Also called private label or unbranded hosting, this allows you to focus on customer relations and growing your business rather than worrying about the technical side of hosting. What makes this model so attractive is that you can use your own branding in the hosting backend, instead of working under the shadow of the original hosting provider.

To get the most out of private or white-label services, you need to find a reliable reseller hosting provider like A2 Hosting. With features like 24/7 customer service, 99.9% uptime commitment, and performance enhancements, we’re more than just a provider; we’re a trustworthy partner that supports your business at every step.

In this article, we’ll give you everything you need to know about white-label hosting and compare the top reseller providers so you can make the best possible choice for your business.

Who Should Use White-Label Reseller Hosting?

White or private label reseller hosting plans present a fantastic opportunity for professionals and businesses in many industries looking to expand their offerings and generate additional revenue:

• Web Developers, Designers, and IT Consultants: These professionals can bundle hosting with their web development and design services, offering clients a complete package and increasing their reputation as a full-service provider.
• Marketing Agencies: Agencies can include hosting as part of their broader digital marketing solutions, making their portfolio more attractive to clients looking for comprehensive online marketing and management services.
• Entrepreneurs and Startups: It offers a low-barrier entry point for those looking to enter the web hosting business with minimal investment. Entrepreneurs can sell hosting under their brand without managing the technical aspects of server management and maintenance.
• SEO Professionals: Offering web hosting allows SEO specialists to ensure that their clients’ sites are hosted on servers optimized for speed and reliability, factors that significantly impact search rankings.
• Small to Medium-Sized Businesses (SMBs): SMBs looking to diversify their business model can offer hosting services to their clients. It’s an excellent way for businesses with established client bases to generate recurring revenue.

Is There a Difference Between Traditional Reseller Hosting and White-Label Reseller Hosting?

There is a difference, and it’s quite a big one if you’re serious about your branding. Both models offer the opportunity to resell hosting, but white-label hosting goes a step further by enabling resellers to create a unique identity in the market, which can be a critical factor in customer retention and brand growth.

With traditional reseller plans, you’re essentially reselling the hosting provider’s services under their brand, and customers will know that another company is behind the hosting services. While this might work for some, it does limit your ability to provide your customers with a cohesive experience aligned with the other services that you offer, such as web design, web development, or search engine optimization.

Unbranded reseller hosting allows you to brand the services as your own. This means you can customize the different plans, set your pricing, and manage the customer experience end-to-end, all under your own name. This level of customization and control is a game-changer for businesses focused on building a brand and fostering customer loyalty.

A2 Hosting has designed our reseller plans to ensure that you can maintain your brand’s visibility and integrity. You can even add your logo and messaging to the hosting system.

What Technical Aspects Does the Hosting Provider Handle?

In white-label reseller hosting, the technical side is managed by your chosen hosting provider. Here is what that includes:

• Server Management: Your provider keeps the servers running smoothly, tackling routine upkeep, applying necessary security updates, and ensuring the system’s overall well-being. This effort is invisible to your customers but critical for delivering a reliable service.
• Infrastructure: This includes keeping the network up and running, making sure the hardware is in prime condition, looking after the data centers, implementing measures for backup and recovery, and ensuring your customers’ data is safe and always available.
• Security: Speaking of data safety, most providers include security features like firewalls, attack mitigation, routine security sweeps, and encryption protocols for data transmission that protect your website against threats and vulnerabilities. Don’t trust hosting companies that don’t pay special attention to security!
• Technical Support: A good hosting provider should provide responsive and knowledgeable technical support. This ensures you have the backup to tackle any technical challenges that arise, keeping your service smooth and professional.
• Software and Tools: You’ll have the keys to powerful tools for managing your offerings and customers, from control panels for server and site management to billing automation tools, making the administrative side of things much simpler.
• Performance Optimization: The provider also focuses on ensuring your services are fast and responsive. They use techniques and technologies to boost speed and reduce load times, ensuring your offerings stand out for their performance.

By entrusting these technical duties to your hosting provider, you can focus on what you do best – growing your business and enriching customer relationships.

Essential Features of White-Label Hosting for Your Brand

With white-label hosting, the features you choose can make a significant difference in how your brand is perceived, how smoothly your operations run, and, ultimately, how satisfied your clients are. Let’s see what they are.

Billing Software Integration

Automated invoicing, efficient payment processing, and accurate financial tracking keep your business running without a hitch. Tools like Web Host Manager Complete Solution (WHMCS) and Blesta help you manage the financial side of the business and automate billing for your customers. On A2 Hosting’s reseller plans, Blesta and WHMCS come free and fully integrated into your setup!

These platforms can also simplify customer and service management, ensuring you spend less time on admin and more on growth.

Scalable Resources

Your hosting needs will evolve as your client base grows. It is crucial to be able to scale resources up or down in response to demand, so look for a provider with flexible plans that can be adjusted according to your requirements. At A2 Hosting, we offer scalable packages that adapt as your business expands. This flexibility is vital for maintaining cost efficiency and ensuring you can always meet your client’s needs without overcommitting resources.

Easy Hosting Management via Control Panels

Control panels like WebHost Manager (WHM) and cPanel are integral to managing your hosting offerings effectively.

WHM acts as your operational hub, designed primarily for hosting providers or resellers managing multiple hosting accounts.

This powerful interface gives you administrative oversight over your servers, enabling you to craft and manage cPanel accounts for your clients, allocate resources effectively, and configure custom hosting packages. It’s an invaluable tool for setting the parameters of your hosting offerings, including disk space, bandwidth, and access to various features, ensuring you can provide tailored solutions to meet your clients’ specific needs.

On the other hand, cPanel is aimed directly at the end-users – your clients. It offers a user-friendly graphical interface that simplifies web hosting management.

Through cPanel, your clients can manage email accounts, files, databases, and domains with ease, and even install a wide array of applications with just a few clicks, thanks to features like Softaculous. This autonomy enhances their overall satisfaction with your services, as they can manage their hosting environment without needing extensive technical knowledge.

Together, WHM and cPanel provide a comprehensive ecosystem for efficient hosting management, ensuring both you and your clients have the tools needed for success.

Private Name Server

Private name servers are a key component of creating a strong brand identity. This feature allows you to offer a tailored hosting experience, reinforcing your brand with every client interaction. At A2 Hosting we support the setup of custom name servers, enabling you to further professionalize your service.

Email Accounts and Domain Registration

Offering personalized email accounts and domain registration services adds immense value to your clients, making their experience more convenient and integrated and providing a one-stop solution for all their web presence needs.

Website Migration Service

Transitioning to a new hosting provider can be daunting for clients. Our hassle-free website migration service smooths out this process, showcasing your commitment to making life easier for your clients. This level of support enhances your reputation as a reliable and client-focused reseller.

SSL Certificates

SSL certificates are non-negotiable for securing client websites and boosting their SEO rankings. A2 Hosting includes free SSL certificates, ensuring your clients’ websites are safe and trusted by search engines and visitors alike.

Backups

Data loss can be catastrophic. Regular, automated backups are essential for data integrity and service continuity. At A2 Hosting we provide robust backup solutions to safeguard your clients’ data against unforeseen events.

Cost-Effectiveness

Balancing features with affordability ensures you can offer competitive pricing without compromising on quality. With A2 Hosting’s plans, you get a comprehensive suite of features that support your business’s needs and enhance your service offering.

Best Reseller Hosting Providers: A Closer Look

With the number of hosting providers online, it can be overwhelming to choose the right one. Here are some of the most popular hosting resellers, listed alphabetically. Features and pricing are accurate as of October 2024, but may not reflect recent changes or current incentives or discounts.

A2 Hosting

A2 Hosting focuses on performance, reliability, and high-quality customer support. Our Turbo Reseller options are up to 20X faster with premium hardware and optimized server configurations. This speed helps improve the overall user experience and organic rankings – both factors important for resellers focused on delivering top-tier services.

Because ease of use and management are so important to us, all of our reseller hosting comes with fully integrated WHM and cPanel. This allows resellers to manage client accounts effortlessly and customize resources and services to meet diverse needs. You also get free SSL certificates for each domain, ensuring ongoing protection for your customers.

Another important feature of our A2 Hosting reseller plans is how scalable they are. If you’re on a budget, you can choose our Kickstart plan and then scale up as your client base grows, allowing you to always meet demand without spending more than you need to.

Coupled with a 99.9% uptime guarantee, you can rest assured that A2 Hosting is the reliable partner you need to minimize downtime and maximize client satisfaction.

Besides all the great features, our 24/7/365 Guru Crew Support team is here to bring you peace of mind that expert help is always on hand.

AccuWeb Hosting

AccuWeb Hosting offers a decent white-label Windows and Linux reseller service with flexible plans, scalable resources, and comprehensive management tools like WHM/cPanel.

Other plan features include:

• Multinational data center facilities.
• Up to 200 GB pure SSD storage.
• Up to 1 TB bandwidth limits.
• Unlimited email accounts, FTP accounts, subdomains, and databases.

They have three plans for each service. For example, their cheapest option for Windows reseller hosting is $32.99/month. Reviews for their customer support are generally good, but there are some mentions of a complicated onboarding process.

GoDaddy

GoDaddy’s reseller program allows businesses to resell not only regular hosting but also website builders and managed WordPress hosting plans. They have two plans – Basic for up to 25 customers and Pro, with unlimited customers.

Plan features include:

• White-label eCommerce storefront.
• Sales and commission reports.
• Option to sell GoDaddy domain names.
• SSL certificates.
• Various server options.
• Website security powered by Sucuri.

GoDaddy’s reseller program is a decent budget choice, with the Basic plan starting at $8.99/month, but bear in mind that if you want additional tools to manage client sites, you’ll need to purchase GoDaddy Pro.

HostGator

HostGator is another company that offers white-label reseller hosting, but its plans are slightly limited compared to other hosts.

The main plan includes:

• Unmetered bandwidth.
• Up to 450 GB SSD storage.
• Dedicated IPs.
• Unlimited email accounts.
• Centralized DDoS protection.
• Manual and scheduled backups.

Their reseller plans start at $34.99 with current incentives, but some features cost extra. Also, some customers have reported that their customer service is unresponsive and slow with solutions.

HostWinds

HostWinds is a provider that offers different reseller plans, which are highly scalable and mostly depend on the number of domains you want to include. There is no information on whether they include a WHMCS billing integration, which means that you might have to purchase that separately.

Other features include:

• cPanel access and Softaculous.
• Private name servers.
• Nightly backups to ensure minimum disruptions.
• 24/7 Website monitoring with automatically dispatched tickets when issues show up.
• Free SSL Certificates and unlimited FTP accounts, databases, and subdomains.

While HostWinds reseller options may seem lower-cost than other hosts, with regular prices starting at just $6.99/month. However, they provide few details about their products which might not be very reassuring for some customers.

InMotion

InMotion Hosting’s reseller plans come with free white labels and are designed to support businesses at various stages of growth, with regular plans starting at $35.99/month.

Plan features include:

• WHMCS for billing management.
• Access to WHM/cPanel.
• Private name servers and SSL certificates.
• Domain registration and personalized email accounts.
• Free website migration service.

They claim to have 24/7/365 support, but some reviews mention bad service and long waiting times, making their higher prices not worth it for many people.

SiteGround

Lastly, we have SiteGround. They have three reseller plans, but the cheapest option does not include a white label, so if you want that, you need to start with the GoGeek plan, which costs $44.99/month after renewal.

Other features include:

• Unlimited websites.
• Free SSL, CDN, private DNS, and email services.
• 20 GB Web space for the lowest-tier plan.
• Daily and on-demand backups.
• Free WP Installation and WP Migrator plugin.

They have generally good support with a chat service that is easy to connect and use.

White-Label Reseller Hosting FAQs

What is white-label reseller hosting?

White-label reseller hosting allows you to offer web hosting services under your brand without having to manage the infrastructure. It’s like being able to sell your own brand of coffee without owning a coffee farm or factory. You purchase wholesale hosting and then resell them to your clients, all while your provider stays in the background.

What is the best site for reseller hosting?

Identifying the best site for reseller plans depends on your specific needs, such as support, scalability, and features. However, A2 Hosting frequently tops the list for our strong performance, comprehensive support, and user-friendly management tools.

Can you make money reselling hosting?

Absolutely, you can make money reselling hosting, but your success depends on how well you package and market your services and the additional value you can provide to your clients. To increase your profits, look for providers that allow you to offer a more attractive package, including important features like strong security, fast servers, great support, and management tools.

How much does reseller or white-label hosting cost?

The cost of reseller hosting can vary widely, starting from as low as $17.99 a month to several hundred dollars, depending on the provider and the package you choose. Key factors affecting price include the amount of storage, bandwidth, and the number of client accounts you plan to manage. It’s all about finding the right balance between the cost and the features you need to serve your clients effectively.

Ready to get started with unbranded reseller hosting? A2 Hosting offers competitive pricing and advanced features so you can run a white-label hosting company. Choose from several Reseller Plans to fit your hosting needs. Plus, all our hosting plans include our 99.9% uptime commitment, hassle-free money back guarantee, and 24/7/365 in-house Guru Crew support.

The post How to Choose the Best White-Label Reseller Hosting Provider appeared first on The A2 Posting.

Hosting your clients’ websites can transform your business into a one-stop shop, allowing you to build recurring revenue from each client with minimal extra effort. It may even make it easier to attract more potential customers and expand your client base.

While this may sound overly technical, reseller hosting allows you to sell hosting plans without managing servers. Let’s explore how you can generate more revenue and expand your business offerings with easy, affordable reseller hosting services that allow you to host your client’s websites.

Why You Should Host Your Clients’ Websites

Hosting websites for clients can offer several benefits for your business, including:

Recurring Revenue Stream

Hosting clients’ websites can create a predictable revenue stream for your business, allowing for long-term client relationships and monthly revenue.

This generally leads to higher profit margins than one-off projects because hosting costs are fixed, while client revenue is ongoing. Offering hosting services can build a more sustainable and profitable business over time.

Streamlined Workflows

Hosting your clients’ websites means you have everything in one place, making it easier to manage. You can control their domains, databases, and email accounts.

By offering an all-in-one solution, you’re saving your clients time and hassle. They don’t have to search for a host or learn how to navigate the hosting backend. Instead, they can rely on you to handle website management for them, allowing them to focus on their core business.

Improved Client Retention

By hosting your clients’ websites, you’re fostering ongoing relationships, which gives you more chances to connect and offer additional services, such as site maintenance, security monitoring, and updates.

Hosting also gives you the opportunity to offer upsells, like enhanced security features, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates, or more bandwidth and storage. All of that means more revenue for you and better performance for your clients.

Better Client Website Performance

Partnering with a reliable hosting provider that offers high uptime guarantees and ample resources can make all the difference for your client’s websites.

If your client doesn’t understand web hosting, they may choose a subpar solution, and their website might not perform as well as it should. But if you handle the hosting, you can customize it to their needs – from the type of hosting offered to server specifications to resource allocation.

For example, let’s say you want to offer your client Managed Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting. With a provider like A2 Hosting, you can choose between the standard or the Turbo plan. The standard hosting plan is an excellent starting point that is powerful enough for many websites, so you could start here, gauge your client’s performance, and scale up if needed. Or, if you anticipate that your client will receive high levels of traffic due to the nature of their business, you could opt for the Turbo plan right away, as this offers lightning-fast server performance and better storage.

Staying in control of hosting means you can easily monitor performance and upgrade when necessary. This means your clients’ sites will always have the resources they need to perform well.

Potential Drawbacks of Being a Hosting Intermediary

While offering web hosting has its perks, there are also some drawbacks to consider. However, it’s worth noting that these drawbacks are largely offset by the fact that the provider will handle all technical considerations.

Added Responsibilities

As a hosting intermediary, you’ll need to take on additional responsibilities to ensure you’re offering a solid service. Here are some examples of what you might need to do:

• Basic Setup: You might need to set up software, tools, and accounts for clients, like installing WordPress or setting up email accounts.

• Monitor Backend: You’ll need to keep an eye on things like site speed and server resources so everything runs smoothly.

• Check Backups: Ensuring backups are successful can save you and your clients a lot of time and effort if anything goes wrong.

• Performance Reports: Sending performance reports to clients is a great way to show them the value you’re providing and build trust in your relationship.

When Issues Arise, Clients Turn to You

Even if clients know you’re not the one behind the scenes, you’ll still be the first point of contact if anything goes wrong.

That’s why it’s crucial to partner with a provider that offers prompt support, like A2 Hosting’s 24/7/365 Guru Crew. But remember, as the service provider, it’s your responsibility to liaise with the support team and resolve issues on time.

Not Ready to Offer Hosting? Become a Host Affiliate Instead

If the added responsibilities of offering hosting don’t appeal to you, you can become a hosting affiliate instead. As an affiliate, you simply refer your clients to your favorite hosting company. Every successful referral gets you a little extra money.

If you want to give it a shot, A2 Hosting’s affiliate program is a great option to explore. With our competitive commission structure, you earn more for every sale you make.

For instance, if you have one sale in a month, you get paid $55. But if you have 21+ sales, you get paid $125 per sale. That means an extra $2,625!

Selecting the Right Hosting Provider to Work With

Here are some essential considerations to keep in mind when choosing a hosting company:

Range of Plans

Not all websites are created equal and the needs of your clients will vary depending on factors, such as the type of site and its expected traffic. Look for a provider that offers a range of plans catering to different needs, whether a large eCommerce website or a small business.

Technical Requirements

Considering these technical specs can help set your client’s website up for success:

• Bandwidth: If your client’s site receives a lot of traffic, it will need more bandwidth to be able to handle it.
• Storage: Sites with a lot of media or large files will need more storage to accommodate them.
• Processing Power: Websites with complex functions or high traffic may require hosting plans with multiple Central Process Unit (CPU) cores, higher clock speeds, and ample RAM to make sure everything runs smoothly.
• Scalability: Does your client anticipate their site traffic increasing over time? If so, a host that makes it easy to upgrade plans and add more resources as needed.

Uptime Guarantees and Customer Support

Nothing kills a website’s credibility faster than downtime. Look for a provider that offers uptime guarantees and responsive customer support. After all, when issues arise, you want to be confident that help is just a phone call, chat, or email away.

Security Measures

With cyber threats on the rise, security is non-negotiable. Make sure your hosting company takes security seriously, with measures like firewalls, malware scanning, and SSL certificates to keep your clients’ data safe.

Server Locations and Loading Speeds

The closer your server is to your audience, the faster your website will load for them. This is because the data doesn’t have to travel as far to reach their device. So, if your client’s target audience is primarily located in a specific region, it’s a good idea to choose a provider with servers in that area.

Meanwhile, fast loading speeds are essential for ensuring your client’s website performs well, delivers a great user experience, and minimizes bounce rates. It can also boost Search Engine Optimization (SEO) rankings.

A2 Hosting: Solutions for All Your Hosting Needs

With a wide range of plans tailored to different needs and budgets, A2 Hosting has something for everyone.

For example, our VPS Hosting plans are perfect for users who need more control and flexibility over their hosting environment. The plans include root access, easy scalability, and top-notch resources like Solid-State Drive (SSD) storage and dedicated Internet Protocol (IP) addresses.

On the other hand, if you’re looking for Dedicated Server hosting, A2 Hosting has you covered with high-performance servers that offer fast processing power, ample storage, and dedicated resources. This means you can handle heavy workloads and demanding applications with ease, providing a user-friendly experience for your clients.

One of our standout features is the Turbo Plan upgrade, available across all our plans. Thanks to LiteSpeed servers, this upgrade takes performance to the next level, offering faster load times, smoother operations, and a better experience for your clients and their customers.

Choosing the Right Hosting for Your Client’s Needs

Let’s break down the different types of hosting so you can choose the best one for your clients’ needs:

• Shared Hosting: This is the most basic type of hosting, where multiple websites share the same server resources. It’s best for small businesses or personal websites that don’t require a lot of resources.
• VPS Hosting: VPS hosting is a step up from shared hosting, where a single physical server is divided into multiple virtual servers. This allows for more resources and customization, making it a good option for growing businesses or websites that require more control.
• Dedicated Hosting: With dedicated hosting, you have an entire server to yourself, giving you the most resources and control. It’s best for large businesses or websites with high traffic and resource-intensive applications.
• Platform-Specific Hosting: This type of hosting is optimized for a specific platform, such as WordPress. It often comes with features like automatic updates and security enhancements, making it a great option for businesses or individuals who want a hassle-free experience.

With A2’s VPS hosting, you have the option of managed or unmanaged hosting.

Managed hosting allows you to rely on the provider to take care of server maintenance, updates, and security. On the other hand, with unmanaged VPS hosting, you have full control over the server, but you’re responsible for installing and configuring software, managing updates, and handling security.

Do You Need Reseller Hosting?

Reseller hosting is a popular choice for many web agencies because it offers several benefits, including:

• Branding: You can add your own branding to the hosting infrastructure, making your service more bespoke and professional.
• Client Accounts: Create new client accounts through the Web Host Manager to make the most of your resources.
• Billing Solutions: Integrated billing solutions make payments from your clients faster and more streamlined.

A2 Hosting offers reseller hosting for all your hosting needs, making it a great option for most agencies.

However, if your client requires dedicated hosting due to high resource needs, you can still offer hosting as an intermediary service. This means you’ll be handling the backend on their behalf, giving your clients the benefits of dedicated hosting without the added responsibility.

Being able to host your client’s websites not only streamlines your workflow but is a great way to increase your recurring revenue. With our white-label resell plans, you can act as your own hosting company without the hassle of maintaining your own web servers.

We offer fast, reliable hosting solutions to meet any need and you can easily scale your options as more clients switch to your services.

Our plans support popular content management systems like WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla. Plus, your clients can use most eCommerce solutions as well like WooCommerce, Magento, OpenCart, PrestaShop, AbanteCart, and more.

All of our hosting is backed by our 99.9% uptime commitment, money back guarantee, and 24/7/365 in-house Guru Crew support. Increase your revenue with reseller white-label hosting today. Compare plans now and get started in just minutes.

The post How to Increase Recurring Revenue by Hosting Websites for Clients appeared first on The A2 Posting.

A2 Hosting is excited to partner with Troy Dean, CEO and founder of Agency Mavericks, for an exclusive webinar that will reveal the power of paid strategy sessions in transforming your agency model.

Join us on Wednesday, October 23, 2024 at 5:00 PM ET / 2:00 PM PT for this free, insightful webinar tailored for web designers, SEO experts, and agency owners.

Secure your spot now and learn how road mapping sessions and paid discovery can help you scale your agency.

Register Now

Title: The Vital Role of Access Management in WordPress Security

Date: Wednesday, October 23, 2024

Time: 5:00 PM ET / 2:00 PM PT

Webinar Highlights: Benefits of Paid Discovery & Strategy Sessions

The traditional agency model can often lead to bottlenecks, misaligned expectations, and difficulties in scaling. Also called road mapping or a strategy session, paid discovery provides a solution to these problems, helping agencies better onboard ideal clients, generate recurring revenue, and achieve better outcomes.

During this 60-minute webinar, Troy will dive into the key strategies behind paid discovery and how it can help your agency grow profitably.

What You’ll Learn:

• The Benefits of Paid Discovery: Why paid discovery is essential for identifying the right clients and streamlining your onboarding process.
• Recurring Revenue Strategies: How to convert discovery sessions into long-term, recurring contracts that add to your agency’s revenue stability.
• Client Success and Team Satisfaction: Learn how paid discovery improves client outcomes and creates a happier, more productive team.
• Practical Implementation: Steps to immediately begin integrating paid discovery into your agency’s workflow and start seeing results.

Whether you’re just starting out or are a seasoned agency owner, this webinar will equip you with the tools and knowledge needed to take your business to the next level. Don’t miss out on this valuable opportunity!

About Our Presenter: Troy Dean

Troy Dean is the Founder and CEO of Agency Mavericks and has been mentoring web design, SEO, and digital agencies since 2012. With over 4,500 agency owners under his belt, Troy has helped agencies increase recurring revenue, build high-performing teams, and become more profitable. A podcaster, singer, and multi-instrumentalist, Troy lives in Melbourne, Australia with his wife and two children.

Troy is also offering an exclusive 90% off coupon for attendees to access The Paid Discovery Method, his flagship training designed to help agency owners implement this effective strategy.

What Is Paid Discovery?

Paid Discovery is a strategic process used by agencies, consultants, and freelancers to charge clients for the initial research, planning, and scoping phases of a project. Instead of offering free consultations or project estimates, Paid Discovery allows agencies to be compensated for their time and expertise during the crucial early stages of client engagement.

Here’s a breakdown of how Paid Discovery works:

Key Elements of Paid Discovery:

1. In-depth Research and Analysis: Agencies conduct a thorough analysis of the client’s needs, goals, and challenges. This may include market research, competitor analysis, and technical audits to fully understand the scope of the project.
2. Strategy Development: Based on the findings, the agency develops a tailored strategy or roadmap for achieving the client’s objectives. This can include outlining deliverables, timelines, budgets, and resource allocation.
3. Initial Deliverables: Clients receive tangible deliverables, such as a project plan, strategy report, or design mockups. These deliverables offer value even if the client decides not to move forward with the full project.
4. Client Buy-in: Paid Discovery helps clients better understand the value of the agency’s work and allows them to make informed decisions before committing to a larger engagement.

Benefits of Paid Discovery:

• Improves Client Onboarding: By charging for the discovery phase, agencies can attract more serious and committed clients who are willing to invest in the process.
• Filters Ideal Clients: Paid Discovery helps identify the clients who are a good fit for the agency’s services, minimizing the risk of misaligned expectations.
• Builds Recurring Revenue: After paid discovery, clients are more likely to convert into long-term contracts for implementation, leading to recurring revenue.
• Protects Agency Resources: It ensures agencies are compensated for the time and effort spent on initial research and planning, preventing scope creep or unpaid work.
• Creates Better Project Outcomes: A well-structured discovery process leads to clearer project scopes, better communication, and successful project delivery.

In essence, paid discovery shifts the paradigm from offering free consultations to creating a paid, structured process that benefits both the agency and the client, while laying the groundwork for a successful project.

Register now and join us on October 23rd at 5:00 PM ET / 2:00 PM PT to learn how to scale your agency with paid discovery, road mapping, and strategy sessions.

The post Webinar: How to Use Paid Discovery to Scale Your Agency appeared first on The A2 Posting.

But TurboHub, our exclusive dashboard for WordPress sites, gives you a snapshot of your security status and makes detecting vulnerabilities and updating your protection as easy as one click.

Whether you take care of your own website or are an agency or web developer who manages dozens of sites, TurboHub makes reviewing security status and making the necessary updates a breeze.

Advanced WordPress Security From One Easy-To-Use Dashboard

The TurboHub security tab is the fastest and easiest way to keep your site safe. Whether you manage one website or 1,000, it is vital for monitoring site health and security.

Loaded with features to keep you secure, you can quickly review potential threats in one convenient place. Verify your SSL certificates, make sure malware detection and proactive defenses are enabled, and review potential threats.

Plus, TurboHub recommends actions to eliminate security vulnerabilities. From salt key status to inactive plugins or themes, you can take immediate action directly from the control panel. In most cases, you can enhance your security with one click.

What Is TurboHub?

TurboHub is A2 Hosting’s exclusive control panel for WordPress sites. Designed to make managing and protecting WordPress sites easier, it offers comprehensive metrics about the performance, health, and security of your websites.

Improve your efficiency and workflow by reviewing all of your A2 Hosting WordPress sites in one place. Easily view current performance and security snapshots, review recommendations, and make improvements and updates across all of your sites.

TurboHub Security Features

WordPress site security is one of the core features of the TurboHub control panel. From proactive defense to security best practices, it puts the top security features at your fingertips.

SSL Status & Proactive Defense

When it comes to website security, you need to be proactive. TurboHub’s SSL status and proactive defense indicators ensure your SSL certificate is valid and your malware and proactive security defense are active.

SSL, or Secure Sockets Layer, is the industry standard in data encryption for information transferred between a web server and a web browser. It protects online transactions and personal information, ensuring data privacy over the Internet.

A valid SSL certificate tells web browsers – and your customers – that your website follows SSL protocols for secure data transfer, keeping them safe.

Malware and proactive security defenses protect your website against malicious attacks that can hijack your website or steal customer data.

Advanced Website Hosting Protection

TurboHub allows you to instantly validate the status of your firewall and DDoS and brute force protection. These ensure you are safe against attacks designed to gain access to your web server.

A firewall is a digital barrier that blocks unauthorized access to your sites from cyber threats. When active, they block malicious traffic based on predefined security rules.

Reinforced Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) protection prevents malicious attempts to attack your website and take them offline. DDoS attacks use multiple compromised computer systems to slow down or even crash websites, preventing access to legitimate users.

Brute force protection shields against relentless attacks attempting to log into your system. Attackers will systematically try to guess passwords, encryption keys, or other secret information. Brute force attacks are typically automated, allowing them to rapidly test millions of combinations.

A2 Recommended Actions

TurboHub also includes a number of A2 Hosting recommended security actions, like locking editing abilities on plugins and themes or bcrypt password hashing. These recommendations improve your overall website security, lowering the risk that hackers can access your site data.

Common recommendations include:

• Locking the editing for plugins and themes from WP Admin to prevent the misuse of built-in editing capabilities for malicious purposes.
• Deny direct access to configuration files to block bots and web users from directly accessing and potentially exploiting WordPress config files.
• Remove old wp-config.php backups to eliminate unnecessary files with potentially sensitive information.
• Use bcrypt password hashing for a more secure password storing and hashing method.
• Disable XML-RPC services to close a possible entryway a hacker could exploit your site.

You can easily toggle these options on or off from the TurboHub security panel to fit your security needs and keep your website data safe.

Best Security Practices

TurboHub also analyzes your website to ensure you are following the best security practices. You can identify potential vulnerabilities at a glance and take action to secure your sites. Simply review the recommended security updates and follow the instructions to implement these improvements.

When necessary, TurboHub will recommend the following actions:

• Regenerate salt key passwords to protect your account even if your login cookies are compromised.
• Check for and remove insecure SQL backups and files that could be accessed by hackers.
• Reduce potential vulnerabilities and improve site performance by removing unused plugins and unused WordPress themes.

Just follow the steps associated with each best practice to protect your site.

More TurboHub Features Coming Soon

Committed to the fastest and most reliable hosting solutions, A2 Hosting developed TurboHub to streamline WordPress site performance and management.

From personal sites and hobby projects to agencies and developers managing client sites, it offers features that simplest updates and makes everyone a performance and security expert.

But we aren’t done yet. We have an exciting lineup of advancements that will enhance your workflow and your websites.

A2 Intelligent Performance

Optimize your site’s performance with the power of AI. A2 Intelligent Performance monitors critical performance indicators to keep your site performing at its best. Easily review the data and make the most informed decisions about your site’s speed and reliability.

A2 AI Assistant Inside WordPress

Launch new websites quickly and easily with our AI co-pilot. Exclusive to TurboHub, our A2 AI Assistant for WordPress writes content, generates images, and can even design page layouts. Trained on WordPress help documentation, it will answer common questions and help you get the most out of your WordPress site.

Enhanced Staging

Our upcoming enhanced staging feature makes developing, testing, and deploying website updates a snap. This robust tub maximizes compatibility by recording changes on both staging and live sites. And the advanced 2-way sync ensures changes are mirrored in both environments.

Enhance Your Website Security With TurboHub

Enhance site security and improve your site performance with TurboHub for WordPress from A2 Hosting. Quickly review potential security risks and easily make improvements to protect your website. Streamline your WordPress site management today. TurboHub is available on all A2 Hosting WordPress hosting plans.

The post WordPress Security Made Easy With TurboHub appeared first on The A2 Posting.

If you manage multiple sites, you know how much of a hassle it is to keep them up-to-date and secure. A2 Hosting’s new cutting-edge agency management control panel, TurboHub, is here to help!

TurboHub offers robust features that streamline site management for agencies and developers. Not only does it simplify your workflow and client onboarding process, but you can now update all of the sites you manage with just one click.

What Is TurboHub?

TurboHub is our new state-of-the-art control panel for WordPress sites. It not only speeds up site performance but also makes it easy to manage multiple sites from a single screen.

TurboHub is an essential tool for agencies and developers who manage multiple sites. It provides comprehensive metrics about each site’s performance, health, and security.

Plus, you can improve performance and bulk update WordPress plugins on all of your sites with one click. This saves you time while ensuring that your client’s sites are running at peak performance and security.

Features Designed for Agencies and Developers

Designed with agencies and developers in mind, Turbohub eliminates the hassle and headache of managing sites separately. It allows you to track all of your A2 Hosting sites in one place and makes updates and performance checks a breeze.

Improve Your Workflow

TurboHub makes your workflow more efficient. Quickly review all of your A2 Hosting WordPress sites in one easy-to-use control panel. Check site performance and health, then easily roll out updates across all sites.

Intuitive User Management System

Manage, add, or remove users for all the sites you manage. Set user permissions and control separate access levels for each account you manage.

Streamline Client Onboarding

If your clients also use A2 Hosting, they can easily add you to their accounts with TurboHub. This can dramatically simplify your onboarding and initial site review processes. Have your client add you to their account through the TurboHub user management system.

Bulk Plugin Management

Elevate your plugin update process with TurboHub. Simply review the updates for all your clients or sites from one dashboard. Select all or choose individual updates and deploy them across each site with ease. You can even switch to maintenance mode or hide the site from search engines during the update process.

Site Status at a Glance

Quickly review site status and performance from a single dashboard. Easily check if your sites are online and running and verify SSL, domain, and nameserver status. Plus, you can automate site maintenance across all the sites you manage with just a click.

Optimize Site Performance

Easily implement performance enhancements to speed up sites. TurboHub analyzes each site and recommends improvements to boost performance. Then quickly deploy changes with just one click.

More Powerful TurboHub Features for Agencies

From improving communication between your team to identifying security vulnerabilities, there is so much more to TurboHub. Here are some of the other powerful features we included with agencies and developers in mind:

• Quickly scan for security vulnerabilities.
• Communicate between team members or companies with the site notes feature.
• Automate plugin updates for each site.
• Hide sites from search engines while under construction.
• Place sites in maintenance mode during edits.
• Quickly access all of your WordPress sites from one location.

How Do I Get TurboHub?

TurboHub is available now and is included free with all A2 Hosting WordPress plans. You can access TurboHub and start speeding up your site management through your MyA2 panel.

Ready to experience the benefits of a faster, more efficient WordPress site? Simply choose one of our plans for instant access to TurboHub. It is included with our Managed WordPress, Managed VPS, Managed Dedicated, and Shared plans.

Don’t have an A2 plan? Get started with TurboHub today!

What’s Next for TurboHub?

A2 Hosting has always been committed to the fastest, most reliable website hosting solutions and the best tools available. And these TubroHub features are just the beginning.

Stay tuned for future updates that will speed up your website, keep it more secure, and simplify managing multiple sites at the same time. Here is a quick look at upcoming improvements on the TurboHub roadmap:

A2 Intelligent Performance (Coming July 2024)

Use advanced AI technology to automatically optimize your site’s performance. This upcoming feature monitors load times and other critical performance indicators to ensure your site is always performing at its best. This will help you make informed decisions to continuously improve your site’s speed and reliability.

A2 AI Assistant Inside WordPress

Improve your content with high-quality AI content from inside WordPress. Our exclusive TurboHub AI assistant for WordPress will help speed up creating and launching new sites. Acting as your co-pilot, it will write content, generate images,  and even design page layouts. Plus, it’s trained on WordPress help documentation, so it can answer common questions and help you learn more about the system.

Enhanced Staging

The enhanced staging feature streamlines developing, testing, and deploying website updates. This robust staging tool records changes to both staging and live sites for maximum compatibility. The 2-way sync ensures only the changes are pushed live without overwriting your data.

Get Started With TurboHub Today

TurboHub is the ultimate solution for managing multiple WordPress sites, especially for agencies and developers. With its robust features and seamless integration, TurboHub simplifies workflow, enhances site performance, and ensures site security. Get started with TurboHub today and experience the future of WordPress site management.

The post Simplifying WordPress Site Management for Agencies with TurboHub appeared first on The A2 Posting.

Our Commitment to WordPress: We’re All In

“We grew up with WordPress,” said Bryan Muthig, CEO/Founder of A2 Hosting. “Everything we’re doing as a company is focused on WordPress, leveraging our 21 years of experience and expertise. From product development and support to hiring, training, and marketing, every aspect of our business is designed to enhance the WordPress experience.”

Those efforts are focused on our key customers, or customer partners: WordPress agencies and web professionals who build, launch, and maintain WordPress projects for their clients.

Introducing Our New Agency Success Team

We’re excited to announce the formation of our new Agency Success Team, a testament to our commitment to supporting our key customer partners. This team is led by veteran WordPress community leaders Cory Miller, as Chief Evangelist, and Katie Richards, as our Agency Success Project Manager.

“The closer we stay to our customers, the better it’s going to be for everyone. If our customers win, we win. It always starts with our customers — it always has and it always will,” said Bryan Muthig. “This team led by exceptional WordPress veterans, Cory and Katie, is another step in showing our deep commitment to WordPress and our customers.”

Cory Miller

Cory brings a wealth of experience and a passion for WordPress and WP businesses, since 2006. As a veteran entrepreneur, his leadership, vision, and values will drive our efforts to connect with and support our customer partners as well as tell their stories and ours.

“I’ve known Cory for a long time and seen what he’s accomplished in WordPress, first building some of the first commercial products for WordPress at iThemes, then growing community at Post Status, it’s always his passion for people, especially entrepreneurs and business owners, that resonates most with me,” said A2’s COO Paul Carter. “And as we were looking to expand our commitment in the WordPress community and specifically to WordPress agencies and web professionals, there was no one better to lead our efforts.”

Katie Richards

Katie Richards, our Agency Success Project Manager, has successfully overseen WordPress community initiatives and shown strong project management abilities across numerous projects and companies in the WordPress space. Her expertise in community engagement, organization, and leadership will be crucial in building strong, lasting relationships with our agency partners and web professionals.

“From her work at Post Status to her community efforts helping organize WordCamp Grand Rapids to WordPress US, I’ve seen Katie be an absolute force in the WordPress community. And I’m ecstatic to have her join us here at A2,” said Aaron Campbell, A2’s Director of Product and veteran WordPress contributor. “What resonates most to me is how she does her work. It’s human-focused and thus purposeful and impactful.”

The Work of Our Agency Success Team: It’s About Our Agency Partners

Our Agency Success Team’s mission is simple yet impactful: Show up as your agency’s essential partner in your business and work.

Your success is our success.

This team will do that by focusing on three key areas:

• Connection — As your partner, champion and advocate, we will be building deeper, more supportive relationships with WordPress agencies and web professionals.
• Community — Building mutually beneficial experiences for our customer-partners, both online and in-person, through WordCamps and our own events.
• Content — Creating impactful WordPress agency content and resources to support our partners in their work as well as sharing our news and initiatives for them.

Moving Forward Together

Our new Agency Success Team is a significant step forward in our commitment to WordPress and our customer partners. We believe that by fostering connection, community, and content, we can create a supportive ecosystem that benefits everyone involved.

Thank you for being a part of the A2 Hosting family. Together, we can build a brighter future for WordPress and achieve great things.

Stay tuned for more updates and initiatives from our new Agency Success Team. We look forward to working closely with you and supporting your success every step of the way.

The post Announcing A2 Hosting’s New Agency Success Team: Another Step Forward in Our WordPress Commitment appeared first on The A2 Posting.

Our Legacy of Speed and Performance

At A2 Hosting, we have built a strong reputation in the web hosting industry as leaders in speed and performance. Our commitment to providing the fastest, most reliable hosting solutions has always been our top priority. And that is why we developed TurboHub. It not only helps speed up site performance, but it also streamlines managing your WordPress sites.

What is TurboHub?

TurboHub is our state-of-the-art WordPress control panel that makes WordPress sites faster than ever! It’s an essential tool that allows individual site owners to improve performance, site health, and security. And the multi-site dashboard simplifies the workflow for agencies and developers. From a single control panel, you can monitor and maintain all of your sites, creating a seamless and more efficient WordPress experience.

Features of TurboHub

Site Performance Optimizations

TurboHub’s comprehensive metrics help you gain in-depth insights into your site’s performance. It highlights top recommendations and allows for one-click changes to boost performance.

Single-Click Multi-Site Management

Managing multiple WordPress sites has never been easier. With TurboHub, you can see all your sites from a single location, making updates and performance checks a breeze. This is particularly valuable for agencies and developers handling numerous client sites.

Site Health Monitoring

Keep your websites in peak condition with our site health monitoring tool! This is perfect for agencies and site owners with multiple websites and gives you an at-a-glance view of a site’s status to help you maintain smooth and secure operations effortlessly. Monitoring and maintaining multiple sites has never been easier!

Security Vulnerability

Through our partnership with Patchstack, we also alert you to high-priority plugin vulnerabilities so your site is never at risk. With the ability to see site risk at a glance, it helps you keep everything running smoothly and securely.

Other features to enhance your WordPress experience:

• Quick access to all of your WordPress sites.
• Grant access to users managing your account or request access to sites you manage for others.
• Automate plugin updates for each site.
• Site notes to enable easy communication between team members or companies.
• Quick access to databases, files, and email.
• Status information that lets you know your sites are online and running, including SSL, domain, and nameserver status.
• Ability to hide sites from search engines while under construction.
• Ability to place sites in maintenance mode during edits.

How Do I Get TurboHub?

TurboHub is now available free for all WordPress sites on our Managed WordPress, Managed VPS, and Shared plans. By choosing one of our plans, you instantly gain access to TurboHub and can start experiencing the benefits of a faster, more efficient WordPress site. TurboHub can be conveniently accessed through your MyA2 panel.

Don’t have an A2 plan, take advantage of our low prices and get started with TurboHub today!

Stay Tuned for More

TurboHub is constantly growing and evolving. We have an exciting roadmap ahead of us with many new features and improvements planned! At A2 we are dedicated to providing our users with the best tools available, and we encourage you to stay tuned for future updates on how TurboHub can help speed up and secure your website.

What’s Next for TurboHub?

A few items on our TurboHub roadmap that will help us achieve our goal of providing WordPress professionals with fast setup, fast websites, and fast support:

• A2 Intelligent Performance – Leverages advanced AI technology to automatically optimize your site’s performance. Easily monitor load times, uptime, and other critical performance indicators to ensure your site is always performing at its best. This will help you make informed decisions to continuously improve your site’s speed and reliability.
• A2 AI assistant inside WordPress – Helps you write content, generate images, and answer common WordPress questions.
• Enhanced Staging – Records changes to staging or live sites and lets them be pushed live or pulled back to staging.

Get started with an A2 Hosting plan today and get access to this new amazing tool and enhance your WordPress experience!

The post Introducing TurboHub – Transform Your WordPress Experience appeared first on The A2 Posting.

Focus Area 1. Auditing Your Site

Creating a positive user experience for potential customers on your website
is important for any online business. Before you begin to change elements of your website, one of the first steps is to check out what you have so far in order to approach your redesign with a fully informed eye.

Investigate the Front End

First, investigate the front end of your website. Click through the different pages and elements of your site and see what pops out at you. Is there a block of text that can be written more concisely? Does your image in the top right not seem
to match as well with the rest of your content? Make a list of all the things that come to mind as you deep dive into the front-facing part of your site. Check out this blog that talks about how to perform a thorough content audit for your site if you’re looking for help making a start!

Investigate the Backend

Next, it’s time to investigate the backend of your website. The first question to ask yourself: how are you currently tracking metrics? Are you using tools like Google Analytics? If not, that’s the first place to start! Check out our blog that talks about how to integrate Google Analytics into your WordPress site.

If you’re already utilizing a tracking tool, there are a few important metrics you should look at:

What pages are most popular? This metric will help show you what is currently working well for your site.

What’s your average bounce rate? The overall goal is to avoid a high bounce rate. By looking at this statistic you can better understand if customers enter your site and immediately find what they’re looking for, or if they leave quickly to go look at another source.

What’s the most popular customer journey? Where are people dropping off and what pages are they navigating to most often? Depending on these answers, you can often tell how well your site’s UI/UX is working and whether there are places you need to edit and improve.

Some aspects that could affect this are page speed, appropriate content on each page, and how user-friendly your website truly is.

During this process, take notes on what you notice when looking at your tracking tools to help you decide what to focus on when you start your editing process.

Perform A/B Testing

Next, it may be smart to work in some A/B Testing. This is a great way to organically test whether some elements you noticed in your audit are legitimate issues or not. To perform an A/B test begin changing certain elements of your website like text size, colors, and images one at a time and see if each edit makes a difference in your conversions. By changing one element at a time, you will quickly know which elements are working and which aren’t.

Ask Your Audience What They Want

You have the best resource at your disposal: your existing customers! Set up a poll directly on your homepage or social media or even send an email or create a survey to obtain your customers’ opinion on aspects like fonts, navigation, and graphics.

See if they have any comments on how they think your site could flow better or be more appealing to a future audience!

Focus Area 2: Updating Your Look: Branding Guidelines

Now that you’ve done some research and you’ve armed yourself with areas to focus on, it’s time to start the actual editing process. The first aspect to consider is the aesthetics of your website. Having a tool like branding guidelines can establish consistency in your branding. Fonts and Sizing

First off, be intentional and strategic with your typography. Keep your font and sizing variations to a minimum. For font changes and sizing, less is more. Some strategic variations can look cool but use with discretion.

Images

An easy place to start is with obvious stock photos lurking around your website. Avoid staged pictures (i.e. portraits of individuals staring into the camera or fake group high fives). If you must use a stock photo, choose natural, realistic poses, creative camera angles, and lighting. Choose photos that align with your brand. Want to layer text over your photos? Make sure the text stands out. Here’s a guide on how to create custom graphics for your site if you decide you’re feeling creative and want to experiment with your own!

Colors

The colors displayed on your website are also important. By using colors strategically you can help guide your customers through your website, carefully choosing where their eyes go to first and the pattern of things they notice as they scan your various pages. Certain colors have certain meanings to users and there is an entire color language called Pantone. Here are some examples:

• Red: passion, anger, love, confidence
• Orange: youthfulness, cheer, warmth, hunger
• Yellow: sunshine, happiness, energy, optimism
• Green: nature, fertility, balance, cleanliness
• Blue: water, tranquility, trust, power • Purple: nobility, power, elegance,
• wisdom
• White: peace, balance, purity, simplicity, winter
• Gray: neutral, sophistication, balance, wisdom
• Black: exclusivity, modern, power, sophistication, mystery
• Brown: earth, stability, tradition, nature
• Pink: love, romance, femininity, baby girls, humanistic
• Turquoise: tranquility, clarity, compassion, healing

Logo Usage

Your logo is you. Give it top billing! Logos set the tone, value, aesthetic, and recognition of your brand. You want it to be remembered! Many companies choose to display their logo in the upper left corner of their website.

WordPress Themes

Using an updated WordPress theme is an essential part of any WordPress website. WordPress themes can even impact the loading times of your whole site. Browse the many free themes available to you in case you decide your site needs a complete refresh.

Focus Area 3: Enhancing Your Website User Experience

At the end of the day, how your users interact with your website can be the difference between a conversion and a missed opportunity. The user interface and user experience, better known as UI/UX, is an important thing to consider when committing to redesigning and refreshing your online presence! Below are some ways you can make sure yours is working in your favor rather than against you.

Simplicity/Spacing

Using white space, also called negative space, can help you bring attention to details of your site that are most important. Spacing around titles can even improve your customers’ experience by 20%. More white space helps separate sections and guides your customers’ eyes down the page. Less white space can indicate that elements of your site are supposed
to go together. Through the yin and yang of content and spacing you can control how your user experiences every part of your page.

Website Navigation and Menu

Another important element of website design is your navigational system. The most important thing to remember when building your website’s navigation is that your users need to be able to find what they are looking for quickly and easily. Make sure your search tools stand out (normally located in the upper right corner) and that your colors are working together for readability.

Your menu should be located at the top of the page and should have no more than seven items (not including dropdowns). There should be ample space in between menu sections for aesthetic reasons. It can be helpful to use a fixed navigation bar as well so if your customers want to move to another section of the site they don’t have to scroll all the way back to the top of the page. A good rule of thumb for your overall design is that users should be able to access any point in three clicks or less. This ensures both efficiency and lack of confusion.

Mobile Responsive and Optimization

In 2021 it’s important your website is both mobile-friendly and responsive.
On average, 80% of users are searching on their smartphones so speed is vital. Though WordPress automatically makes sure your page is responsive (scales up and down with screen size changes and various browsers) it can be helpful to place buttons in the middle of your page for optimum mobile use. It’s also important to ensure a similar experience on both mobile and desktop viewing. This will help with consistency and return customers.

Hosting Choice

53% of people will navigate away from a page that takes more than
3 seconds to load. This means who you choose to host your website will have a major impact not only on your speed, but also on your website storage, uptime, and responsiveness to any future problems. That’s why we recommend going with A2 Hosting. Not only do we have a 99.9% uptime guarantee but our Turbo plans can increase your load times by 20x! This will improve your bounce rates, SEO scores, and conversions.

Speed

Explore these steps for a faster user experience with your chosen host:

• Optimize images
  Reduce plugins
  Clean up your themes
• Use a CDN
• Check as you grow to make sure you don’t need more resources (VPS Hosting can help!)

Selling Yourself and Your Website

Now that you have cleaned up the look and feel of your website and optimized your site for speed, it’s important to make sure you’re selling yourself and converting your customers! Below are helpful considerations.

Blog Posts and Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Today, the way to win the web is through quality content and proper SEO procedures. Good blog posts keep your customers engaged and eager for more content. To achieve this, a solid SEO foundation is necessary. Start by targeting keywords to move your site up the ranks on Google searches. You want to generate as much traffic as you can and build credibility within your chosen industry. Check out our guide to SEO-Friendly blog formatting to see what you can do to improve your next post! Plus check out these three SEO mistakes to avoid.

Social Sharing

At the end of each blog post (and preferably at the bottom of your website), there should be links for social sharing. This will allow your followers to share your valuable content on different social media platforms. This is critical to help you build your following and to create an easy way for people to find your site.

Social Proof

You should also have areas of social proof somewhere on your website. This can be anything from written reviews to videos of customer feedback. These areas of true customer engagement lend your brand and your site credibility. They help potential customers trust that you will do what you say you do based on the positive feedback of others. We recommend you try and implement videos because these are a great way to keep your customers engaged with your website and fortify/strengthen human connection.

Calls to Actions

Finally, calls to action are where you close the deal and help your website convert potential customers into customers for life. Make sure they are

strategically placed in places like the top of your navigation, below sections that specifically require action, and at the bottom of the web page. They can be in banners, buttons, or whatever form you like the most! Some good examples include:

• Sign up for our email list!
• Shop in our store!
• Fill out your own lead form.
• Click for more info.
• See pricing.

Conclusion

Refreshing your website can be a long process, but we hope with the help of this guide it’s both easy and successful. Make sure to check out A2 Hosting for great hosting plans for your website and subscribe to our newsletter for future helpful content.

The post Three Areas to Focus on to Ensure Website Redesign Success appeared first on The A2 Posting.

Deciding between Shared Hosting and VPS, Turbo or Standard, Unmanaged or Managed… What is the right choice for you? The answer (as it always is) depends on your situation.

The first step in making this decision is to understand the differences between Shared and VPS.

The Differences Between Shared and VPS Hosting

Imagine you are living in an apartment building. Your building has 10 apartments total. Think of Shared Hosting like this apartment except that the size of each unit changes based on the needs of each tenant. For example, if Dale in Apartment 3B decides on Saturday night to have 50 of his closest friends over for a party his apartment will automatically grow from 800sq feet to 2000sq ft during the time of the party. Similarly if Beth in Apartment 4B throws an equal sized party at the same time, you may find yourself and all your possessions squeezed into a room the size of a hall closet. Turn on the faucet for a glass of water?… Sorry Beth and Dale are using all that too. Want to turn on a light to read?… Sorry about the blinking, Dale bought a disco light.

You may be thinking, why would I ever want my hosting to be in a situation like that? One of the key features of A2’s Shared Hosting is that we limit the number of people who you can share your server with. This reduces the chances of a resource draining scenario like this from happening to your site. Plus, Shared Hosting also limits how much of the resources can be used by any one individual. If your neighbors have extra space to hold parties and everyone is happy with their portion of the resources available, then you would most likely never have a problem.

But even in the best situations when everyone gets along, there is always a chance that one of your neighbors may need to take more and it could affect your website if you are also in a peak period at the same time. This is why Shared Hosting is the most inexpensive hosting option and for many is a perfect, low cost solution for their website.

Using the same analogy, VPS (or Virtual Private Server) is also like an apartment The difference? While you are still sharing the server hardware with other people, all of the specifications of the portion you are alloted are fixed. If you have an 800sq feet apartment, it is always there and doesn’t change… the walls never move. It’s dedicated to you and you alone. You have increased security, guaranteed and fixed resource allocation, and you know that won’t change.

It all Depends on What Type of Website You Are Running

If you are running a website to show off your photography, a collection, or maybe even selling some items on the side, Shared Hosting is probably just fine for you. This type of hosting is made for the individual, the blogger, and the simple website. It allows those who want to have a cost-effective presence online to have one! Most Shared Hosting users use WordPress and A2 has a one click option to install it when you set up your account. To keep the apartment analogy going even further, with the options available it’s like choosing what you want to furnish it with at the time as signing the lease.

But if your website is a mission-critical or key component of your business then Shared Hosting is most likely not the best option for you. Why? Because using a more dedicated environment increases stability, performs better (generally speaking), and it is more secure and not affected by the noisy neighbor. These are all things you want to have when hosting a website that includes handling credit card transactions, sales leads, etc. Now this is not to say that Shared Hosting is not secure, stable, or performant. In fact, I’d put A2’s Shared Hosting toe-to-toe against any other hosting provider in any of these areas and we would compete. It is just that there is more control and more options with a VPS hosting plan than with Shared.

In addition, while a Shared Hosting plan may “give you” enough resources to run your site, if the site begins experiencing a spike the resources may, in reality, not be available… because your neighbor may be using them.

Our VPS partner, Virtuozzo, recommends that you ask yourself these questions when trying to decide which is right for you…

• Is the website a core part of your business?
• Is your website performing as well as you would like?
• Do you sell products or services online?
• Do you drive traffic to your website through paid advertisements, social media or through other means?
• Are search engine rankings important to you?

If the answer is yes to any of these items, then VPS Hosting is most likely a better option…. BUT, there’s a caveat to this you should think about…

Do You Have the Technical Chops for VPS?

Shared Hosting is designed to be simple. With each step of the journey A2 tries to make it as easy as possible. This means that you will have a graphic interface (or GUI) throughout the process. Whether it’s cPanel or the WordPress Admin, most of the interactions you will have with a Shared plan will be by clicking on stuff on a screen to make things happen.

VPS, on the other hand, requires a bit more technical knowledge. Because a virtual machine can use a number of different operating systems and underlying software, it does not come with a cPanel (although it is available as an add-on). This means that the initial interactions with the server (to set up any operating systems, tools, or applications) will be done through a Command Line Interface (or CLI). Using a CLI requires specialized knowledge and training and is usually only something a SysAdmin, Server Admin, or Developer would most likely undertake.

To use our apartment analogy one more time, while you have a nice 800sq foot apartment with the water and electric allotment you need there really aren’t any doors… that is except the secret one that only the technical folks know how to use.

This is Where Managed Comes In

So, what if you are a cake-and-eat-it-too kind of person? You want to have the security, performance and stability of VPS but you don’t have the technical skill set required to set everything up or maintain it. For this A2 offers Managed VPS hosting plans. These plans offer you all the benefits of an unmanaged plan with additional support to help you get things setup and keep those things up-to-date.

Managed VPS plans also come with a cPanel license giving back the GUI interface to make things easier on you from a technical perspective.

With the additional help from the A2 Guru Team, Managed VPS is a great option if you don’t have or don’t want to have to hire someone with those extra technical skills required to make it successful.

Comparing VPS vs Shared Hosting

Whether to choose Shared or VPS for your hosting is largely based on your situation and use case. Here are some of the pros and cons to consider to help you choose the one that’s best for you.

Shared is Fine, But I Want More Performance

So if you start down this path and find yourself realizing that Shared Hosting is just fine for what you are doing,
but you still want to have increased experience for your users, A2 offers Turbo Boost and Turbo Max plans. These shared environments offer better hard drives (NVMe which are 3X faster than standard SSD), improved processors, and built-in caching. They also offer LightSpeed, which is a software application designed to improve the performance of the server you are on by up to 11X.

One thing to remember, however, is that it might not be the server that is making your website run slowly. To get best performance you should remember to optimize your site. You could have very large images that are taking time for your site to load. If you are using WordPress there are several plugins that can help with image compression and caching that can improve the speed and performance of your website. It would be a good idea to look at these options and see how that helps before making the move to a faster hosting plan.

If that sounds daunting, For WordPress users we offer Managed WordPress hosting plans that give you extra help and support while on a Shared Plan.

VPS Hosting may seem a little daunting for the non-technical user, but if you are running a website that is key to the success of your business or necessary to provide income, Managed VPS Hosting is the right choice.

A Note From the CEO

In late 2020, A2 Hosting launched a series of new VPS hosting products.These new VPS offerings took us to the next level when it came to performance, stability and security.

A2 made the strategic decision to partner with Virtuozzo, a market-leading provider of container virtualization. Utilizing their modern software and it’s included toolset, we are now able to offer our products state-of-the- art virtual environments.

Once we implemented the new solution, performance on the new servers increased by more than 40%, furthering our brand promise of Our Speed, Your Success. We are committed to providing the fastest, most stable hosting experience because, as the world moves faster, search engine algorithms seem to change on a weekly basis and visitor attention spans continue to shorten. This all impacts metrics like cart abandonment and bounce rate. The last thing our customers want to worry about is their web hosting. Our customers rely on us to provide hosting speeds that give them the edge for better rankings, better conversion rates and better bounce rates, which we deliver consistently.”

We promise to continue to improve the performance of our VPS offerings.
– Bryan Muthig, CEO

A Word from Our Partner

As a shared hosting customer, when do you know you should switch to a different type of hosting?

In my case, I switched when it became painfully obvious. I am not a technical web developer, but I have experienced a lot as a nascent, hobbyist, and small business owner over a 20-year period. During this time, I have volunteered to build numerous websites, one of which was for a new charitable foundation. It was ( I thought) the best I had ever built. My excitement was quickly diminished when I went to demo the website and it just sat there, failing to load.

While the person I built the website for was ecstatic. For me, I was disappointed as I spent more time trying to “fix” the website and the issues related to the speed than it took me to build the website itself.

With years of experience as a business user and many of those years working within the hosting industry, I still find myself reluctant to spend what I fear as hours working on migrating my entire hosting account or just a website to something that will perform better.

A2 Hosting gives a good recommendation; right from the start on the front page of their website, Shared Hosting is a “great solution for a blog or a personal website.”

That is what shared hosting is best for. Even with a blog, if you are expecting higher traffic and to monetize the website, you should think of it as a business website. If your website is for a business, you need a Virtual Private Server (VPS) or higher. If you are not a technical user, you need a Managed plan.

Whether or not you made the decision recently or many years ago, if you are like me, when is it time to make the move to a better hosting solution?

My personal decision can be attributed to a few different factors. I was running a WordPress website on an account with multiple other WordPress websites and other types as well. It was too much.

WordPress can be tricky to optimize and you might not ever get it to where you want it to be with all of the plugins tried and image compression. Shared hosting resources can have a tough time keeping up with the demands and VPS is a great option to give your website a boost.

There are ways you can check the performance of your website and receive recommendations of how to make improvements. To start, you can use free tools like Pingdom and GTmetrix, with the latter now powered by Lighthouse, Google’s latest set of tools for website developers.

If you are still experiencing performance issues, once you feel you have done all you can on your own you may want to find a freelancer to help you with continuing to improve your website.

In the end, it is really simple, if your website is a core part of your business, Shared Hosting is probably not the best option for you. If you are selling something, this becomes even more important. Whether it is Magento, PrestaShop, Woocommercem or another eCommerce option, you will be better off using VPS over Shared Hosting.

The post Choosing Between Shared and VPS: A Guide appeared first on The A2 Posting.

So, Does Website Migration Affect SEO?

Any server change carries a slight SEO risk with or without modifications to your website,  but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. You see, migrations primarily affect site speed. So if you’re migrating to a host like A2 Hosting, you’ll notice increased site speed. As loading time is a top SEO ranking consideration, this can only help you, not hurt you. Unfortunately, this means the opposite for migrating to a slower host (maybe it’ll make you think again about migrating to a cheaper host?).

When users experience slow loading times, they’re less likely to revisit your site in the future, especially when more than 50% of visitors abandon a website if a page takes over 2 seconds to load. Since 2010, speed has been a ranking factor for desktop searches on Google. When researching new hosts, look for speed optimizations or determine how the web hosting company optimizes its servers for speed.

For example, at A2 Hosting, we use only SSD and NVMe storage. “Our speed, your success” is our motto because we believe that speed is the most critical factor in attracting, maintaining, and increasing traffic and conversions. Additionally, our Turbo servers offer Litespeed caching, and specific servers also offer the AMD EPYC processors. When combined, these three elements contribute to lightning-fast speeds.

Changing web hosting providers can also come with risks, especially if you lose certain functionalities at the new host or move from Apache to Nginx or IIS (Internet Information Services). If you’re wary about changing hosts, talk with someone on our sales team about the process and ensure your server needs match up with what we can offer you.

Now that we’ve discussed how website migrations affect SEO, let’s review the migration process. Use our SEO checklist to prepare your website for its migration:

• 1. Set up a staging site on your new server. Before canceling your other web hosting plan, compare your existing site’s page load speeds against the new server’s load speeds. Hopefully, the new server improved your site speeds!
• 2. Pick a slow time. After testing your new site on the server, pick a quiet time to perform the DNS propagation. Your site may be down for up to 24 hours as the DNS propagates around the world, but choose a time when you experience low traffic, so you’re not missing opportunities for leads and conversions.
• 3. Perform checks on your site. For example, check the organic health of your website. Is there any penalization for spammy backlinks? Are your current backlinks relevant for the content? We recommend tracking your site’s domain authority with Moz Pro.
• 4. Crawl your site. With Moz Pro or ScreamingFrog, you can crawl your website to receive a full URL and content inventory. Then, you can fix issues while you’re staging your site and map old URLs to new URLs in your 301 redirect map.
• 5. Update Internal Links. Test your website and update internal links to avoid internal redirects or broken links. ScreamingFrog allows you to find internal links and their attached anchor text and their respective pages.
• 6. Create a custom 404 page. When visitors experience a broken page, engage them with a custom 404 page. It should direct them to your homepage or additional pages on your website. Otherwise, a blank 404 page frustrates users and makes them want to close the browser tab altogether and find a site that works.
• 7. Update your Robots.txt file. The robots.txt file tells search engine crawlers which pages the crawler can or can’t request from your site. It lives at www.yoursite.com/robots.txt.
• 8. Test your website on mobile. Is your site responsive or rendering correctly on a mobile device? Google offers a Mobile-Friendly Test tool to determine if Google views your site as mobile-friendly.
• 9. Measure your performance post-launch. Once you’ve ensured your site launches appropriately, there are no broken pages or backlinks, your site is mobile-friendly, and you’ve updated your robots.txt file, analyze your performance after you launch your website. Check your ranking performance, organic traffic users/sessions, check for site crawl issues, and monitor your backlink profile. Track any 404 page traffic in your Google Analytics post-launch to catch and add any redirects to your 301 redirect file.

SEO doesn’t need to be significant when migrating your website concern. With a few preparations, you can efficiently execute a website migration plan without worrying about lowering your website’s ranking.

The post Does Website Migration Affect SEO? The Definitive Website Migration SEO Checklist. appeared first on The A2 Posting.