There comes a moment when it is time to scale from the original shared hosting service to Virtual Private Server, or VPS hosting. This is ultimately a great problem to have since it means that your traffic has surpassed the initial disk space and bandwidth the shared server provides.
However, to make an informed decision when it comes to scaling to VPS hosting, you need to know a few facts.
Why Scale Up To VPS Hosting?
The reasons to scale your shared server to a virtual private server are numerous. But there are a few important issues you may be experiencing now that a VPS hosting service can mitigate. For example, site speed. Site speed has become a very important search engine ranking factor, especially for Google.
If your website is lagging in site speed, or if page load times are not under two seconds, it is time to make a server switch. By optimizing for speed you will ultimately provide a better user experience and satisfy Google, which in turn will boost your SERP rankings. This is optimal!
Another issue that signals it is time to scale up from shared to VPS hosting is uptime problems. If the shared server your site is parked on continues to crash and cause your website to be unavailable, you are losing money. Not good. A virtual private server mitigates this problem perfectly.
Get A Boost In Disk Space
Shared servers are great when launching a website, since they are easy to get and very affordable. But the innovation in servers and hosting have made VPS just as affordable without the need to “share” a server with other websites competing for disk space and bandwidth.
This is a big time benefit for scaling your shared server to VPS. With a virtual private server you will get more disk space, ensuring you keep the above problems to a minimum or non-existent all together. Essentially, the growth and success of your site will no longer be bound by shared space.
Enhance Website Security With VPS
One of the biggest issues site owners and managers face right now is poor website security. This can be very costly, especially since the risk for cyber attacks is on the rise. In fact, cyber attacks doubled in 2017, amounting to nearly 200,000 online attacks. This can destroy a business online.
By scaling to a virtual private server, you can enhance the security of your website. This is possible due to the security measures only a VPS can provide. For instance, the data and information on a VPS is parted out among multiple servers, rather than being all on one physically shared server.
So if one server falls victim to hackers, all the sites and information on that server is at risk. With VPS, this is impossible, because information is parked in different locations. This can keep your customer data and personal information safe, like credit cards for example, as well as the data you have in your site.
Affordable And Customizable
There are more mobile users online than ever before, making it imperative to provide a powerful user experience on desktops, as well as via mobile devices. Switching from shared to VPS is one way to make sure your site and business is mobile-friendly.
When launching your business, blog, or brand online, you probably went with the most affordable option, which was a shared hosting plan. This is fine, but as you grow and consumer behavior shifts to mobile, you need to scale. VPS may be slightly more cost wise, but you are sure to deliver a better site to your users.
VPS is also customizable, allowing you to scale up and keep scaling as needed. Essentially, you may never have the common mobile issues you experienced in the past, like mobile web pages loading at a snail’s pace. Consumers aren’t having that anymore, and if your website fails to load at a lightning speed, you will lose customers to your competitors.
Is It Time You Scale Your Shared Server to VPS?
Growth is great, but if you fail to scale to meet the demands of that growth, you may find your business being leveraged out by better performing competitors. The rise in smartphones and mobile search have also made providing a mobile optimized user experience of the utmost importance.
From more disk space to customizable user experience, virtual private servers are definitely worth looking more into. It may be a bit more expensive, but the long-term return for scaling up your server and hosting plan can be beneficial in traffic and conversions. Are you ready to scale?