If you have followed the advice outlined in the previous articles in this series on cloud migration, you are well-prepared to migrate your site to cloud hosting. The information you need has been gathered and is easily accessible. You have informed those who will be affected by the migration. You have chosen a cloud platform and selected an appropriate cloud instance. Now it’s time to put your cloud migration plan into action.
Preparing for the Migration
In the days before the site is to be migrated, it is a good idea to establish a performance and functionality baseline that can be used as a point of comparison after the migration.
Use a web crawling tool to check for broken links (404 errors) and other crawl issues on your site. You could use an application-specific tool such as WordPress’ Broken Link Checker or a specialist tool such as Screaming Frog. It’s a good idea to fix crawl and link issues before migrating so you can tell if the migration itself caused any problems.
Gather a list of redirects implemented on the current site via its .htaccess file or within the application itself. These may need to be checked after migration.
Stepping Through a Cloud Migration
The migration process may be slightly different, depending on the application that is being migrated, but the basic process looks like this:
Create an appropriate cloud hosting instance on the new platform.
Install the application on the cloud hosting account. You can choose to have the application installed as part of the set-up process on the Hostdedi Cloud.
Copy the site’s files and database from the current site to the application running on the cloud platform.
Edit DNS records so that they point to the IP address of the cloud platform.
Hostdedi Cloud instances capable of supporting up to 75 concurrent users can be deployed in minutes. Larger dedicated cloud instances will take up to three hours to deploy, so you may want to set-up your cloud instance in advance of migration day.
Test The New Site Before Changing DNS Records
You should ensure that the cloud migration is successful before changing DNS records or the site’s authoritative domain name servers. Carry out the same performance, crawl, and redirection testing as before. There should be no significant regressions.
You may notice worse performance on the new site during initial testing because its caches have not been warmed. This is nothing to worry about, and performance will improve as the caches are filled. On a live site, much of the data is served from caches or a CDN. The newly installed site is generating pages from scratch.
After Migration to the Cloud
Once the cloud migration is complete, you may have to wait up to 24 hours before visitors are reliably directed to the site running on the new platform.
DNS records take time to propagate through the global DNS system. It is likely to take less than 24 hours, but it is best to wait a few hours at least for propagation to complete before concluding that there is a problem.
Once DNS records have propagated, the new site is live. Over the next several days keep a close eye on performance, search traffic referrals, and other site metrics. Once you are confident that the cloud migration was successful, you are safe to delete the site from its original hosting platform and close your account with the provider.
In the next and final article, we summarize the information from this series into a handy cloud migration checklist that you can use to track migration planning, implementation, and testing.
Partners have long been a staple in the Hostdedi ecosystem, and a crucial player in our mission to bring the promise of hosting technology to online businesses. But until recently, something was missing.
Today, we’re introducing a new partner level designed to bridge the space between our existing levels of Agency and Affiliate. We’re calling this the Referral Partner.
The Referral Partner level offers $200.00 for every cloud hosting referral and an initial deposit of $100.00 just for signing up.
Introducing the Referral Partner
Every year, we strive to provide a better hosting solution to as many online businesses as possible.
We realized that a middle-tier partner level was an important addition when multiple agencies and freelancers inquired about partnering at events but didn’t feel our current partner programs were the right fit for them.
We immediately set to work creating a competitive mid-level tier for those that felt left out. We settled on a program that featured a mix of value, features, and simplicity.
Spearheading the partner initiative was Jerry Eadeh, who stated that:
“We analyzed various affiliate and partner programs belonging to many service providers similar to Hostdedi. We found many of the programs fell short of developing a simple program that didn’t include complex stipulations and exclusionary circumstances.
It was important to us to develop a competitive program that both rewards agencies for their referral activity and focuses on creating great relationships. We’re seeking agencies invested in building a collaborative partnership for us to align our efforts from support through to site maintenance and live launch deployment.”
A Renewed Commitment to Startup Agencies
Hosting is an essential foundation for any new website, but it’s often the last item to be discussed with a client.
The Referral Partner level comes with a renewed commitment to supporting startup agencies and freelancers looking to provide clients with a better hosting solution.
Joining the Hostdedi partner program means more than just earning a commision. We make conversations regarding hosting simple, with optimized environments, secure infrastructure, and 24/7/365 U.S. based support being only some of the benefits our partners and their clients enjoy.
How Can You Become a Referral Partner?
Becoming a Referral Partner is simple. You can contact our staff for more information about the Referral Partner program by email at [email protected].
Earlier in this series on cloud migration, I compared migrating a website to moving to a new house. It may be stressful, but how stressful depends on how well prepared you are. This, the final article of the series, is a comprehensive cloud migration checklist. Follow this list, and you will have a stress-free cloud migration.
Cloud Migration Preparations
Verify that you have access to the following information.
SSH or FTP usernames and passwords for the site’s current hosting.
Hosting control panel usernames and passwords.
Usernames and passwords for services such as the CDN and analytics.
DNS service provider information: That may include a DNS registrar and a DNS hosting provider.
If you are migrating DNS hosting at the same time, you will need to take note of the new DNS host’s name servers.
Inform all stakeholders of the cloud migration plan in advance. Give them time to respond.
Pre-Migration Testing
Create a list of your site’s top-performing pages.
Run performance tests on the top-performing pages using a service such as Google’s Lighthouse or Pingdom Tools to establish a performance baseline.
Check for broken links (404 errors) and other crawl errors.
Cloud Migration Day
Create a suitable cloud instance on the target platform.
Install the relevant CMS or eCommerce store application on the cloud instance. The Hostdedi Cloud can automatically install your chosen application in a secure, optimized hosting environment.
Create a copy of your site’s files and database. You can use application-specific backup tools or create the copy manually over SSH / FTP.
Import the database and files into the new application.
The Hostdedi team is happy to handle the migration of the site’s files and database for free. Ask our support team about free cloud migration.
Post-Migration Testing
Tests should be run again after the site is copied but before DNS records are changed.
Verify that the top-performing pages and a random sample of other pages are reachable on the new cloud-hosted site.
Re-run performance tests.
Re-run crawl tests: look for 404 and other errors.
Edit DNS Records
If you are migrating your domain’s DNS hosting to the new cloud platform, log in to your domain registrar’s dashboard and add the cloud platform’s name servers.
Otherwise, log in to your DNS hosting provider’s control panel and edit the domain’s DNS records to match those supplied by the new cloud hosting provider.
Wait for the DNS records to propagate – this could take up to 24 hours, but will probably be faster.
You will now begin to receive traffic at your new cloud-hosted website!
After the domain records have propagated, re-run performance and crawl tests to make sure the site is working as expected. You should also carry out any necessary reconfiguration of your content distribution network and test embedded analytics tools like Google Analytics to ensure that they function as expected.
Post-Migration Cleanup
Once you are satisfied that the migration is a complete success, you can delete the old version of the site and close the legacy hosting account.
Staring down the WordPress plugins page, you find yourself asking which plugins are right for your site. You want more conversions, and you have a basic idea of what that entails, but you don’t know how that translates into what visitors should see on the page. Here are 5 WordPress plugins that can figure that out for you.
You’ve decided on a WordPress site, and for good reason. Over 25% of the top 10 million sites use WordPress because it’s easy to use, the interface is intuitive, and best of all, it’s open source. Now all you need is a way to increase conversions.
Set your site apart from the competition with WordPress plugins designed to increase conversions. All while still giving you the freedom to create, share, and realize the potential of your site. Here are five plugins we think fit the bill.
Make WordPress even easier with Hostdedi. Learn More.
1. OptinMonster
OptinMonster is a highly recommended plugin for increasing WordPress conversions and a great tool for both beginner and intermediate WordPress developers.
It works by allowing you to serve visitors to your website with opt-in forms for joining an email subscriber list or to become part of a specific campaign.
Currently, the plugin is live on 276,000 websites, with a lot of conversion success stories – just Google it.
A great plugin if you’re looking for:
An easy to use form builder
Integration with other marketing services
Advanced page level targeting
Behavior personalization
Easy A/B testing
Detailed conversion analytics
2. WordPress Calls to Action
We’re not huge fans of screens littered with ads for our own content. Like most visitors, we want more space dedicated to high-quality, easy-to-read content (and some white space). Which is why when it comes to calls to action, we like this conversion boosting plugin the most.
WordPress Calls to Action will help you to place conversion boosting CTAs in your text (not along the top or in an annoying pop-up box). You can design these CTAs to look and feel exactly like the rest of your site, so they won’t stand out and interfere with your otherwise perfected user experience. A great WordPress plugin and one we highly recommend.
A great plugin if you’re looking for:
Convincing CTAs throughout your site
CTAs that don’t interfere with the user experience
WordPress conversion boosting in an unobtrusive way
3. WordPress Local SEO
There are A LOT of SEO plugins out there for boosting conversions. After all, increasing conversions sometimes means just attracting more people to your site through. Optimized organic search presence through improving SEO is one of the best ways to do that.
So instead of focusing on SEO in general, we’re recommending a plugin for boosting local SEO – something often left out of SEO considerations for small and medium businesses.
This is especially important if you’re a small, omnichannel business looking to make sales both online and instore. This plugin will help you to have a consistent presence across the web so locals can find you.
A great plugin if you:
Are an omnichannel store looking to make sales online and instore
Want local customers to find you
Understand the basics of SEO but need to take it a step further
4. TweetDis
If you’re in an industry where thought leadership can boost conversions (most industries), then adding a little quotable Twitter magic to your blog posts can go a long way.
It’s no secret that, while with some themes they are pretty, WordPress quotes have no pragmatic use – other than to make something stand out on the page.
TweetDis takes that lack of functionality and expands on it with shiny quotes that are also directly sharable to Twitter. All that’s left for you to do is create tweetable content.
A great plugin if you:
Have an active social presence
Create great, tweetable content snippets
Are in an industry where being a thought leader is key
5. Nello AB Testing
A/B testing is a vital tool in every marketer’s toolbox, regardless of whether they’re working with a WordPress site or not. To finish up our list of 5 WordPress plugins for increasing conversions, we’re going with our favorite A/B testing plugin yet: Nello AB testing.
The reason we like this plugin is that it lets you test practically anything and do so easily. That includes headlines, widgets, post types, themes, menus, entire blog posts, and more.
A great plugin if:
You want to start AB testing site elements
You’re looking for an easy way to implement and track differences in tests
Optimize Your WordPress Site
It takes more than just plugins to fully optimize a WordPress website. Plugins will help you to increase conversions, but there are other steps to make it into the top 10 million websites on the internet. Another great method for optimizing conversions is to optimize page speed. Check out our guide on how to improve page speed (and so conversions) with simple optimizations anyone can make.
Every cloud migration starts with a plan, and every plan starts with information gathering. A website is composed of many parts that work together. Migrating to the Hostdedi Cloud is easier than many cloud migrations because we handle the setup of the server, software stack, and application for you. That gets you a long way towards a successful migration, but it will go more smoothly if you have the necessary information at your fingertips.
Assess Your Site’s Resource Requirements
Cloud hosting is sold in resource tiers. It’s easy to move between tiers, but you should be aware of the resources your site consumes and choose a suitable cloud plan for the initial migration.
The Hostdedi Cloud indicates how many concurrent users each plan supports, so it’s easy to figure out which is appropriate for your site or store.
Gather the Relevant Information
Compile a list of services your site depends on and the associated authentication credentials.
You are likely to need the following information:
Login details of your current hosting provider’s control panel.
SSH or FTP passwords for the hosting account you intend to migrate from.
Login details for services you use on your site, such as Google Analytics.
The name of your domain registrar and login details for the registrar’s control panel. This is important if you are also migrating DNS hosting. You may need to change the authoritative domain name servers for the site’s domain.
If you use a third-party DNS hosting provider, you need the details of that account to change the DNS records to point to the destination cloud hosting.
If your site uses a third-party CDN to distribute static assets, you may need login credentials to make changes to the CDN configuration.
It is important to have these details ready before attempting a cloud migration. It would be unfortunate if the migration goes well, but DNS or CDN problems cause availability issues.
Install Backup Software on Your Application
The core of your site is composed of two main components: its files and its database. Once the application – WordPress, for example – has been installed on the cloud hosting account, the migration involves copying the files to the new cloud instance and the data to a database running on that instance.
Backup software is useful in two ways: it allows you to create a copy of the site in case something goes wrong, and the same files and data can be copied to the new cloud instance.
Most web applications provide plugins or extensions that can copy the data from the old installation to the new installation for you. If you would prefer to let us handle this part of the migration process, contact Hostdedi support for more information about our free migration service.
Pick A Day
Once you have gathered the necessary information, it’s time to choose a migration date. With proper planning, there will be little downtime, but it is better to choose a day that you don’t expect the site to be especially busy.
When you opened your eCommerce store, where did you see yourself in five years? As a small and consistent merchant providing an excellent, personal service, or a global supplier of high-quality products?
For many merchants, the goal is sales growth. Achieving this is a mix of reputation, product, and service. Unfortunately, you can’t control any of these things 100%, but you can proactively keep them in check by paying attention to some of the main eCommerce issues buyer’s encounter. this may include:
Slow loading pages
Hard to find products
An unintuitive use experience (UX)
Unappealing products
Confusing Information
Before we take a look at how to keep these things in check, let’s see how your store’s conversion rate compares to the competition.
What Constitutes an eCommerce Success?
For the purposes of this article, eCommerce success can be measured by conversions. A conversion is when someone completes a goal you have set. For eCommerce stores (and the purposes of this article), this is typically a sale.
Taking a look at historical data, eCommerce conversion rates have actually decreased in 2018. In Q4 2018, the average rate across all industries in the US was 2.96%. That means that 2.96% of visitors to the average eCommerce store would make a purchase. In Q2 2018, that number was 2.63%. A small, but significant drop.
One report by ComScore suggests that increased concerns regarding security, a lack of easily accessible information, inefficient UX, and hard to find products are some of the main reasons for this decline. Other sources suggest that a shift in the market has lead to this change.
Looking at conversion rates across industries, the difference is stark. Arts and Crafts, for instance, manages to a conversion rate nearing 4.0%, while the Baby and Child sector remains below 1.0%. Before deciding how much your store needs to improve, check the average conversion rate in your industry. If you feel your number is still too low, continue reading.
1. Increase Conversion Speed
Speed is king in the world of eCommerce. Multiple studies have confirmed slow loading eCommerce stores have lower conversion rates.
A 1-second page delay results in:
16% less customer satisfaction
11% fewer page views
7% conversion decrease
What can you do to avoid this?
Check Your Hosting
The first step is to check your hosting. If you’re an eCommerce store, you don’t want to opt for the cheapest provider. You should be looking for performance and support, not a low monthly fee.
There are two primary periods of concern you should prepare for: traffic spikes, and downtime
Traffic spikes can easily be managed in modern hosting with an auto scaling feature. True auto scaling allows for an automatic increase to site capacity when it’s required. This is perfect for sales events or when one of your products goes viral and saves you from having to upgrade your entire solution for an extended period of time.
Downtime can be more of a problem. Support is your solution. You’ll want a team that’s available 24/7/365 and with physical access to the data center your site is stored in. That means hosting with a provider that owns their own data center. This way, if something does happen to your eCommerce store, you’ll know that you’ll be back up and be converting potential buyers as soon as possible.
In addition to the points above, your hosting solution should be optimized for your application; especially if you’re running the caching heavy Magento. Check with your provider as to what is a good
Find out what questions you should be asking your hosting provider. Learn more.
Remove Bloat
Once you’ve checked that your hosting provider is optimized for eCommerce, the next step is to see if your server is bogged down with bloat.
Begin by removing all unnecessary plugins and extensions from your CMS.
If you’re using Magento, go to System -> Magento Connect -> Magento Connect Manager. Scroll through the list of installed extensions and select the ones you no longer need. On the drop-down menu, select uninstall and then click Commit Changes.
If you’re using WooCommerce with WordPress, head to your admin panel, then Plugins -> Installed Plugins. From here you’ll be able to see all the plugins you currently have installed and remove those you don’t need.
We recommend committing these changes to a dev site before doing so with a production environment. This allows you to see how they will affect your site from a buyer’s perspective.
Basic Website Optimization
There are optimizations non-specific to eCommerce but that will help to increase speed and keep conversions up. These are simple website optimizations that anyone can do – regardless of whether they have any technical knowledge.
2. Plugins & Extensions
Modern CMSs know that the functionality required for different sites is, well, different. One store may be perfectly happy using what’s available by default, while the next needs an extra something. With plugins and extensions, that something can easily be found and added.
There are a number of plugins and extensions perfect for boosting conversions. We highly recommend looking into tools to:
Run A/B tests
Manage opt-in forms
Promote your content on social
Optimize SEO
Deliver high-quality, non-invasive Calls to Action
Before installing a new plugin or extension, ask yourself: Will it boost conversions? If that answer to that question is yes or maybe, install away. If it’s no, find something else.
Turpentine
We’ve created our own Magento extension designed to increase load times in Magento. We’ve called it Turpentine and it works by improving the already efficient Varnish with noticeable improvements to the cache hit rate.
3. Optimize the Buyer’s Journey
As we looked at earlier, one of the main reasons for an industry-wide decline in conversion rate is hard to find products.
To combat this, you want to make it as easy as possible for a buyer to find what they are looking for. This means more than simply directing them to your sales page; it means placing them on a journey.
The buyer’s journey as a sales funnel.
A traditional buyer’s journey consists of three main stages:
Awareness – Aware of a need for something new
Consideration – Analyzing the different options available to them
Decision – Final purchasing decision (a conversion)
These stages are often embodied as a funnel. This funnel mimics how the number of people decreases as they journey down the funnel. No store has a 100% conversion rate.
A buyer’s journey is often unique and forcing a myriad of different audiences down only a handful of funnels will mean fewer sales and lower retention. As a store owner, it is important for you to manage these stages in accordance with the data you collect from successes and wins.
Yet creating content that keeps visitors engaged can be a tricky process. Where do you start? Here are three methods that we’ve seen work incredibly well in the modern digitally-driven buyer’s journey.
Create Stand Out Content
Create content that does more than just duplicate what the competition is doing. Try to find what type of content your audience wants. Look beyond the data if you have to.
Create Longtail Content
Perform a long tail keyword analysis to see where you should be directing some of your content and SEO efforts. Short tails are great for sales pages, but optimizing for long tails is the best way to target your audience – especially if they’re niche.
Nurture Leads With Personalized Outreach
Do more than just personalize the “To” field in emails. Reach out to your audience directly. Finding influencers and people who already do this effectively is a great shortcut. You can also optimize on-page content. Check out these WordPress AI and machine learning plugins for delivering personalized content at the right stage of the funnel.
4. Create a Story With Emotion
One of the most effective ways to optimize eCommerce conversions is to change the fundamental way in which you are selling your products.
Buyers want an experience when they buy from you, not just a list of technical specifications (most of the time). This directly addressed one of the reasons for a decline in conversions: a lack of interest in products.
Hubspot has created a really useful article on how to use emotion to sell. They’ve gone with six different emotions (to start). Depending on your audience and the product you’re trying to sell, you appeal to a different emotion.
Greed
Fear
Altruism
Envy
Pride
Shame
For instance, if you’re working for a non-profit and trying to boost eCommerce conversions for a donations package, altruism is likely your best option (unless that donation package comes packed with chocolate). If you’re trying to increase conversions on the latest Mercedes though, you’re probably better off going to envy and a sense of keeping up with the Joneses.
All of this leads into our final method for optimizing eCommerce store conversions:
5. Test, Test, Test
Testing should be the bedrock of your conversion optimization strategy.
It’s unlikely you’re going to hit a jackpot every time. Even after years of working with the same audience and products, there are going to be times where your tests misfire or miss the mark. Trial and error let you refine your conversion strategy and improve.
There is always room for improvement, regardless of how well you’re already doing.
With WordCamp US 2018 on the horizon, there couldn’t be more of a perfect time for deciding what to do when you’re in Nashville (besides WordCamp). We recently visited Nashville with exactly that purpose and put together a guide to exploring the city.
So grab one of the city’s many rent-a-scooters or get your walking boots on, because we’re about to take you on a tour through some of the best sights and sounds Nashville has to offer during WordCamp US.
To celebrate WordCamp US, we’re giving away the first month of WordPress hosting for half price! Learn more.
Take a Picture With Nashville’s Angel Wings
302 11th Ave S
The Nashville WhatLiftsYou Wings Mural is a staple of the Nashville street art scene. Created by Kelsey Montague, you’ll find both a 20-foot tall set of wings and a smaller pair next door.
While you’re in the area, you can also pick up some morning hydration from the juice bar around the corner.
See the Parthenon Before the Crowds
2500 West End Ave
A truly impressive 1-to-1 replica of the original Parthenon in Athens. At first, the Parthenon seems to stick out like a sore thumb. Once you learn its history though, you realize that it’s actually one of Nashville’s greatest architectural assets.
Built in 1897 as part of the Tennessee Centennial Exposition, you’ll find the entrance to the Parthenon at its base (with a little gift shop). Exploring the inside is like taking a step back in time.
Just make sure your scooter doesn’t run out of battery here: the area is notorious for not having many lying around.
Walk Through the Grounds of Vanderbilt University
2201 West End Ave
One of the most beautiful university campuses in the US, Vanderbilt University is the perfect shortcut from the Parthenon and back into the city downtown proper.
We highly recommend taking it slow and ditching the scooter until you get to the other side. The campus is beautiful, with trees and street lamps reminiscent of a time from before.
Have Lunch at an Authentic Nashville Cafeteria
Arnolds, 605 8th Avenue South
There’s nothing quite like grabbing a bite to eat at a local eatery, and we’ve got just the spot for you. Arnold’s serves up traditional home-cooked “Meat & 3”, and has been doing so for the past 30 years.
Open Monday – Friday from 10:30 am to 2:45 pm, it’s the perfect spot for lunch either the day before or after WordCamp US. Monday and Friday usually have Roast Beef as the main course, with several vegetable options for the “&3”.
Feel Nostalgic at Third Man Records
623 7th Ave S
Take a step back in time and visit some of your favorite artists at the Third Man Records store. A short scooter ride from Arnold’s, Third Man Records is a great way to wind down after filling up on home-cooked food.
The store features some great memorabilia and a real-life record listening booth at the back of the store. Keep your eyes open for what looks to be a fortune teller machine here too.
Get Some Work Done at Frothy Monkey
235 5th Ave N
By this point in the day, you’re probably about ready to sit down for a rest. Why not get some work done and enjoy an excellent cup of coffee at the same time?
Only a few blocks away, Frothy Monkey offers the perfect atmosphere for work, kicking back, and relaxing. Head to the back after you’ve gotten your coffee for some long tables to work in a group and a quiet atmosphere. We also recommend trying some of their bagels — if you’ve still got the room after Arnold’s.
Trek Music Studio Row
401 Commerce St
Take a walk past the music studios of Nashville. From small to large, the city is packed with them. It is, after all, dubbed Music City.
You don’t have to dwell, but standing outside of the recording studios where greats such as Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, and Elvis once recorded is a tough feeling to beat.
Experience the Nashville Live Music Scene
Take a walk down the main downtown area of Nashville and it’s hard to miss the live music. Starting in the morning and ending well into the night, every single bar and restaurant you pass will ring with the sounds of a live band or musician. Stop in, have a drink, and soak up the ambiance.
See You at WordCamp US!
Once you’ve finished your tour of Nashville, it’s time to get ready for WordCamp US! Swing by the Hostdedi booth for great deals on WordPress hosting and awesome, limited-edition swag. See you there!
When your website or eCommerce store is slow and your hosting provider has no solution, it is time to think about migrating to a new hosting platform. Unhappy hosting clients have lots of options to choose from: traditional shared hosting, dedicated server hosting, virtual server hosting, and more.
But many choose cloud migration to a modern hosting platform that combines the benefits of traditionally managed hosting with the flexibility and scalability of virtualization.
Just like shared hosting, cloud application hosting is a multi-tenant platform – more than one clients’ site is hosted on each server. But that is where the similarity ends. Cloud hosting uses virtualization and orchestration software to join many servers together into a large pool of compute and storage resources. Each site uses a slice of the resources in the pool.
What does that mean for hosting clients? The “pool of resources” model is more flexible than shared hosting or a dedicated server. When a site migrates to cloud hosting it gains superpowers. It can, for example, be given more resources whenever it needs them. When a site hosted on the Hostdedi Cloud is under heavy load, we can give it a bigger slice of the pool automatically.
Let’s look at some other ways a cloud migration could improve your hosting experience.
Scalable
When a site that starts life on shared hosting or a dedicated server grows too big, it has to be migrated to a different platform or more powerful server. In contrast, the cloud makes it easy to scale from small to enormous without migrating. A cloud hosting account has resource limits, but they can be increased indefinitely as the site grows. In the cloud, you will never experience a site that slows to a crawl because it is too successful.
Reliable, Redundant, and Fast
Reliability, redundancy, and performance are difficult for even the largest online businesses to achieve. For smaller businesses without a large IT department, a reliable, redundant, and fast hosting platform is too complex and expensive to build from scratch. But after a site is migrated to cloud hosting, it gains enterprise-grade reliability, redundancy, and performance for “free” – it’s baked right into the platform.
Secure
A well-engineered cloud platform makes it easier to build and maintain a secure site. The Hostdedi Cloud includes security features such as web application firewalls, a PCI-compliant hosting environment, and security hardening at deployment.
Rapid Setup
A new website or eCommerce store can be launched onto a cloud platform in seconds. Large and complex deployments may take a couple of hours, but that is much faster than other types of hosting, which can take days to be ready for migration. Rapid setup has other advantages too. It is quicker and easier to deploy testing and development sites on the cloud. Click a button and your new testing site will be ready and waiting.
Migrating your WordPress site or Magento store to a modern cloud platform is the solution to your hosting reliability, scalability, and performance issues – now and in the future.
They say that moving home is one of the most stressful events in our lives. Migrating a website to new hosting can be pretty stressful too, especially if you aren’t well prepared. In our last cloud migration article, we talked about why you should migrate your site to a cloud platform. In this article, we look at the challenges you may face on your cloud migration journey.
In a properly planned migration, the site starts the day on one hosting platform and ends it in the cloud with minimal downtime or disruption. But it’s good to be aware of what could go wrong and what you can do to help the migration run smoothly.
What Cloud Migration?
Cloud migration can have unforeseen side effects if the people working on the site aren’t informed in advance. Discuss the migration plans with stakeholders to minimize disruption. It would be unwise of your marketing department to launch a new campaign on the day of the migration, or for developers to roll out major site changes just as you’re about to move the site to a new hosting platform.
Discussing the migration with stakeholders allows them to raise concerns: perhaps the marketing department is running tracking scripts that may break during the migration – if stakeholders know what’s coming, they have time to prepare.
Choose a Cloud Platform That Aligns With Your Objectives
There are many different types of cloud platform. Some, like the Hostdedi Cloud, are engineered to provide the best possible hosting for selected applications. Others are general server hosting platforms that require more work and technical knowledge to achieve the same result. Many provide minimal support. Your cloud migration will be less disruptive if you know what to expect from the cloud vendor.
Plan to Avoid Downtime
A well-planned cloud migration should cause minimal downtime. Some factors can’t be controlled, such as the time it takes for changes to DNS records to propagate, but with careful preparation and implementation, disruption can be kept to a minimum.
Search Engine Optimization
A badly executed site migration can negatively impact SEO. Cloud migration without a domain name change should not cause SEO problems. Migration can be more tricky if the site is moved to a new domain. A detailed discussion of domain name changes is beyond the scope of this article, but you should be aware of the potential for disruption if redirects and DNS record changes are not handled properly.
Planning is the best way to avoid the issues we have discussed. In the next article in our series on cloud migration, we will discuss how to build a successful migration plan.
Each year, half a billion dollars is lost to slow websites after users abandon shopping carts and content pages. The reason? Insufficient hosting support, undefined expectations, and hosting provider marketing that doesn’t line up with reality.
It’s for this reason that it’s important to know what your hosting provider means when they refer to uptime, support, control, and performance.
This article covers the questions you should be asking your hosting provider, so you can make sure you get the best hosting solution for your business.
Choosing a hosting provider is a complex task, made more so by convoluted rhetoric and sales pitches designed to confuse. For first time buyers, the mountain of options available can sometimes seem insurmountable. Luckily, we’re here to help with a simple breakdown of the questions and answers surrounding web hosting.
First, it’s important for you to ask yourself the question: what do you want from web hosting? To do that, you need to identify the attributes of your business and its website. This includes:
Each website has a unique set of requirements designed around specifications set by you: the owner. When choosing web hosting, it’s important to set your expectations from the outset. If you will require increased capacity during sales events, make that clear. If you will likely need help during the migration process, let your sales rep know.
Hostdedi offers free migrations as standard, complete with a dedicated migration team to assist.
We have broken this article into five sections, each covering an area of importance. For our full breakdown of web hosting questions and answers, download our eBook.
1. Disaster Recovery
Disaster recovery should be one of the first things you ask. Even the most well-prepared and secured data center facility can experience a problem. Asking about disaster recovery will let you know what your provider will do about them.
54% of businesses experience a downtime event lasting eight hours or longer.
More than half of companies experience a downtime event that lasts for longer than eight hours. Several studies place a day of downtime as costing businesses around $20k. The events themselves may be unavoidable, but the amount of attributable downtime is.
A deeper look at the threats to a data center reveals three primary categories of risk.
External
Facility
Data System
Natural disasters
Power
Communication networks
Supplier outages
Water
Shared servers
Human-caused
Climate
Viruses
Civil disruptions
Fire
Data backup and storage
Communication
Software applications
Security
Structure
In order to minimize the damage from any of the risks above, most hosting providers create what are known as disaster recovery plans. These proprietary strategies are a vital piece of the puzzle for maintaining uptime across all services. They cover how to reduce and remove downtime, how to get services back online as quickly as possible, and the expected scope of damage.
It’s important to understand and ask your data center about risk – especially if you host in an area prone to natural disasters. For a deeper dive into data center risk, check our expanded article on Data Center Risk and Recovery and see exactly what you should be asking your data center about.
2. Data Center Types
The second question you should be asking is what type of hosting infrastructure your provider is offering.
In modern hosting, opting for a provider doesn’t mean you will necessarily be using their data center. Several hosting providers don’t have their own facilities, instead opting to resell or collocate in third-party facilities.
This has created three primary categories of hosting.
Reseller
Colocation
Owned and Operated
Each of these has their own advantages and disadvantages. Owned and operated hosting providers tend to provide the best in terms of support and control, while reseller packages are often cheaper.
We took a deeper look at the strengths and weaknesses of the different data center types. Find out how Owned and Operated providers can be the most powerful and versatile for your website, and why Colocation shouldn’t necessarily be overlooked.
3. Website Migration
The third question is a tricky one – and something often marketed as being free by most providers: migrations.
Website migrations are scary. If something goes wrong, there is a lot to lose: SEO rankings, accessibility, data, and performance can all take a hit. These almost always lead to a reduction in visitors; one which can last for months or years and result in a huge loss in revenue.
All the more reason to take a more active role in the migration process. Know what to expect and what your role will be. With some simple preparation, a good website migration is a relatively easy and stress-free experience.
Learn more about how to keep your website migration simple. Remember, all Hostdedi solutions come with a dedicated migrations team to assist with your move for free. We’ll help walk you through the entire process so you know nothing will go wrong.
4. Traffic Spikes
The fourth question you should be asking is about traffic spikes and the capacity of your solution.
Traffic spikes happen. Sometimes it’s a search engine crawler or bot, other times it’s because your website just got a lot more popular and whatever you’re doing, you’re doing it right. Preparing for traffic spikes is an important piece of the website success puzzle.
At Hostdedi, there are three primary ways to prepare for and manage a traffic spike:
Environment optimizations
Upgrades/ downgrades
Auto scaling
Below you’ll find a basic outline of how these different methods compare.
Optimizations
Upgrades
Auto Scaling
Site Capacity Increase?
✓
✓
✓
Instant?
✓
✕
✓
Available on All Solutions?
✕
✓
✕
Included in Cost?
✓
✕
✓
We took an in-depth look at how to prepare for traffic spikes with the three methods above. Find out more about what you could be doing.
5. Hosting Support
The final question you should have regards one of the most important features of modern managed hosting: support.
Hosting support should be 24/7, including holidays, and you should have a good understanding of the support channels available to you. At a minimum, there should be a ticketing system and a phone number. Check with your provider to see which channels are available and when they are available.
Wouldn’t it be great if all of these questions were explored in more detail in one place? And wouldn’t it be even better if that place contained more detailed questions for an even more in-depth understanding of the hosting solution you’re choosing?
You’re in luck, we’ve put together a detailed guide for you to explore all of the above and save onto your computer. Simply click the link below and you’ll be taken to the download page.
If you have followed the advice outlined in the previous articles in this series on cloud migration, you are well-prepared to migrate your site to cloud hosting. The information you need has been gathered and is easily accessible. You have informed those who will be affected by the migration. You have chosen a cloud platform and selected an appropriate cloud instance. Now it’s time to put your cloud migration plan into action.
Download our free guide to Cloud Migration here. 
Download our free guide to Cloud Migration 
Make WordPress even easier with Hostdedi. 
Download our free guide to Cloud Migration 
Find out what questions you should be asking your hosting provider. 
To celebrate WordCamp US, we’re giving away the first month of WordPress hosting for half price! 
Download our free guide to Cloud Migration 
Download our free guide to Cloud Migration 
Hostdedi offers free migrations as standard, complete with a dedicated migration team to assist.
