Hi there I’m Jason from Life Ring Web Services and today I want to go over the importance of having managed WordPress hosting for your WordPress website.
So what do we mean by ‘Managed WordPress Hosting’?
Managed WordPress hosting is in effect having your website managed by a third party and this brings many advantages but the main one is having your website in the hands of a team of people who are professionals in the industry. Having a pro team looking after your website has tones of great outcomes such as being able to improve your SEO (great guide here by RankMath), site speed and being on hand to deal with bugs or other issues that might stump the average individual.
Having your WordPress website managed by a dedicated team also means that we are liable! If your website is down you know who exactly to come to and expect to fix it which we guarantee we always will give it our 110% in a time of crisis! This is especially important due to the eco system of WordPress as we will go into now.
The WordPress ecosystem
One of the most appealing aspects of having a website on WordPress is the unmatched do it yourself mentality and setup, need a slider? – Add a plugin. Although every plugin you add multiplies the chances of it causing bugs either by a sloppy developer or not being compatible with another plugin. This is super common and I have had numerous issues come onto my desk because of this exact thing happening unless you know how to read server errors you will be right out of luck and will need to find someone to help you usually at a crazy hourly rate due to the urgency while you are LOSING MONEY!
This is I think the biggest issue with not having a reliable managed WordPress host – having someone fumble the bag when you are actively losing clients and money is a terrifying thought and as much as I don’t want this to be a sales speech I can guarantee that at Life Ring we are bulletproof when it comes to looking after our clients. Read more about us here 😉.
Easy to read Pros & Cons
I know a lot of us like to jump right into the details so I have made this super simple list of pros and cons to read through for Managed WordPress Hosting because let’s be real there is never something ‘perfect’.
Pros of having Managed WordPress Hosting
On call support
Having the ability to shoot off an email or phone call to your hosting provider when the proverbial fecal matter hits the fan is in my mind the #1 seller to me of having your website managed by an agency of any size. I have had plenty of people come to our hosting for the pure fact that someone wasn’t there or unresponsive when their website broke or they needed something actioned quickly.
Guaranteed regular updates and security checks
It is kind of crazy how many websites I have seen that have 50+ updates, vulnerabilities or a broken front end that are dealing with financial details, sensitive user information etc. This is a super simple thing to fix and something I am personally shocked is not done by many large web agencies and that is to have regular updates and security checks done. At Life Ring Web Services every single one of our clients gets the exact same weekly checks and updates of your website. This ensures that your website is using the latest and greatest updates and security patches.
Having a professional to ask questions
Now this one is kind of slept on but is great, especially for someone like myself who has grandiose thoughts in the middle of the night but I don’t know if they will actually work and this is why having someone that can answer your questions is excellent and could lead to that million dollar idea!
Cons of having Managed WordPress Hosting
There is honestly not many cons to having your system managed by a professional team but I have two I want to point out, the second mainly being a caution more than a downside.
Extra cost
There will always be an extra cost associated with getting a third party in to help with your business which for some might be a deal breaker and that is totally fair, especially for start-up businesses that just don’t have the flow of money required for managed hosting.
As a frame of reference, our plans start at $39/Month which from working in the industry is roughly where most start, anything less than this and I would have concerns about the business being actually in NZ otherwise the costs don’t seem to add up!
Having a bad provider
This as I said is more cautionary than a true downside but there are a lot of agencies out there that really miss the ball when providing for their clients and you will end up paying out big money for big wait times and a generally poor experience. This is why you should always read the reviews of a business on Google and make sure who you are going with is the right fit for your business!
Conclusion
Well now that you are clued up on what “Managed WordPress Hosting” means I think you are ready to choose yourself a provider and get your website leveled up! Like I said this is not a sales blog but if you ever feel like we can help you out feel free to contact us here!
Have a great day 😃
