by David Allen
New Blog Hosting
newbloghosting.com
Blogs have become one of the best resources on the Internet for information on nearly any topic. Bloggers want their blogs to be seen and it is no secret that a fast blog makes Google love you more. And if Google loves you more, then you are more likely to be seen by visitors. So how can you make sure your blog is speedy and not hurting you?
I developed my first website in 1996, this was long before PHP or WordPress were even born. I hosted my first website in 1997, I’ve seen the evolution of blogs over time. Technology has now reached a point where instead of adding resources to websites we’re talking optimization of existing resources.
I’m the President of a small hosting company Newbloghosting.com. I see many clients come to me with one simple question. How do I speed my blog up? In plain English, how do I make it load quicker?
What can be a scary task has a few simple answers, but it is something you need to decide in the beginning to avoid growing pains or downtime later. Nobody wants to have downtime when they have their first post go viral due to blog overload. Here’s a few tips to help your first busy blog day be a success and not a stress.
Host with the Most
Web-hosting is a competitive business with websites full of sales pitches and technical information that often push bloggers away or they make their decisions based on price alone. Often times you get what you pay for.
WordPress stores your content in a database unless it’s an image. Often what most budget hosts do is store those databases on the same physical drive as the rest of your files, and email accounts. This doesn’t give WordPress all the resources as the drive is being shared for other tasks. Ask your host do they use Solid State Drives (SSD) in there servers at least for the WordPress databases.
For example, at Newbloghosting.com we use nothing but the fastest SSD drives on the market and your databases are stored separate from any other data. That means you get a full 400MB per second transfer rates dedicated to your WordPress content.
Another common question to ask your host is what web server software do they use. The common answer is Apache or Litespeed. In our testing at Newbloghosting.com we find Litespeed processes WordPress requests 50 percent faster than Apache. In short, faster load times for you the consumer.
Easy on the Plugins
Plugins are amazing. If you ask me plugins is what makes WordPress what it is. With just a click of your mouse you can change the features of your website.
However, more is not always better in this case.
Make sure you choose wisely, don’t choose a plugin because “it looks nice. If the plugin fills a need or a niche in your blog, use it, but just one that does that feature is enough. For example, if you’re using 5 plugins to accomplish your social media needs then that’s likely too many. Perhaps one plugin to cover all of them is sufficient. The more plugins you have performing tasks on your site the slower it may become.
Be mindful if you are using plugins for external advertisers your site will only load as fast as the external advertisement.
Help Yourself
After your blog is up and running there are some steps you can take to make sure your site loads as efficiently as possible. Be mindful of your images and the resolutions you choose. If you’re not running a photographer blog or drawing attention to a certain photograph maybe drop the resolution down to as little as 72dpi. That will reduce the file size and increase load times.
Perhaps the biggest question I get asked is what about those caching plugins? I have mixed feelings on those to be honest.
Do they help a blog? They can on a server that is less than efficient Will they have a negative affect on your blog? Depends on who you ask, I can say from a hosting point of view most of the time when a client comes to me with a blog issue such as a blank white page showing or content not displaying as expected, disabling the caching plugin is often the cure.
The easy solution to this whole caching thing, if your host is running Litespeed then it’s likely they have caching enabled at the server side, which does eliminate many of the issues the caching plugins can cause.
Wrap Up
Having a blog is like making a large purchase, running out making an impulse buy often leads to buyers regret. Think it through, plan for your goals now so when success comes your way your blogs performance isn’t a bottleneck. Finding the setup that fits your niche is just as important as the content within your blog. I’ve seen the blog with 200 hits a day succeed, I’ve seen the blog with 2 million hits succeed.
It’s all about planning.
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About David
David is the owner and brains behind New Blog Hosting. Though New Blog Hosting has been in business for four years, David brings more than 20 years of hosting experience with him. He is one of the first to be a Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator. He is customer-oriented, personal, stays up to date on all things hosting as well as virus protection, and is always available to help out in any way he can.
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