Ep. 32 – Critical Hosting Features for WP eCommerce

Episode Description

Critical Hosting Features for WP eCommerce These web hosting features for your WordPress eCommerce site will be critical to your success.   WordPress Hosting Get more information today on personal hosting with easy 1-click WordPress Install. Get Started   View Transcript Host 1:                        00:00               Podcasting from southern California, this is On The Net, your go-to for everything you need to know about how to get your business online and keep it there—brought to you by Lunarpages. We’ll help you navigate the mystifying ins and outs of doing business in today’s digital era. From web hosting to ecommerce to security and protection, if it has to do with your online presence, we’ve got it covered. Let’s get started. Host 2:                         00:31               Hello everyone. Welcome to On The Net, where it’s all about your online presence. Thanks for joining us! This podcast is designed to make doing business online easy for web designers, developers, bloggers and online marketers of every shape and size. Whether you are new to buying web hosting or running a website, this podcast show will be able to answer your most burning questions. New ecommerce stores are being launched online every day. In our recent podcast series ‘On The Net’ we went over some of the basic aspects of ‘Building An Online Business,’ specifically creating, launching and promoting your online site.  Of course, we think its chock full of great information so be sure to give it a listen! Online business is estimated to reach a whopping figure of $27 trillion by 2020. The backbone of such companies is a transactional website. WordPress, being the most popular Content Management System worldwide, is used frequently to create and power these sites. Host 2:                         01:30               Roughly three out of ten eCommerce sites come from the WordPress ecosystem. To ensure that your WordPress eCommerce site maintains optimal performance, you need to find a great host that meets the specific needs of your online store. In this podcast episode we will go over some of the essential hosting requirements that WordPress e-commerce site owners should look out for. Needless to say, look for a host that actually supports the WordPress CMS and makes it simple to install the application with a single click. The web host should support PHP 7.2 or later, MySQL 5.0+ or later, Apache or Nginx and HTTPS. Now, to state the obvious, the most important feature of an eCommerce store is that it is always online and easily accessible. Business never comes to a halt no matter what time of day a visitor arrives on the site or which time zone they live in. To ensure the continuous and uninterrupted availability of your WordPress ecommerce site, your hosting provider has to guarantee that your store will always be available for 99.99% of the time or more. Host 2:                         02:35               High availability hosting means that any essential server maintenance has to be carried out by your host in a maximum of about 52- 56 minutes a year, this is about an average of a minute a week. Every minute your site is down, you will possibly be risking both customers and your online reputation. Imagine the significant impact of downtime during peak traffic hours or special campaigns or holiday season. WordPress ecommerce sites, and all ecommerce sites for that matter, should look for uninterrupted network uptime from web hosts. After all, eCommerce businesses are only as good as their security measures. Online businesses are especially susceptible to hacking, infection, adware and ransom ware attacks. Then there is the risk of heavy fines if you don’t comply with stringent regulations; which brings us to our third hosting feature that is critical for WordPress ecommerce sites.  While the core of WordPress CMS is extremely secure, you still have to ensure a multi-faceted security approach from your web host Host 2:                         03:37               for an eCommerce environment. It is important to choose a web host with secure defenses against impending threats, real-time monitoring and notification of breaches in security systems. Ideally, your web host should have advanced anti-hacking technology and a secure firewall specially configured for WordPress. Your site’s extensions and add-ons also need to be updated regularly so that cybercriminals cannot breach any potential loopholes. So, it may be worthwhile to find a web host with Managed WordPress services to facilitate automated updates to the core of WordPress CMS & plug-ins for seamless security. Additionally, your host should guarantee your site’s continuity by providing you with the means for proper scheduled remote backups and the ability to restore the data on your behalf in case of any disaster. Users should also install a WordPress backup plug-in in order to keep their own backups of their WordPress ecommerce site. As your eCommerce site grows you are likely to make upgrades, additions and modifications to your site. Host 2:                         04:39               You need to have the ability to stage and clone your site, capacity to test your updated site before going live with the changes. You need resources and developer-friendly tools in your control panel for developing your WordPress site and other applications. These features facilitate uninterrupted and expected rollouts. Now, we all know that ‘Time is money in business.’ And that old adage holds true even to eCommerce sites. In business, quality support is extremely important. Especially when your site is unavailable or critical elements are not working correctly. You certainly don’t want to suffer downtime due to technical glitches and end up losing money and potential customers. A must-have feature of eCommerce WordPress site hosting partner should be round the clock availability of a technical support team, who can be reached through multiple channels including telephone, email and ticket. So what else?  Oh yes, one final note—and this is important. If nothing else, for hosting a WordPress ecommerce site you should definitely look at companies that offer SSL certificates to encrypt your users’ personal data.  And actually, this is absolutely essential for running an eCommerce website regardless of the platform.  Bottom line, make an informed choice and find a reliable WordPress hosting service that delivers security and optimal performance, while staying committed to an environment that grows your online presence. Host 2:                         06:03               Alright, well, that’ll do it for today. Thank you for listening to the latest edition of Lunarpages podcast On the Net. You can listen online but you can also subscribe to the podcast on iTunes to get future episodes delivered to you automatically. Until next time, here’s to wishing you all the best with your website endeavors. Thanks for listening and take care. Host 1:                         06:30               Thank you for listening to the latest edition of Lunarpages, podcasts On The Net. Remember, it’s all about your online presence. If you like what you heard, please share our podcast and join us next week as we take on another Host 1:                         06:44               need to know topic around doing business in the digital era. Stay up to date on relevant tech topics and read our Uptime Blog! Return to On The Net Podcasts Contact us below to leave comments and suggestions for Lunarpages On The Net Podcasts. 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