• Look for a hosting provider that offers automatic updates, SSL certificates, free data backups, free domain registration, and high levels of storage and bandwidth.
• Unless your site is Enterprise-level, you probably don’t need a VPS or dedicated server. A shared or managed WordPress hosting solution will be well-suited to most requirements.
• When evaluating a provider’s support level, look for 24/7 live chat and/or phone support, because you never know when you might experience an issue and need to mitigate your site’s downtime.
• WordPress plug-ins can affect your site’s performance; use them carefully if you have a shared plan, or rely on the technical expertise of the hosting provider if you decide on a managed hosting plan.

GruffyGoat partners with WP Engine, and we recommend them as a reliable, high-quality WordPress hosting provider. They even offer a 60-day money-back guarantee for new customers.

We hope this WordPress web hosting series has been informative and helpful. You can always contact GruffyGoat for any assistance with your website projects.

The design and development phases of your website project are only two-thirds of the process. The third major component you’ll need to launch your site to the Internet is a web host. Most organizations don’t have the IT resources and dedicated servers to host a site themselves, so they opt to partner with a third-party company that provides hosting services.

But what does a web host do, and how do you go about finding one to fit your website’s goals?

There are several important factors to consider as you move forward, which will impact both how your site functions and how it is maintained over the long-term. This article is the first in a series that will explore the topic of web hosting—specifically, Wordpress hosting—and help you make some decisions about your hosting needs.

Part 1 of the series, which follows below, is an overview of web hosting: What is it? Why do you need it? What is WordPress Hosting? Part 2 will look at the different types of hosting services and give you some guidelines for determining which type best suits your specific needs. Part 3 will explain how to find a good web host and give you some tips on what to look for in a reliable hosting service.

What Is Web Hosting?

In the simplest terms, a web host provides the technology and services needed for a website to be “live” on the Internet—that is, visible and usable by your intended audience.

Websites are hosted on specialized computer servers, where the software files that make up your site are stored and connected to the Internet. Each hosting server has a specific “address,” a series of numbers, letters, and symbols known in technical terms as the Uniform Resource Locater (URL), but which most people recognize as a site’s “www-dot” or “http” address.

When web users type your site’s URL into the address bar of their Internet browser, they go to the server address where your site is hosted and can then access your files, which display on their screens as your website’s design, navigation, and functionality features.

Why Does a Website Need to Be Hosted?

Larger companies can sometimes afford the infrastructure and staff needed to run a web server, but most don’t or can’t do it themselves. Without someone hosting your website, however, it doesn’t actually exist.

At the beginning of a website project, a lot of attention is paid to the site’s design and development. Hosting is often thought of as a “we’ll deal with that later” decision. As a result, some of the factors that might inform the design and development phases are overlooked. Factors like:

• How will your site’s underlying software be updated?
• How will your site be optimized for search engine ranking?
• What sort of bandwidth usage requirements will your site have?
• What are your requirements for transmitting and securing site data?
• How will your site’s content be refreshed?
• How will your website needs (and costs) scale as your business grows?

If your website’s designers and developers know the answers to these questions, then they can provide better guidance as to how the site is built and interacted with by visitors. If your project partners don’t bring the topic up, then you should start the conversation, because the decisions you make are important to your site’s ultimate success.

Choosing the right web hosting partner for your needs can improve your site’s search engine rankings, increase sales, generate more contacts with your audience, and help secure your site against malware, hackers, and outages. You also want a stable and professional hosting partner because, unlike the design and development phases which mostly end once the site goes live, the web hosting phase continues for your site’s entire lifespan. Once hosting ends, the site is no longer accessible on the Internet.

What Is WordPress Hosting?

Your GruffyGoat website is built in WordPress, which is a fairly simple programming script compatible with most web hosting companies. We recommend partnering with a web host provider who specifically offers WordPress hosting, which is optimized to WordPress’ high performance and security standards. A WordPress web host also typically offers one-click installs of the software, and many providers will automatically update your WordPress software as new versions are released.

There are a variety of WordPress hosting models, but the two most commonly employed are “shared hosting” and “managed hosting.” In a nutshell, shared hosting involves putting your website on a secure server alongside many other websites, who all share the server’s resources and connections. Your site’s speed and performance will vary by provider, as will your level of participation in operating and maintaining the site.

Managed hosting services are similar to shared hosting, but the hosting provider handles all of the back-end maintenance, including software and hardware updates, data backups, antivirus and malware protection, as well as a variety of physical and virtual security features. Your site’s speed and performance are typically better with a managed hosting solution.

Ultimately, the model of WordPress hosting that will work best for you depends on your organization’s requirements—including budgetary needs—as well as your tolerance for performing the maintenance tasks of a live WordPress site.

Now that we’ve established some of the basics, we’ll get more into the WordPress hosting models in Part 2 of this series, and give you guidance on how each model addresses specific goals. Ideally, this will help you have a productive conversation with your site developers about your hosting needs.

If you have questions about WordPress websites and hosting services, then contact the GruffyGoat team. We’ll be happy to talk with you about your needs.

It’s a reasonable question. There are lots of tools out there—some are even free—that let enterprising companies and individuals build and manage sites with sophisticated functionality options. There are also many premade, easy-to-use design templates available online to drop all your content into. Even hosting can be a simple online transaction with no real expertise needed to attain.

So why would you ever hire a professional web developer to do it for you?

Probably for the same reason that, despite the proliferation of big-box home improvement stores and YouTube how-to videos, people still hire contractors—plumbers, electricians, carpenters—to do even simple home projects. 

Instead of trying to do it themselves, many folks would rather pay someone who knows what they’re doing, to enjoy professional results in a fraction of the time, without the headaches and frustrations involved in a specific project.

Even if you have the competency to learn how to use all the “free” development tools out there, the time and effort you will expend to learn how to do everything isn’t free at all. If it were, there would be no such thing as professional web developers.

A professional firm like GruffyGoat is comprised of people who have dedicated their educations and careers to understanding how all of this works, and they’ve learned the best practices to design and develop websites efficiently and affordably.

What might take an amateur web developer hours or even days to fix or update, our team can often do in a matter of minutes. We do it all day, every day, and we’re really good at it.

So when you’re considering trying to build your website yourself, ask yourself an important question first: “What is my time worth?”

If you have other, more pressing things that need your attention—such as growing your business—then your best option is to partner with professionals like GruffyGoat. We can save you and your organization valuable time, money, and effort, and you get to achieve amazing results!

If you’re in the business of providing website design and development services, at some point, the need to hire one or more full-time developers will become critical to your sustained growth. The question for you, at that point, becomes: “Do I hire employees in-house, use third-party contractors, or partner with a development firm that can provide a range of scalable back-end services?”

The answers to all three questions involve some sort of cost to your company, and whichever answer appeals to you most is likely to be directly related to the cost burden your company can support.

Hiring someone in-house understandably involves all the costs of onboarding and maintaining a full-time employee. Those expenses then multiply as your staff grows over time. The chief advantages of an in-house developer for you are their responsiveness to internal circumstances as they change, as well as a strong level of management oversight on the employee’s work. One major disadvantage is that as experienced personnel leaves your organization, they take their accumulated knowledge with them, which can take time to replace and get back up to speed.

Third-party contractors can be an affordable, flexible alternative to hiring an employee. However, the lack of control over a contractor’s production schedule could affect delivery schedules. Most third-party developers are individuals who are subject to the regular interruptions and delays of life. As a result, if your solo contractor goes down for any reason (illness, family emergency, internet outage, etc.), your entire development schedule can suddenly grind to a halt.

An ideal solution—and one that is more affordable than many business owners may realize—is to partner with a highly-trained team of back-end developers and support personnel who can not only help you outsource all your needs but also scale with your business as it grows—a team like GruffyGoat. We work with WordPress, Shopify, HubSpot, WebFlow, just to name a few. 

You can hire us on an “as-needed” basis, or as an ongoing service and support partner for an extended period of time. Our experts can cover any aspect of a Wordpress site—from building the architecture and providing hosting and maintenance, to offering full technical support and management of customer requests and changes. We can even provide supplemental design and content services if needed.

You get all the business benefits of a full-service, in-house development team, all without having to pay expensive salaries and benefits, without having to manage your developers taking time off or calling in sick, and without having your CTO leave for four months to go surf when you need them the most. Even if you already have in-house developers, we can supplement your internal capabilities by helping manage overflow tasks as you grow!

We work behind the scenes to support your business and keep operations running smoothly. We can be as visible or invisible to your clients as you wish, and you can even repackage our services under your own branding.  Best of all, you can focus on landing more website projects and growing your business and worry far less about how you’re going to deliver your next Wordpress project on-time and on-budget.

Whether you need front-end assistance with simple, theme-based marketing sites, or you need a “full-stack” developer to build high-end, integrated sites with complex functionality, why hire a full-time employee when you can partner with a team of professionals who cost less and can do more?

If you’re asking yourself, “Should I hire an in-house developer?”, then the answer is, “No…you should hire GruffyGoat!”