When you talk about the digital space, speed is a factor that cannot be overlooked. In today’s world, few users will patiently wait for more than a few seconds to let your website load. Therefore, a slow website could mean a high bounce rate, which is unacceptable for online businesses. Yet, when it comes to website speed, not many are aware that a hosting provider is an important determinant.
Why is website speed important?
A website’s speed is a vital criterion that could impact the following:
Conversion rate
It is the rate at which users complete a desired action on the website.
Bounce rate:
A website’s bounce rate is an indication of the percentage of users leaving the website after viewing only one page.
SEO best practices:
The parameters that define site performance, which is one of the factors in Google search rankings.
User experience:
Waiting for content to load can become frustrating for users and provoke them into leaving the website or application. The first five seconds of your website’s load-time has the highest impact on whether your customer will convert or not.
Why does a hosting provider matter?
A web hosting provider offers hosting plans that have a significant impact on website speed.
Ideally, a hosting plan is chosen based on factors such as budget, ease of use, number of website visitors and the amount of data on your website.
However, two factors mainly impact website speed:
- Hard drive: There are two types of hard drives: Solid State Drives (SSDs) and Hard Disk Drives (HDDs). Both perform the same function of storing data. However, to do so, a HDD physically writes the memory onto the disk, and a SSD makes use of flash memory. This makes SSDs much faster in storing memory. An SSD offers a faster and more reliable service when compared to a regular hard drive. It can thus help your website achieve a faster page load time and quicker performance.
- Resources: Aspects such as the size of RAM and bandwidth can help add speed and power to the website. RAM is the memory storage which takes care of the scripts which run from the web browser to the website. The more processes that have to be run, the more RAM space will have to be consumed. RAM stores temporary memory for the operation of an application. The greater the amount of RAM, the more temporary memory or data will be available for operations. Without sufficient data, operations will turn to the hard disk to access permanent memory. This can reduce the speed of the operation. Therefore, the more RAM available, the faster the website’s operations execute.
Similarly, bandwidth determines how much data is transferred by the host. The more restricted the bandwidth, the more time will be taken to transfer data, leading to slower website operations. Therefore, if you buy a plan with insufficient resources, such as bandwidth and/or RAM, your website’s speed could suffer. The sufficiency of your hosting resources will depend on the website traffic volume. If it’s a new website, a shared hosting plan can easily handle initial low volumes of traffic. As the business and the website grow over time, higher tiers of hosting plans with more resources could be opted for.
How does Bluehost help in website performance?
We offer benefits that will let you quickly build your websites and maintain them well:
- Automatic installation of the latest and most secure version of WordPress on the creation of your WordPress Hosting plan
- Unlimited SSD storage, bandwidth, and parked domains on select plans
- Servers built with state-of-the art components for breakthrough speed
A hosting provider will largely determine your website’s speed. Without enough speed, the website’s conversion rates, bounce rate, and SEO rankings can suffer. The speed of a website can be ensured by matching traffic volumes and other website factors with the right amount of hard drive space, and RAM & Bandwidth allocation. Bluehost hosting plans come at a variety of price points – and they all are secure, reliable, and offer a number of features for catering to different website requirements. Reach out to us to learn more about our offerings.
