5 Easy Tips for Hosting a Wordpress Blog

A blog is created about once every second. Considering how many of those blogs are abandoned within a few entries, it’s no surprise that sites like Wordpress don’t focus on their hosting features for most bloggers. However, if your blog is starting to pick up, getting your own hosting service is practically mandatory. The faster speeds will help please customers and get better search engine rankings. Also, you’ll gain more control over your files and options. Here are five easy tips for hosting a Wordpress blog.

Use hosts designed for Wordpress.

Some hosts have seen this particular niche as an opportunity, and have created easy to set up and integrate hosting options for Wordpress users. One of the most prominent of these is Media Temple, which offers shared servers for about $20 a month and virtual dedicated servers for about $50. Media Temple can remove some of the burden of switching hosting providers, and this company has experience with the exact sort of hosting that you’re doing. There are also various other companies with Wordpress specific packages.

Work on the fastest server you can.

Dedicated servers are incredibly expensive, costing hundreds of dollars per month. This isn’t going to be a worthwhile investment for most webmasters. As you increase the volume of traffic to your website, it may be something to consider eventually. In the meantime, shared hosting and virtual dedicated servers are great options. If you’re looking for the most affordable option, shared servers are absolutely the way to go. Keep in mind, though, that not all shared servers are equal in terms of speed. Be sure to check out reviews and statistics prior to making the switch.

Have communication tools set up through your hosting.

If your blog is successful, chances are good that it’s not just you writing entries in your basement on a Friday night. Rather, you have a number of contributors. You can use a hosted exchange to maximize the possibility for collaboration on your blog, and this service is available with most hosting.

Let contributors know their rights.

Your authors and contributors should have access to certain rights for the materials that they’re providing. Sometimes it’s a good idea to have these rights expand into your hosting, giving access to specific folders or admin privileges. Whatever happens to be right for you, making these rules clear and concrete and setting up your hosted exchange permissions and access will help speed this process along, and make your contributors feel loved.

Use snazzy speed up plugins.

There are two major types of plugins that you can use to make your site load more quickly. One is a cache plugin, which will store your site’s pages directly on the server, reducing database queries and therefore speeding up your site. The other is a code cleaning plugin, which will minimize the amount of code required to have your site load. Lowering your site’s loaded content and queries will mean decreasing bandwidth use, and that means lowered costs for hosting and a faster overall load time for your site.