You can get a free WordPress hosting plan.
That comes with interesting features, including ample storage, top-notch security, high bandwidth, speed optimisation, technical support, and automatic backup. Without hesitation, rush to purchase the hosting and share your website link with others immediately.
However, after some weeks had passed, things changed. You realised your website is malfunctioning, with slow loading speeds, a slower version, and sudden page timeouts, which affect its performance and cause customers to reach out. Before you know it, your website is totally down.
While trying to resurrect your website, you kindly submitted your complaint to the support system, but you received no help or were left to sort things out on your own.
Don’t be surprised, this is the reality for many Nigerian WordPress business owners. They chased after free hosting plans, overlooking the disappointment they would cause, forgetting that the so-called “cheap WordPress hosting comes with uncovered difficulties.”
Therefore, if you are a Nigerian business owner using WordPress, we will explain why you should avoid cheap, excessive WordPress hosting and what its hidden costs are.
Effect OF Cheap WordPress Hosting
1. Website Instability Leading to Customer Decline: One of the most setback that some cheap hosting leads your brand is experiencing un-effective website which takes amount of minutes before it loads and this frsutrate visitors to opt for a well-to-do website, and this action drag your credibility, and if this problem persist, it affect your google ranking to drop you down, even if you appears at the first page, also you might struggle with sales conversion.
2. Feeble Security And Difficulty: Your website security isn’t guaranteed when unreliable hosting is involved, which gives hackers a favourable opportunity to gain access. As a result, customers’ information is leaked, causing them pain and making it difficult for them to trust you in the future. And before you can restore, you spend a lot of money, face unexpected compliance risks from the cost of revenue, and might never get a backup.
3. Brand Reputation at Risk. You don’t expect people to have high hopes for a brand that crashes and clashes without a genuine reason; however, this is often due to the undeserving hosting provider tasked with handling your website. There, using a hosting service that frequently breaks, gives potential customers the impression that your brand/website is unprofessional, leading to a poor impression or a lack of professionalism and credibility.
4. Effort Limitation. Regardless of how your website/brand strives to expand, it encounters limitations due to the cheap hosting trap, which can affect website traffic, the ability to install essential website plugins, or the use of an online payment system. All these causes are hindrances to growth and scaling.
5. The Hidden Cost. As time passes, you realise that the initial fee for the cheap hosting was intended to capture your attention, but it ultimately limits your business growth. Furthermore, it has fewer features than standard hosting, which offers a broader range of options. Using cheap WordPress hosting, you likely battle with storage space, bandwidth conflicts, speed optimisation, and Website speed. Additionally, there will be a mandatory price renewal that you will need to pay.
6. You Are On Your own: With cheap hosting, you are on your own when things go wrong with your website, and even when you seek support, you might get the wrong answer from an untrained person, leading to another challenge or a response that is delayed or requires additional fine-tuning before the problem gets solved.
How to Know the Suitable Hosting For Your Website
Before choosing a hosting service, consider the following points. Because there are various hosting categories with different features and options, as a Nigerian business retailer, it is essential to understand which one best suits your needs.
Speed Capacity: Consider whether the hosting provider offers sufficient speed to enable timely operations. As someone selling online, your website should be optimised for speed to enhance the customer experience, increase visibility, and use a hosting service with excellent content delivery. Reliable user reviews should accompany it and have server locations in every location where customers are.
Security Purpose: As an online business owner handling multiple customer data points, ensure your hosting service has robust security to safeguard customer data. Therefore, verify the hosting SSL certificate to ensure it supports backups and includes a standby feature to detect threats or hacking.
Growth: Ensure it scales seamlessly to handle high traffic from visitors. There are hosting services that cannot handle multiple traffic and cause you to lose customers, leading to a decrease in visibility. Therefore, your hosting should support straightforward growth without trouble.
Standby Help: A good hosting provider offers support when needed, providing helpful knowledge to resolve issues and giving you the necessary assistance via chat or phone call.
Suggested Fee: Is the hosting fee worth paying for? Before you decide, consider its features and compare them to those of other hosting providers.
Why speeding up your website matters for Business Owner
1. Whogohost: In today’s world, WhoGoHost is one of the best WordPress hosting providers, offering high reliability and efficiency thanks to its inclusiveness, beginner-friendly plans, strong SSL certificate, one-click WordPress installation, straightforward local support, and a .com.ng domain on annual plans or select shared plans. The hosting provider would be an excellent choice for any business, regardless of its size, whether small, medium, or large, as Nigerian businesses seek pocket-friendly options. This includes the ability to receive payments in naira, eliminating the need for foreign exchange. Even as a business owner with huge daily traffic that might need a VPS upgrade, you can still use Whooshost to operate your online business without facing any challenges.
2. Thrivehost: It is a recent WordPress hosting service that uses cloud infrastructure, meaning your WordPress site isn’t hosted on a single server. Instead, it leverages shared server resources, which enable your website to load faster, remain protected, and experience fewer downtime issues during periods of high traffic. The hosting stands among the most sought after by bloggers, e-commerce websites, and businesses looking for speedy hosting and strong security, but at an expensive price.
3. Truehost: It is one of the leading hosting services people use because of its cPanel-based WordPress hosting. With TrueHost, you have enough storage, automatic one-click WordPress installation, free SSL, sufficient bandwidth, unlimited backups, and support tailored to you, as a Nigerian business owner, blogger, or agency starting in Nigeria. Additionally, they can refund you after 30 days if their windows fail.
4. Namecheap: is a global hosting and domain provider known for its very affordable pricing, free SSL certificates, and fast WordPress installation. It offers good performance, 24/7 support, and numerous hosting features, making it a great choice for Nigerian small businesses, startups, and bloggers who want reliable hosting on a budget. Namecheap has multiple data centers that generally deliver faster load times than many basic hosting providers in Africa. Although it is not based in Nigeria, it is still fast and reliable for most local businesses. However, it might be slower to manage high traffic; yet, it offers excellent value for most WordPress users in Nigeria.
5. DomainKing: is poised to be a popular hosting option for most Nigerian business owners looking for an affordable, reliable, and easy-to-manage solution. It’s especially used by multiple small businesses, bloggers, mini-importation sellers, and personal brand websites because it makes it extremely easy to buy a domain, get hosting, and launch a WordPress site without facing any challenges.
Conclusion
Many online business owners have lost numbers due to unreliable hosting providers, causing sales damage and reputation issues, and they never knew that the hosting they were using was not good. Therefore, before you choose any hosting, check what it stands for rather than falling for the exciting promises in the advertisement. Take the time to compare speed, security, support, scalability, and real user experiences. If any of these features isnt guaranteed, avoid such hosting. And choose reliable hosting services, such as WhoGoHost, ThriveHost, Truehost, Namecheap, and DomainKing, that will provide a good foundation to upscale and build your brand smoothly. Remember, your website hosting serves a great purpose, like an investment you can’t overlook; therefore, choose wisely.