Spend Money On Good Web Hosting
Author: MoneyNing | Categories: Technical | Posted on August 23, 2008
Do you want an instant increase in traffic? For some of you, it’s as easy as changing the web host! Last week, I finally made the leap to a Media Temple from my previous shared hosting plan. The results were surprising to say the least.
I compared data from the Monday to Friday before the switch to the Monday to Friday after the switch and the results speaks for itself. The reason why I used Monday to Friday is because I want:
- to compare the same number of days
- to chose business days as I get the bulk of the traffic on those days and the larger the sample, the more accurate stats tend to be
What the Numbers Tell You
Switching to a better hosting company absolutely increases traffic (or at least sets you up for it). Here’s why it works.
Visits and Pageviews Increased
After I changed to a new host, the responsiveness of my sites were much improved. In fact, even my wife, whom know nothing about hosting and the like, told me that the sites seem to load much faster after I changed to Media Temple. I was capturing the impatient visitors that would otherwise click somewhere else. I knew before I switched that this was possible but I never knew that it would be to this extent. As you can see, I gained 15.38% more visitors! I’m so happy with changing that I’m kicking myself for not doing it earlier!!
Average Time on Site
The new visitors actually spend 5 less seconds after I switched. In general, this may seem like it’s a bad thing but I actually think readers are spending less time on the site because they aren’t spending time waiting for pages to load!
Bounce Rate
Bounce rate measures visitors who leave the site without going to another page. This is another important metric because visitors who visit more than one page are much more likely to become a reader/subscriber of the blog. As you can see, when pages load quicker, less people tend to just get fed up and leave.
What the Numbers Don’t Tell You
Aside from the actual statistics, here’s why switching to a better host is great.
Branding
The importance of branding is undeniable as stated before. Do you want your readers to feel that your site is slow and sluggish or do you want them to see that your site is snappy and quick? Just ask yourself. Which site would you rather visit when you are browsing?
Reader Retention
I know that when I go to a site that’s slow, I get fed up easily when every action (click on a new page, comment etc) take 1-2 seconds to load. I can perhaps tolerate it a couple times if I am already familiar with that site, but I will just stop going there eventually if it’s a constant struggle to read the articles.
Time is Money
I found that after I changed hosting companies, writing an article and overall site maintenance take less time! This is perhaps one of the most crucial and least talked about benefit of having a quick loading blog. It might be half a second here and a few seconds there, but they definitely add up! Instead of waiting for that plugin to install or the post page to load, I’m being productive!
Dump Your Inexpensive Shared Hosting
I used to pay $6.95 per month for my shared hosting and I thought I was happy. Now I’m paying $50 per month and I’m much happier. I’m so satisfied that I believe changing my host to Media Temple is one of the top 30 best decisions I’ve made for my blog. If you are at least semi-serious about your blog, change to a better host!
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Hi Dave,
How much it would cost me if I switched over to their hosting plan just one website of mine? I’m thinking of jumping ship too as my current host is not too reliable.
thanks,
Sam
Sam: It depends on which plan you choose. Their plans start at $20 per month and go all the way up to $750. At the end you’ll need to consider your traffic.
You can email me at the contact page if you need more details.
[...] presents Spend Money On Good Web Hosting posted at Busy Blogging Dot Com, saying, “Don’t be cheap about web hosting! You [...]
This is just what I needed to read right now! I was seriously considering moving to Media Temple for my blog and 2 e-commerce sites, and this article has helped me decide.
Thanks!
P
I’m glad it’s working out for you. You do realise though, that you’re paying 7 times more for that 15% gain in traffic? To be honest, there’s obviously more to it than that. One would hope you are getting better support, uptime, etc for that too. Still, that sounds a lot pricier than your average shared hosting account.
Rod: I think the percentages could be a little deceiving though since we are only talking about $50 per month so the difference is $43 even though it is 7 times more than the original.
With the new hosting, I’ve made much more than $43 because of the difference in responsiveness of the websites so I’m happy!
[...] presents Spend Money On Good Web Hosting posted at Busy Blogging Dot [...]
well david… paying $50/month for a virtual server right? ok. that seems to be a nice price, and if you have high traffic and demanding sites then it is a good deal… but if you are using only to blogging, then i guess it is a steal…
Hugo: It depends how your traffic and plans for your blog is. If it’s like a business (like problogger or even my sites), then $50 is well worth the price.
In order to succeed, it’s all in the mindset and spending money on the right stuff.
[...] presents Spend Money On Good Web Hosting posted at Busy Blogging Dot Com, saying, “Don’t be cheap about web hosting! You [...]
[...] presents Spend Money On Good Web Hosting posted at Busy Blogging Dot Com, saying, “Don’t be cheap about web hosting! You [...]
[...] presents Spend Money On Good Web Hosting posted at Busy Blogging Dot Com, saying, “Don’t be cheap about web hosting! You [...]
[...] presents Spend Money On Good Web Hosting posted at Busy Blogging Dot Com, saying, “Don’t be cheap about web hosting! You [...]