How to Choose Hosting for High Traffic Sites
Sometimes you jump into a new job and find yourself managing a high-traffic website. Sometimes your business or personal website balloons into a high-traffic website overnight due to a spat of concentrated attention. In either case, you absolutely need a web hosting option that is prepared to handle your increased traffic volume without falling down on the job.
While many hosting companies will claim that they have the specifications and features to handle high traffic volumes, very few in truth have what it takes to both scale quickly and remain flexible in the face of a digital traffic bump. Having the right tech support team behind you can go a long way, too, especially when it comes to implementing enhanced security protocols to combat your rising online vulnerability.
Though every web administrator should carefully evaluate their plans before acting, these 4 steps can help to guide you towards selecting web hosting that can handle your high traffic website with ease.
Step #1: Evaluate Core Specifications
Before going too far into the weeds of high traffic web hosting, be sure to turn your initial gaze towards each prospective host’s core specifications. Among several key specifications, you should turn a critical eye towards both the amount of bandwidth and RAM allotted to your website per month.
Bandwidth
Bandwidth can play a play large part in making or breaking your high traffic website. With an optimal amount of bandwidth, your visitors will be able to easily navigate your website while viewing images and downloading content. But if you reach your host’s pre-determined bandwidth cap, your visitors will be hit with the dreaded “ Error 403” and be blocked out from further access. At ServePronto, our dedicated servers start at 10TB per month, and most of our clients fall within the 20TB range
RAM
RAM or random access memory also plays an important role in website hosting, just as it does on your personal computer. Added RAM access for your website allows it to more effectively draw upon the tools and plug-ins it needs to remain stable and provide visitors with the content they request. Without an extra RAM supply, high traffic websites are prone to acute drop offs in page and content load times.
For both bandwidth and RAM, be weary of so-called “unlimited” plans. Though this may appear to be an ideal solution, some unlimited plans will throttle “high speed” access when your website’s traffic passes a certain threshold.
Step #2: Check for Scalability and Flexibility
Scalability is one of the biggest problems for regular websites that grow to become high traffic destination over a short time period. If a web host’s capabilities scale poorly, you’ll be stuck with a sub-optimal amount of resources until you can either sign up for a more costly plan or move to a better prepared web hosting company.
Scalability & Analytics
One immediately apparent scalability factor that high traffic website administrators should be aware of is in regards to analytics. While these built-in tools under regular circumstances help you determine how many people are visiting your website and for how long, they can sometimes become overwhelmed if they are improperly structured. Be sure to choose an analytics package that can evaluate at least twice to three times your current audience size.
Flexibility
A flexible web hosting solution is also ideal as you’ll be better able to react to unforeseen bumps in your website’s traffic without cratering out. When you sign a contract with a web hosting provider, be sure to read the terms and conditions carefully to ensure that you can upgrade your plan at a moment’s notice.
To this end, try to steer clear of locked down, long term contracts that could prevent you from making needful resource allocation changes in an appropriate window of time. At ServerPronto, we don’t tie you to contracts, we offer easy month-to-month billing.
Step #3: Identify a Rapid Response Tech Support Team
Like an EMT when your personal health takes a sudden nose dive, a rapid response-oriented tech support team from your web host can be a real live saver. In your moment of crisis, you’ll be glad to have taken the time to evaluate which web hosts provides the most knowledge, easiest-to-contact support team for your high traffic website needs.
Superior support need not only be limited to crisis moments, though. A top-tier support team should have your back through every step of the process, from migrating to a high traffic server solution to troubleshooting the causes of a failed plug-in. Some tech support teams even implement continuous monitoring methods, allowing them to fix your problems before they’re even allowed to rear their ugly heads.
Step #4: Isolate the Best Security Profile
There’s a dated cultural adage about “more money, more problems” that rings surprisingly true when it comes to website security. With more traffic comes more potential digital threats, resulting from your appearance on the radar of hackers and malicious bots alike. As such, your chosen high traffic web host should provide security protocols tailored to meet your specialized needs.
Most web hosts provide some kind of security certificate (SSL or TSL, usually) as part of their standard high speed package. However, you should keep tabs on these certificates in order to hold your host accountable for keeping them up to date. In the same vein, you should check with a prospective web host to be sure that they store sensitive visitor data in a secure location, away from your main website files.
When it comes to a hosted website, security can also come down to how well a given host maintains their non-security oriented software. Vulnerabilities often arise from compromised plug-ins, making your website a target unless your host keeps their software up to date on your behalf.
The Bottom Line
High traffic websites require a special level of attention that you must be willing to provide if you want your website to succeed long term. To find the best hosting for high traffic sites, you’ll need to get into the weeds and find an option that not only provides you a sizable resource portfolio, but also access to the tools and experts needed to implement it all.
While the whole process may take more time, you’ll find that this time was well invested as your website grows and thrives in the lime light of burgeoning user base.
Chief Tech writer at ServerPronto. Helping businesses grow with useful tech information.
Originally published at https://www.serverpronto.com on May 30, 2019.
