Web hosts use psychological tricks to influence your purchasing decisions. For instance, they might try to persuade you to purchase the ‘Enhanced’ hosting plan instead of the most expensive one. Other times, they may recommend you upgrade to a higher-priced plan and require you to pay for extras. These tricks play on human psychology to gain your trust and keep you as a customer. So how do you protect yourself from such tricks?
A sales strategy that encourages customers (Upselling)
Upselling is a sales strategy that encourages customers to purchase higher-priced products or services, usually upgrades or add-ons. An example of an upsell in web hosting is a website builder and hosting package. In this package, you can break down the website creation process, choose from a number of templates and add-ons, and even get your own personalized email address. However, you should always remember to limit the value of upsells to 25% or less of the original purchase.
Upselling and cross-selling techniques are different from one another. The difference between these two strategies is that upselling is going from Free Hosting to Shared Hosting, and cross-selling is buying a Domain name when you’re using free website hosting. The main difference between these two approaches is the level of effort and customer support required to implement them. When used correctly, both methods can improve the profitability of your business.
Limiting your resources
Various resources are available on the web server, and each has its own limits. One of the most important is disk space. Generally, a single gigabyte of disk space will be sufficient for most domains. Disk space delivers content to site visitors, reads and processes emails and loads RAM with data. Using disk space more than its designated limit will result in errors such as Error 508.
If you exceed the limit, your website may be suspended or banned. Some web hosting companies have strict resource usage policies and may suspend your site without notification or prior warning. Occasionally, they may even shut your site down and require you to upgrade to a more expensive plan. However, you must know that this is not always the case. To avoid overspending, you can read your web host’s Terms of Service or ask for the limit of your resources.
Resources and web hosting performance challenges
Despite all efforts to optimize a website’s performance, processes may still run into limits. Some website platforms use scripts to create web pages whenever a visitor arrives dynamically. These scripts and templates grab details from the site’s database. The same can be true for CMS software. Database connections and CPU and RAM usage are just a few examples of resource-intensive processes. Moreover, excessive resource usage can also leave your server vulnerable to attacks. That is why understanding resource usage is essential.
Requiring you to upgrade your web hosting plan
Some web hosting plans are not suited for every user. These companies may require you to upgrade your plan if you are experiencing technical difficulties. The solution can be as simple as upgrading to a higher plan. You should make sure that you are getting the most out of your hosting plan. Then, you should look for a plan that can accommodate your needs. You can also contact your current web host to see if they offer an upgrade.
Bandwidth, speed, and space of your website
In addition to increasing your bandwidth, you should also consider the speed and space of your website. Your visitors will not want to visit a slow website. In addition, the speed of your website will have a huge impact on the overall engagement with your content. It may cost you more money to upgrade your plan than to lose it. So, the cost of upgrading your plan could make up for the lost money in a few months. You should also take into account the fact that many web hosts do not provide root access, which is necessary to make changes to your website’s configuration.
Besides, a slow website is very frustrating. Visitors tend to bounce if it takes a long time to load. Additionally, search engines will lower priority to slow sites and display them lower on their listings. Thus, you should consider upgrading your plan if your site is generating more income than the one you have now. And, if you are a business owner, consider upgrading your plan to a higher level if your business grows to a large scale.
Environmental friendliness
The internet has become one of the largest polluters of our planet, and the power used to run websites is an extremely high contributor to this pollution. It’s actually worse for the environment than flying! Fortunately, there are a number of environmentally friendly web hosting providers that have embraced the idea of greener servers and the use of alternative energy sources. Here’s a look at what you should be looking for in your web host.
Data centers that house websites use enormous amounts of energy. From power to cooling and energy consumption, these facilities use a lot of energy. Some providers have even taken measures to offset their power use with green initiatives. For example, in Canada, the Department of Natural Resources estimates that data centers use one percent of all the electricity used in the country. But what is “green” about your web hosting service? You can look for green servers that use renewable energy sources for starters. it’s friendly, efficient, and cheaper!
Recommendations for a web hosting
One of the first things you should look for in a web hosting company is its uptime. A good web host should be able to deliver on its promise, or else you may find yourself paying a lot of money every month. You should consider other factors before settling on a web host, such as your budget. While it’s not necessary to have a perfect score to have a good host, a high uptime can make all the difference in the world.
Technical stability is another important factor. A website with frequent downtime can lose valuable search engine rankings. Search engines can’t index or access it, which hurts its search rankings. Downtime also diminishes a business’s credibility, ultimately hurting sales and customer engagement. A web host that offers a reliable, secure server is essential for the success of a business. But don’t settle for just any host – a great web hosting service should also offer a comprehensive security policy.
A good web hosting service should include basic security features such as DDoS protection and SSL certificates. Some web hosts will offer this service for free, while others will charge you $100 per year for a certificate. Check if the host offers regular site backups. If you update your site frequently, you’ll lose a few hours of work every time it’s down. It’s better to have frequent backups than to risk losing hundreds of thousands of dollars in the case of a disaster.
