The Best Web Host for Small Business

2 COMMENTS

The Best Web Host for Small Business

Let me begin a few years back when I first created a web site. It was in the beginning of 2013. The month was January but I don’t have the exact day.

I was looking to grow a business so I was looking for the best web host for small business! If I could find and inexpensive web host, so much the better. I was very ignorant in this area!

My first website was hosted on iPage.com and we were continually having offline issues with them. It seemed like every week there would be an hour or so of down time. The service was very secretive.

What I mean by secretive is, when I would call to find out why the servers were down, they were very reluctant to tell me why. I found out later that some of those times they had actually been hacked.

During the time I was with iPage.com, my web site was growing and we were beginning to make some money using Google Adsense and it seemed like every time we got a decent influx of traffic, the servers would crash! Geeezzz!!!!

I know we didn’t pay much for the hosting but they advertised much better service than what we experienced. I have a friend, Larry Deane who was growing tired of his host at the same time, we both decided to move to A Small Orange for our hosting. This ended up being a nightmare in the end!

Our service began pretty good and we were impressed in the beginning using A Small Orange but somewhere along the line, if I remember right, they changed hands or something. Anyway, the service went down hill fast!

By the time we found Traffic Planet Hosting, now WPX Hosting, we were experiencing hours, not an hour but hours of downtime weekly! It was horrific! Lots of money lost through them by myself, and Larry!

Needless to say, we jumped ship and we both landed at Traffic Planet Hosting (WPX Hosting). Larry and I stay in contact regularly with each other and I can say we are both very happy with the service we are getting. Larry is an IT Professional and he mentioned to me just a few days ago how impressed he has been with WPX Hosting since we moved there!

I began my relationship with Traffic Planet Hosting, now WPX Hosting in Dec 2015 and have never looked back as I have never been happier with a hosting company.

The servers seem to always be up and if there is an issue it is resolved in record time.

They have helped me do so many things that were not required of them that I am amazed!

Migrated all my websites to their servers.

Installed SSL on all my sites.

Created a test page for me before they added the Staging Area.

The person who I was on a chat with actually downloaded a plugin for me and copied my site and installed it on their servers for the test site for me! I was amazed again!

Helped me install a couple of scripts on the servers because I didn’t understand how to do it correctly. Just stuff like this all the time! I have never worked with any place who is this service oriented!

Following is a list of their services and I for one, am a very happy customer and unless something drastically happens I will be with them for a long time!

I am being as transparent as I can be! I am not trying to sell you something I don’t believe in! I have included a variety of my Pingdom reports that show down time and response time since I have begun using WPX Hosting.

Table of Contents

Below are some benefits of using WPX Hosting.

A ‘Staging Area’ where you can merge your Staging site version with the Live site version WITHOUT losing new blog comments or post/page changes on the Live site since the Staging version was created;
WPX Hosting’s 24/7/365 Support Team AVERAGE under 30 seconds response time, according to Live Chat Inc (the independent live chat platform used by WPX Hosting);
“FIXED FOR YOU” Guarantee: Unlike old-school hosting company support that sends you a link to an article when you get into technical trouble & expects you to fix the issue, we do it for you, FAST & FREE (and we can still send you an article link if you want!). WPX Hosting is like your own F1 pit crew, ready 24/7/365 to get your technical problems resolved fast;
SUPERFAST high-end new SSD servers deliberately UNDERloaded for high performance under extreme traffic loads (e.g. email marketing broadcasts, product launches);
UNLIMITED Free Google-Sponsored SSL Certificates Installed & Active In Under 10 Seconds;
PHP 7.X Enabled (Plus Earlier Versions) + http2 enabled;
Unlimited FREE Site Migration from your current host to WPX Hosting Within 24 Hours, 7 Days A Week;
Fully Managed WordPress Hosting With FREE Email Included (Unlike Many Others);
US servers Located In The World’s Largest Datacenter Along With America’s Financial Infrastructure, UK servers in London too;
Enterprise-level Incapsula DDoS protection on ALL plans.

Note. The below charts are older but still very relevant. I didn’t change them because the current ones look the same!

WPX Hosting

WPX Hosting, formerly Traffic Planet Hosting, was co-founded by Terry Kyle, a well-known internet marketer. It is a managed WordPress hosting company that has earned trust and praise among numerous blog owners if reviews regarding the company are anything to go by. With its well thought out features, reliable customer support, and affordable packages, it is no surprise that it is giving its competitors a run for their money.

One of the determinants of your blog’s credibility to search engines and users is website hosting. Cheap may sometimes be expensive as is the case with some low-cost or shared hosting services. Slow loading pages and downtime can cause a bad impression on your audience or Google. WPX Hosting offers a dedicated WordPress hosting which means that the servers are designed to maximize specifically on WordPress speed.

This is a worthy read if you are thinking of upgrading your website’s hosting arrangements or starting a new WordPress website.

WPX Features

User-Friendly Dashboard

It allows you to view your account details, follow up on support tickets, and manage your email and websites. Disk space and bandwidth usage can also be monitored from here. WordPress is installed on this WPX Hosting client area dashboard, although you can also gain access to your server space through the FTP and the SFTP. The FTP can also be used to download and upload files to your server space.

Reliable Customer Support

Great customer service is key to the success of a business. Despite how technologically advanced or user-friendly a platform might be, there is still need for exceptional customer service. WPX Hosting offers a 24/7 live text chat service in addition to a help desk ticketing system. The support team is very responsive and always eager to help. If you have any questions or issues, you may also consider checking out their online knowledge base. There is plenty of information and tips that can be of help to you when the need arises.

Free SSL with WPX Hosting

As it stands, the SSL certificate is essential in the digital world. WPX Hosting offers unlimited free Google sponsored SSL certificates for all its clients. It enables all the data on your site like credit card information, login information, etc., to be encrypted enhancing protection. The customer support team is at your beck and call to install the SSL redirect plugin on your blog. Minor details like handling your SEO so that no indexed pages are lost, or transferring your links from http to https version will be handled by the support team.

WPX Hosting Speed

Increasing site speed leads to an overall positive user experience and improvement in conversion rates. WPX Hosting servers are configured to give you the fastest speeds. Speed is not only a server factor but the server hardware also plays a major role in this.

The purpose of your website may vary but no doubt that quick loading time is beneficial for any website. A fast website will lead to more visitors and higher conversion rates. More visitors will increase the probability of increased subscribers to your mailing list, more clicks on the links available on your site, purchase of products, etc. WPX load capacity is pretty impressive even when there is high traffic on your blog.

Emails

All plans by WPX Hosting include email support. The address attached to your website’s domain’s name is the one you will use to send and receive emails. You have the option to forward the email to other addresses like your Gmail account. It is also possible to access your emails through webmail, outlook, or on your smartphone.

Daily WordPress Website Backups

WPX has a daily website backup where the files are stored on a separate server for increased protection. Should something go wrong, there is no extra charge incurred for backup retrieval.

Free Site Migration

Moving to a different web host is sometimes dismissed because of the hassle it involves despite various tools and plugins to help you with the migration. The situation is made even worse if you are not a technical person. You are also bound to make some mistakes that could cause some downtime for your site. WPX has made it easy for you by providing a free site migration services which take a record 24 hours. This includes migration of the email associated with your website.

Malware Protection

WPX Hosting offers free DDOS and malware protection with free cleanups in case your site gets infected. They conduct daily malware scams so security optimization is guaranteed.

Money Back Guarantee

They have a money back guarantee within 30 days of processing your order. This is more of a show of confidence in the quality of their services.

WPX User Experience

Sign Up

The registration with WPX Hosting is straightforward. You simply select a plan and choose between an annual payment or monthly payments. It is easy to register an existing domain name or a new domain for your website. Registering domains independently from the web host gives you flexibility should you opt to migrate to a different web host later on.

Once you are logged into the dashboard, you are able to see the billing details. From here, you can configure your account to the services you are using.

Installing WordPress

(They have made this as easy as falling off a log)

If you are starting an entirely new website, the first step is to install WordPress on your server space to get you started. The process is very easy thanks to WPX Hosting. Click on install WP, then the Install WordPress link. Enter your email address and finally install. This only takes a few seconds. From there, some details about your site such as the site title, language, username, and password will be required to log on to your new WordPress site.

For the existing WordPress websites, submit a free migration request from the customer support team and they will take care of this for you.

The installation is clean without any additional installations of themes or plugins. The only things included are the default Akismet and Hello Dolly plugins along with the last few versions of the default WordPress themes.

Domains and Subdomains

With any WPX Hosting plan, you are able to host multiple WordPress websites on one account which means all additional domains and WordPress installations.

Email Support

On the control panel, click on an add email box and fill in the required details. Here you can create email addresses for the domains associated with your website. It is very easy to do.

WPX Packages

WPX Hosting plan has three packages suited to different customers’ needs; the difference being the number of sites per account, amount of bandwidth, and storage.

The lowest rate goes for $24.99 monthly for an entry-level business plan. It hosts up to 5 accounts which is a great option if you look at a few client sites or have a few running websites.

The professional plan goes for $49.99 per month giving you the ability to host up to 15 websites and more disk space along with other additional features. (This is the one I use)

The elite plan charges a monthly subscription of $99 for up to 35 websites with unlimited bandwidth.

Cheap web hosting platforms may provide unlimited storage but the speed isn’t anything to write home about. The loading speeds are usually already slow to start with so unlimited storage is not always a good thing. An annual payment, as opposed to monthly, also gives you a discounted price. They have a 30-day free trial so that you can test out their site before coming to a decision.

WPX Website Speed Optimization Guide

Here are a few tips to lower site speed under a second without spending too much;

Pick a reliable hosting company such as WPX.
A clean WordPress theme. Preferably one that is SEO optimized and with less than a second loading time. (Genesis themes are great)
The right plugins which can be configured by the customer care team of the company hosting you are using.
CDN (Content Delivery Network) spreads out your site in different American servers for instance. This means that when someone tries to access your site from a different region or country, it will choose a server that is closest to their location enhancing site speed greatly.
A little cleaning up of your site can lead to an overall improved performance. For example, delete any plugins and themes, not in use, or resize your pictures before you upload them. Test your site’s speed before and caching the data to see what change it has on your site.

WPX Hosting has proven itself efficient in both performance and user experience. What’s more, they take the technical know-how off your shoulder by letting their highly experienced team handle all that; site migration, SSL integration, etc., without downtime. This is very convenient especially for those already struggling with busy schedules. Their prices are also quite affordable despite the exceptional service they offer.

Consistency, speed, security, easy-to-use interface or dashboard, you name it! An all-inclusive package. Lots of webmasters are pleased with the service so far, ranking it above other similar hosting companies. No single service has achieved 100% success, close but not perfect. What matters, however, is that issues are fixed promptly and satisfactorily as soon as they are raised. This is what WPX is all about. One of my friends is an IT Professional for a National Banking Company and he swears by WPX. He claims he has never had the uptime nor service that these folks provide.

In the end, we all want good service and to feel like we are important to someone! WPX Hosting fills both of these needs.

Update: Nov 07/2018

The WPX Web Technicians have upped their game and now you get even better and faster service than before. I never thought that was possible but somehow it is.

Not only will you get faster website load time and great service but you get to help a lot of homeless dogs and pups by using WPX Hosting.

The owner of WPX Hosting, Terry Kyle is a great supporter of homeless dogs!