web hosting and cloud hosting – read latest technical articles, how to’s and promotional blogs

Can A Single Page Website Work?

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Creating a website for your business or personal brand is a great way to boost your online exposure. But designing a multi-page website can be time-consuming and complicated. And if you have a business to run, you don’t want to spend your time maintaining it, either. With single-page website hosting, you can still benefit from online activity without needing to spend too much effort on a complex website. With the right design and content, your single-page website can work for your company.

What Does a Single-Page Website Need?

Making a single-page website does require some planning ahead of time. Overall, you’ll want to make sure you include the key elements that every website should have. You’ll also want to pay attention to the layout and design of your website. A cluttered or broken site can actually harm your online presence more than not having a site at all. But as long as you take the time to ensure your content is presented properly, you can create a professional single-page website.

Key Elements for Single-Page Website Hosting

When making any kind of website, there are certain elements that you’ll need to include. By having these elements, you ensure your SEO scores are good and that users can find all the information they need. As you create your single-page website, make sure you have the following:

  • About Us Section – Having a small paragraph or two detailing your company/brand is imperative. This helps users know what your business is about. It should ideally be located near the top of your page. This section should also include contact information so others can reach you if needed.
  • Social Media Links – Having a website is great, but being active on social media is better. Somewhere on your website, you should have links to your other accounts, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. Doing this allows users to follow you on other media, helping you increase your online reach.
  • Backlinks – Linking your website to other professional sites in the same industry can greatly improve your search engine optimization scores. When creating backlinks, make sure the webpage you are linking to is relevant to the text with the link. For example, if the text reads ‘new dental procedures,’ you don’t want to link to a page about spring fashion.
Utilizing single-page website hosting is a great way to help your business improve
Photo by Hal Gatewood on Unsplash

Layout and Design

As long as you have the basic website elements needed, you can fill the rest of your single-page website with whatever content you want. However, it’s still important to organize that content in a well-crafted layout. By following these layout and design tips, your website will appear more professional to viewers.

  • Color Coordination – Picking out a color scheme for your website can be tricky. If you already have colors used in other promotional materials, such as your logo or social media sites, then try to maintain the same color scheme on your website. Avoid using too many contrasting colors, as this can cause irritation if viewed for too long.
  • Font Choice – Fancy fonts can be fun, and they make great use for headers or titles of content sections. However, they are difficult to read. Avoid using them in paragraphs of text to ensure users can view your content with ease.
  • Text and Image Balance – Large blocks of text are instantly a turn-off for many website users. Instead, try breaking up your text with images, headers, and lists. If using images, make sure you alternate where on the screen these images occur. Too many images in one section can create an imbalance.

Single-Page Website Hosting Plans

With your website all set up and ready to go, it’s time to choose a hosting plan. Single-page website hosting plans are typically more cost-effective than multi-page hosting plans. Because you won’t have as much content to load, and less user interaction, you don’t need as much power or resources to host successfully. This means you can utilize shared hosting plans to help cut down on costs without giving up on performance. There are two main types of hosting plans that work best with single-page website hosting.

Shared Hosting Plans

Shared hosting plans are the cheapest hosting option available. In a shared plan, you’re splitting the cost of a server by splitting the resources it provides with other website owners. If you have a complex website, this means less power to help it run efficiently. But single-page website hosting doesn’t require as much to run. So you can safely share hosting with others and still have a functional website for your business or brand.

WordPress Hosting Plans

Creating the code for a website can be difficult. And unless you want to learn how to do it yourself, you’ll have to spend some big bucks getting it made for you. However, website-building programs such as WordPress allow users to create beautiful and professional websites without needing any coding skills at all. Creating a single-page website in WordPress is easy with their pre-made templates that allow you to simply change the text and images. Hosting your single-page website designed through WordPress allows you to get superior hosting power with the ease of design WordPress allows.

Single-Page Website Hosting with Cirrus Hosting

At Cirrus Hosting, we believe in providing the best hosting experience for all of our clients. Whether you run a multi-million dollar corporation that needs a dedicated server or a personal brand that just needs a sliver of a server to operate, we have the hosting plan for you. Our single-page website hosting packages include advanced security, 24/7 customer support, and free migration. We also offer managed website hosting services so you can spend more time on your business. If you’re ready to get started, you can browse our available hosting plans online or give us a call at 1-647-478-9984 for more information.

Do You Need Managed Website Hosting?

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Having a dedicated server for your website hosting needs is great. But maintaining a server isn’t always easy. It’s a 24/7 job that requires constant monitoring and quick reactions to any issues that occur. With managed website hosting options, you can enjoy the benefits of dedicated hosting without needing to spend the time or energy on server maintenance. By having a team of dedicated technicians managing your server and account, you can rest easy knowing everything is under control. And if something does go wrong, you’ll be alerted right away so you can take action to fix the problem.

How to Get Managed Website Hosting

When you sign up for your dedicated hosting account, you can choose to opt-in for additional management services. If you don’t choose to right away, you can always upgrade to these services in the future. Choosing a managed website hosting plan helps you get the full benefits of a dedicated server without the added stress of monitoring and maintaining it. For an additional monthly cost on your account, you can get professional technicians to handle the hardware and software for you.

What Does Managed Website Hosting Do?

When you choose to go with a managed website hosting plan, you get a host of benefits that help your website and server stay safe and up-to-date. With constant monitoring and tweaks to the server, your team of technicians helps improve performance, functionality, and security.

Automatic Backups

Having backups of the different versions of your website is crucial if you want to keep your data safe. Sometimes a new update can cause issues or just fail to work overall. If you don’t have a backup, you’re left going through and manually changing your website until it functions again. But with a backup, you can easily roll back to a previous working version. This helps prevent data loss and saves you time. With a managed hosting plan, your hosting provider will ensure your server is updated regularly.

Security Updates

Hardware and software are constantly being updated. While it can seem tedious to update dozens of applications regularly, it’s a necessary task. The longer a piece of hardware or software is available to the public, the more time hackers have to figure out how to get past the defenses. With each update, coders help fortify firewalls and other defensive methods that keep your data and information safe. If you aren’t constantly updating your applications, your website is a prime target for cyber threats. If you don’t have the time to update everything yourself, your managed hosting technician will ensure that everything on your server is up to date for you.

With managed website hosting, you get a team of techncians to help your server
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

Performance Monitoring

Hosting a website online is complex. Although advances in technology have made it easier over the years, there’s still a lot going on behind the screen that contributes to a functioning server and website. And that means there’s a lot that can go wrong. Having a dedicated server means monitoring it constantly for any signs of concern. When your website and account suffer performance issues, there are any number of technical problems that could cause it. By working with a dedicated website management team, you can stay on top of these issues without having to expend too much time or effort on your part. Your technicians will monitor your server for any performance issues, alert you to them, and help you rectify the problem.

Physical Upkeep

To host your website online, you need a physical server to store your data. But servers require physical maintenance and upkeep to ensure they are operating smoothly. This means keeping them clean, cool, and secure against any physical threats. Storing and maintaining a physical server by yourself can be time-consuming and costly. But with a managed website hosting plan, you can rest assured that your physical server is in good working condition.

Do You Need Managed Website Hosting?

Managed website hosting is a great way to get your website online and keep it safe and updated. While it is an additional charge per month, it’s often worth it to ensure your account is secure and functional. To know if a managed hosting plan is right for you, ask yourself the following questions:

  • Do I have the time to physically maintain a server?
  • Do I have the time to monitor my website’s performance 24/7?
  • Do I know how to back up my website’s data?
  • Do I have the experience needed to recognize when something is affecting my account?
  • Do I know what to do when my server is targeted by cyber threats?

If the answer to any of these questions is no, then you may want to consider a managed website hosting plan. By working with a team of trained and dedicated technicians, you can keep your website at peak performance while focusing your time and energy on the rest of your business.

Managed Website Hosting Plans with Cirrus Hosting

At Cirrus Hosting, our dedication is to provide everyone with the best hosting experience possible. Our managed website hosting plans help you keep your website functional and safe without spending extra time worrying about it. We have a team of experienced and dedicated website management specialists who are ready to help you get your server set up for success. With 24/7 customer support, integration for hundreds of third-party applications, and state-of-the-art security features, our managed website hosting plans are the perfect option for your company. To get started, you can browse our available hosting plans online or give us a call at 1-647-478-9984 for more information.

How To Host a Website for Less Money

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Having a website is a great way to help your company grow its online presence. With the number of website hosting providers around, it’s easier than ever to set up a professional website without too much trouble. But having a working website for your business or brand can get costly. Thankfully, there are affordable website hosting options that can help you get the website of your dreams without breaking your budget. With the right preparation and research ahead of time, you can avoid high website hosting costs.

Affordable Website Hosting Design

Getting a professionally designed website can be one of the most costly aspects of website hosting. Hiring a website designer often produces some spectacular sites, but it’s not always an option for smaller businesses on a budget. But there are still ways you can get a functional and sleek website without having to spend too much money yourself.

Design Your Own

If you have some computer science skills or coding knowledge, you can easily create your own website. Even if you don’t have the knowledge needed, there are affordable ways to learn what you need to know. You don’t have to go to school and get a degree in website design to create something that will work for your business. As long as you have the dedication and time required to pick up coding skills, you can create your own website easily. This is a great option if you are looking to have true control over how your website looks and operates. By creating it yourself, you can fine-tune every aspect to meet your exact specifications.

Use a Website Builder Application

Not everyone has the desire to learn how to code just to make a website for their company. Thankfully, there are website-building applications that you can use to create a professionally designed site. Website builders like WordPress allow you to design a website using a visual editor. This means you don’t need to know any coding skills; you just click and drag elements on the page to create your content. For most of these website builders, you can also use pre-designed themes that put all the elements in place for you. These themes are created by professional website developers, so you can trust that they’ll work. While only some of the themes are available for free, the cost of installing a professional theme is significantly less than hiring a website developer.

With affordable website hosting, you can spend your money on other parts of your business
Photo by Lukas Blazek on Unsplash

Affordable Website Hosting Plans

With the right website design in hand, it’s time to get your business online. Connecting your website to the internet requires hosting your data on a server. Buying a server, however, is quite costly. And if you only have a small, simple website, it’s also unnecessary. Finding an affordable website hosting plan means getting your website online without expanding your budget too much. By choosing one of the below hosting plans, you can cut down on costs without sacrificing performance.

Shared Hosting Plans

Sharing hosting space on a server with other website owners is the best way to host a website on a budget. With a shared hosting plan, you don’t have to pay for the entire server yourself. You only pay for a small portion of it, helping you save money for other business needs. However, the downside is that you also don’t get all of the resources and power a dedicated server could provide. A shared hosting plan is perfect if you have a small, simple website that doesn’t have a lot of user interaction or traffic.

Virtual Private Server Hosting Plans

If your website is a little more complex, you can still save money even if you upgrade to a virtual private server (VPS) hosting plan. With VPS hosting, you’re still sharing server space with other website owners. However, you are guaranteed a certain number of resources dedicated just to your website. By limiting the number of websites that are shared on one server, your hosting provider can ensure that you get the power your website needs. A VPS hosting plan is a little more expensive than a shared hosting plan, but it’s still much more affordable than a dedicated server hosting plan.

WordPress Hosting Plan

If you worked with WordPress to create your website, you could easily host that design with your website hosting provider. WordPress hosting plans allow you to connect your WordPress account to a server so that your site is online in a matter of minutes. By integrating WordPress with your chosen hosting provider, you get the ease and simplicity of WordPress website design with the power and resources of a hosting provider’s server.

Affordable Website Hosting with Cirrus Hosting

At Cirrus Hosting, we’re dedicated to providing our customers with the best hosting experience possible. But you don’t have to have a large budget to get quality server connections and website plans. With our affordable website hosting packages, we can help you get your website online so your business can grow. We offer shared hosting plans starting at as little as CA$ 3.5 a month, leaving plenty of room in your budget for other business needs. We also offer free website migration, along with easy integration for hundreds of third-party applications and website builders. You can create the website of your dreams and host it with the powerful backing our data centers provide. To get started, you can browse our affordable website hosting plans or give us a call at 1-647-478-9984 if you have any questions about how our hosting packages can help your website thrive.

Steps To Designing and Hosting a Website

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Having a website for your business is a great way to reach new customers and clients online. With today’s technology, it’s easier than ever to get a website online. But having a poorly designed website that suffers constant down times is going to hurt your business more than having no website at all. Website design and hosting require time and dedication to make sure everything is working properly. If you have a poor design or an inadequate hosting connection, your website and your business could suffer.

Steps for Website Design

Designing a website can be fun and exciting when creativity flows. But actually making sure it works and works well for the users can also be frustrating and difficult. Follow these steps to make sure your website has a professional and functional design.

Step One: Hire a Professional

Unless you’ve got your own degree in website design and development, it’s usually best to hire a professional website designer. If you want to save some money in this process, you can hire a new developer or a student. They’ll more than likely provide you with some quality work, but are also willing to negotiate a little on price to help build their portfolio for bigger jobs in the future.

If you really can’t hire a professional, then use a website-building tool such as WordPress. These applications allow you to create a website using already-developed themes that help everything look and feel professional. Most website hosting providers will provide integration for these applications, so you can design a beautiful website and still get powerful hosting for it.

Step Two: Create the Layout

How your website looks will play into whether or not a user sticks around. A poor layout with difficult navigation is going to make it tough for your business to succeed online. If you’re stuck for ideas on how to layout your website, look up the sites of some competitors in your industry. You can get ideas on what does and doesn’t work and piece together your own website from that research.

Website design and hosting should be professional and easy for user interaction
Photo by Farzad on Unsplash

Step Three: Generate Content

A website needs a good balance between images and text. You may want to hire a professional web content creator if you aren’t confident in your writing abilities. While you’re creating the text for your website, you’ll also want to source some images for it. There are plenty of free images you can use with the right credits given, but having images your business owns is always best. You can take these photos yourself, or hire a professional to come out for the day and do a shoot at the office/store for you. Having photos of yourself and your business on the webpage helps build trust and confidence with your clients and customers.

Step Four: Edit

Before you think about posting your website online, make sure you give it a look over for any errors or bugs. Have others who have never seen the website before take a look as well. The fewer errors you have on your website before launch, the better received it will be.

Steps for Website Hosting

Now that your website is designed and ready to go, you need to find a way to host it online. Website data is uploaded to a server, which then connects it to the internet so that users can find it. Buying your own server for just one website can be extremely expensive and is only recommended for bigger companies that need more resources and power. Most website owners team up with a hosting provider and utilize their data centers for hosting.

Step One: Find a Hosting Provider

Finding the right hosting provider can be tricky. There are a lot of them out there, and not all are as superb as they claim to be. When looking for a hosting provider, pay attention to the extra services they offer. Free migration, 24/7 customer service, and third-party application integration all make for a better hosting experience. You’ll also want to make sure they have easy ways to upgrade or downgrade your account as needed.

Step Two: Choose a Hosting Plan

There are three main types of hosting plans you can choose from. For most businesses, a shared hosting plan is more than enough to help get their website online and running smoothly. More complex websites may need to upgrade to a VPS (virtual private server) plan. It costs a little extra, but it does provide the additional resources needed for efficient running. For websites that are particularly large, a dedicated server can also be leased from a hosting provider.

Step Three: Set Up Your Account

Setting up your hosting account is quick and easy. You won’t need to know much about computer sciences or coding, and you often just need to tick some boxes. When setting up your account, make sure you have automatic backups ready to go. Regular backups of your website prevent data loss and allow you to restore your website to a previous version for any reason.

Step Four: Monitor Your Account

While the bulk of the work is done by this point, you’ll still need to spend some time monitoring your website. Website management includes keeping your security software up to date, checking for updates on any applications or widgets, and taking action if there’s any sign of a threat. If you don’t have the time for this, many hosting providers offer account monitoring for an added fee.

Website Design and Hosting with Cirrus Hosting

At Cirrus Hosting, we’re dedicated to providing our clients with the best hosting experience possible. We offer free website migration, seamless third-party application integration, and 24/7 customer support for any problem at any time. Our website design and hosting services are made to help small businesses and personal brands achieve the online presence of their dreams. To get started, you can choose from one of our hosting packages online or give us a call at 1-647-478-9984 if you have any questions.

Can You Use WordPress with a Hosting Provider?

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Hosting a website online is a great way to improve your online presence and generate more business. WordPress hosting options make it easier than ever for small businesses and personal brands to get their websites online. No longer just a website for blogs, WordPress is a powerful tool that helps you create stunning and professional websites for any industry. And with all the widgets and applications you can integrate, merging WordPress with a hosting provider is the best way to get the powerful website your business needs.

What is WordPress?

WordPress is a website-building platform that makes creating a website easy and accessible. With their pre-installed themes, users can create gorgeous websites in a matter of minutes. It was designed to be easy to use for anyone, even users who don’t have any computer science background. While you can edit themes and customize content with CSS coding, the majority of the builder uses visual editing. All users have to do is click and drag boxes and change text or images to match their needs. Because it’s so easy to use and has some robust features even on the free options, WordPress has quickly become a preferred website builder for most companies.

What is a Hosting Provider?

Designing a website is only half the battle. In order for others to view and interact with your website, you need to host it online. A hosting provider will rent out server space in their data center, allowing you to host your website in a cost-effective manner. Without a server, users can’t access your website. While WordPress does offer its own hosting options, they aren’t nearly as powerful or effective as a hosting provider’s options would be. Combining the simplicity of a WordPress website with the hosting power of a provider is the best way to get your website out in the world.

How WordPress Hosting Options Work

WordPress is an application that you use to create your website. It stores all of the data and code that makes your website the way it is. By connecting your WordPress account to your hosting provider servers, you can project that data to the internet for others to see. In order to get WordPress to work with your hosting provider, you’ll need to follow these steps.

Step One – Create a WordPress Account

You’ll need to have a WordPress account that you can connect to your hosting provider. When signing up for WordPress, make sure you don’t opt-in to their hosting services. Instead, stick with the free options for now and only upgrade the design portion of your account to help you create the website of your dreams.

It's quick and easy to make a website with WordPress hosting options
Photo by Justin Morgan on Unsplash

Step Two – Choose a WordPress Hosting Plan

Your hosting provider will have a few different hosting options to choose from for your WordPress site. Each will provide you with full access to the themes, widgets, and customization options WordPress offers. The main difference between the plans will be the power and resources backing your websites. The bigger and more complex your website needs are, the more expensive it will be to host them. However, not paying for the power you need can cause your websites to suffer slowdowns and downtimes, which can severely harm your online presence.

Step Three – Connect your Hosting Provider and WordPress Accounts

Once you’ve chosen your plan, you’ll just need to follow a few steps to connect your hosting provider to your WordPress account. Once you make the connection, your hosting provider will migrate the data and information from your WordPress site to their servers, quickly and efficiently getting your site online. This free migration service helps you get your website up and running without needing to spend any time or money on the process yourself.

How WordPress Hosting Options Help

Hosting a WordPress website through a hosting provider is extremely beneficial to your business or personal brand. With a managed WordPress hosting option, you get access to the following:

  • Free 24/7 Customer Support – Never let an inconveniently-timed issue stop your website from performing as it should.
  • Automatic Backups – Protect your information and prevent data loss due to cyber threats.
  • Increased Security – Free SSL services keep your website secure against would-be hackers.
  • Free Updates – WordPress and the associated widgets and applications require frequent updating to keep their features fresh and secure, and your hosting provider will make sure your website is always up-to-date.
  • Free Email – Get a professional email account tied to your website so you can interact with users easily.

Is WordPress Right for You?

WordPress is a powerful website builder that creates professional websites in many industries. What started out as a simple blog-hosting website has turned into a leading competitor in the website-building realm. If you don’t have any computer skills or coding knowledge but still want a professional website that will help your company grow, then a WordPress site is the perfect option for you.

WordPress Hosting Options with Cirrus Hosting

At Cirrus Hosting, our goal is to help everyone host the website of their dreams. Our WordPress hosting options allow you to create a professional and gorgeous website without having to spend time or money on coding it yourself. By merging the ease and beauty of a WordPress website with our powerful and robust hosting options, anyone can have a website that serves their business or brand well. If you’re ready to see how our hosting plans can help elevate your WordPress website, you can browse our available hosting packages online or give us a call at 1-647-478-9984 for more information.

Hosting a Professional Website

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Having a website can significantly improve the reach of your business or personal brand. With an online presence, new clients, customers, and business partners can easily find you and learn about your products or services. But having an unprofessional website is worse than having no website at all. If you don’t take the time to invest in professional website hosting, you can turn future business away rather than welcome it in. With the right design and a good hosting plan, you can have a professional website that will boost your business.

Professional Website Design

The design of your website is essential for maintaining your professionalism in the online world. Website design goes further than just picking out the right colors or having a good font; it’s about making sure the website functions and operates as a user would expect. If a viewer can’t move around your website or perform the actions they need, they aren’t going to stick around long enough to support your company. When designing your website, make sure you pay attention to the user experience so that everything runs efficiently.

Menus

To host a professional website, you’ll need to make sure your users can navigate it. Having a menu with links to specific pages is the best way to ensure this. Your menu should be located either at the top of your website or on the side. If you have too many pages for the menu to comfortably fit where it is, consider using drop-down sub-menus to organize your pages. Your users will appreciate the clean appearance and lack of clutter. You can also help users find what they’re looking for by including a search bar option near your menu.

Professional Website Hosting Links

Broken links are one of the most unprofessional aspects a website can have. Not only do they frustrate users who click and find themselves on a blank screen, but they also severely harm your search engine optimization (SEO). Web browsers and search engines use SEO to help new users find your website. If you have broken links, they’re more likely to flag your site as spam and not show it. If you have a smaller website, you can manually check your links to ensure they all work. For larger websites, there are plenty of applications and widgets that can automate the process.

Visual Appeal

Even if the technical aspects of your website design function perfectly, you can still create an air of unprofessionalism with a bad visual design. Cluttered pages, contrasting colors, and illegible fonts will turn users away and make your website ineffective. The key to good website design is in keeping things simple. Use only a few colors, don’t change font often, and make sure there’s a good balance between text and image. Too many images can make a space seem cluttered, while too much text will cause immediate wariness in new users. With the right visual design, you can create a professional website that helps your business grow.

Taking the time to dedicate to professional website hosting will help your business grow
Photo by Visual Design on Unsplash

Professional Website Hosting Options

Once your website has an effective design, you’ll need a professional website hosting plan to support it. Hosting a website online requires you to connect to a server, upload your website’s data, and perform maintenance as required. Owning and monitoring your own server is costly and takes time away from other important business needs. Partnering with a professional website hosting provider, however, allows you to get your website online without needing to host it yourself. Hosting providers offer a variety of benefits that keep your website professional.

Additional Security

Keeping your website safe from digital threats is key to protecting your professionalism. A website hosting provider will ensure that all security features on your server are up-to-date and functioning. By preventing hacking attempts, you keep your data safe while protecting the information of your users. When a company’s website gets hacked, users tend to naturally lose trust in that company, thus decreasing the company’s professional status. The added security of a hosting platform helps your business avoid these situations.

Cost Sharing

Servers and server maintenance are expensive. However, most websites don’t need the entire server to support them. Many can get by just fine with only a small section of a server devoted to their needs. Joining a hosting provider allows you to share server space with many other website owners. And by sharing server space, you’re also splitting server costs. There are several hosting plans you can choose from that help you balance your budget and your hosting needs.

Data Loss Prevention

Outside of protecting your data from hackers, working with a professional website hosting provider also helps you prevent data loss from malfunctions or other issues. Through your hosting plan, you can set up automatic backups that will store a current version of your website on a separate hard drive. This way, if anything goes wrong with your server or data, you can easily restore your website without needing to redo everything. Additionally, automatic backups allow you to reroll back to a previous version of your website if any new updates are problematic.

Professional Website Hosting with Cirrus Hosting

At Cirrus Hosting, we’re dedicated to helping businesses and personal brands get their websites online. With our professional website hosting plans, you can increase your online presence and boost your business with new web traffic. Whether you have a large or small website to host, we’re here to help with 24/7 customer supper and free migration services. If you’re ready to add more professionalism to your website, you can start by choosing one of our hosting plans online or give us a call at 1-647-478-9984 if you have any questions.

Making the Perfect eCommerce Website

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Having an online shop is a great way to support your physical sales or connect with customers you otherwise wouldn’t be able to find. With a variety of eCommerce website hosting tools available, it’s easier than ever to have an online storefront. When creating the perfect eCommerce website, it’s important to strike a balance between good design and powerful technology. With the right website and hosting provider, your eCommerce website can help boost your business and increase sales growth.

What is an eCommerce Website?

An eCommerce website allows you to sell goods and services to others over the internet. It’s different from a company that simply lists what it can offer, as it provides users the ability to purchase those objects and get them delivered to their homes and offices. Having an eCommerce website allows business owners to get in contact with more customers and improve their bottom line with a national or international reach. eCommerce websites require careful planning and maintenance to make sure they work properly for your business.

Aspects of eCommerce Website Hosting

Having an eCommerce website requires you to pay careful attention to setting up your pages and hosting. For an eCommerce site to work, you need product pages and checkout applications. Having user accounts and a blog can also help you improve your website and your customer’s shopping experience.

Product Pages

Displaying your products or services is the most essential part of any eCommerce website. If you don’t properly introduce your products, users may not be able to find them, and they’re less likely to make a purchase. A good product page should include the following:

  • A basic description of the product/service
  • Photo gallery of product/service
  • Any ingredients/materials used to make the product
  • Available customization options (such as color or size)
  • Price
  • Shipping and handling information (such as the estimated time to ship)
  • Return policy
  • Related products/services

By including all of this information, you tell users what to expect with your product and help secure more sales.

Checkout

The checkout is the second most important aspect of building the perfect eCommerce website. Without a working checkout, your users can’t make their purchases. You lose out on sales, and they become less likely to trust your future business efforts. A smooth checkout requires a strong hosting connection, so having a reliable eCommerce website hosting partner is a must.

The checkout can also be a great place to secure additional sales. You can offer other last-minute add-ons for related products and services. Just make sure you don’t overwhelm your users with pop-ups and sidebars as they’re checking out. Doing so could cause them to turn away without completing their purchase.

eCommerce website hosting helps you reach more clients and customers
Photo by Roberto Cortese on Unsplash

User Accounts

While you can get everything you need for a secure checkout without them, having user accounts is a great way to improve your eCommerce website. By allowing users to log in, you let them track their purchases, save items in wish lists, and build up loyalty points to use on future purchases. While this isn’t necessary to secure initial sales, it does encourage users to return in the future, helping you make more money and build a strong community with your online shoppers.

Blog

Having a blog is a great way to boost your online presence and SEO scores regardless of what type of website you have. A blog for an eCommerce site can help you get new users as soon as they look for the objects you’re selling online. Updating your blog at least once a week allows you to stay at the top of search engine results. Your blog can be used to build a personal connection with users, showcase new products or services, or introduce sales and events that will get people interested in your shop and business.

eCommerce Website Hosting Options

With a great design and working shop functions, you’ll need the help of a trusted eCommerce website hosting provider to get your online shop up and running. There are a few options you can choose from when deciding on your eCommerce hosting plan.

Shared eCommerce Hosting

A shared hosting plan is the most cost-effective option and is perfect for new online stores and small businesses or personal brands. By sharing server space with other website owners, you cut down on costs. However, there’s not as much power available, meaning your website could suffer from outages if you have too much web traffic. Keep in mind that it’s a great place to start if you’re unsure of your hosting needs, as you can easily upgrade when needed.

Virtual Private Server Hosting

Virtual private server (VPS) hosting is a step above shared hosting. You’ll still be splitting the cost of a server with other website owners, but only a few can be on one server at a time. This allows you access to a set number of resources devoted to keeping your eCommerce site up and running. It’s the perfect mid-range option for small or medium businesses that need a little extra hosting support.

Dedicated eCommerce Server

For larger businesses and complex eCommerce websites, hosting on a dedicated server is often the best choice. Having a server all to yourself does mean an increase in hosting costs, but you don’t have to share power and resources with anyone else. Dedicated servers can support larger online stores with multiple products and increased user traffic.

eCommerce Website Hosting with Cirrus Hosting

At Cirrus Hosting, we’re dedicated to providing high-quality online hosting experiences to all of our clients. Whether you’re a small business just getting started with online stores or a large business that already has a complex site ready to go, we can help. Our extensive eCommerce website hosting options allow us to support your online store and web hosting needs. You can browse our available hosting packages online or give us a call at 1-647-478-9984 for help with your account.

Getting the Most from Your Website Hosting Plan

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Websites are visited by hundreds of users every hour. Having one for your business or brand is an effective way to improve your SEO scores and drive more users to your company. With the variety of website hosting options available, it can be easy to get lost among the choices. But once you understand how website hosting works, you can take full advantage of all the benefits each plan has to offer. With a little bit of time and dedication, you can host a powerful website that boosts your business.

Understanding the Different Website Hosting Options

There are a few different ways to host your website online, and each has its own pros and cons. What you decide on will depend on how big your website is and how much traffic you expect to receive. You should also consider your budget when making a choice, as paying too much or too little for a hosting plan can cause your website to under- or overperform.

Shared Hosting

Shared hosting is an option where many website owners share server space. It helps cut down on costs by allowing everyone to split the cost of running and managing the server. However, it also cuts down on power availability, as everyone is also splitting the resources available. It’s a popular option for most new websites, and it’s easy to grow and expand upward as your website continues to gain more traffic.

Pros:
Most cost-effective
Easy to set up and manage
Perfect for smaller websites

Cons:
Lowest resource and power amount
Little customization available
Can’t handle extreme traffic loads

Virtual Private Hosting

Virtual private server (VPS) hosting also sees website owners sharing server space. However, the number of owners allowed on one server is limited. This allows each website to receive a dedicated amount of resources to run. It’s a little more expensive than a shared hosting option, but it can provide that extra boost that bigger websites need to operate smoothly.

Pros:
Affordable mid-range hosting option
Minimal setup required
Perfect option for small businesses

Cons:
Not as much power available as a dedicated server
Fewer customization options for hardware
Limited user traffic

Dedicated Server

Dedicated server hosting allows one owner full access to an entire server of their own. While this option is often used to power large, complex websites, it can also be used to host and manage many websites under one company. This allows the owner to allocate the resources as they see fit and is a popular choice for hosting resellers with lots of clients.

Pros:
Unlimited power and resources
High customization options
Perfect for large businesses or resellers

Cons:
Most expensive option
Extra time required for server management
Potential for overestimated usage

With a variety of website hosting options available, every owner can get the plan they need
Photo by Emile Perron on Unsplash

Additional Website Hosting Option Benefits

No matter which hosting plan you choose, there are additional benefits that everyone can receive from their hosting provider. These benefits are universal to all website owners who host with CirrusHosting, no matter how large or how small their website may be. Taking advantage of these offers (some free, some paid) can help you improve your website.

24/7 Customer Support

Technology rarely waits until the timing is convenient to suffer a malfunction. If something goes wrong with your website, you want to get it fixed as soon as possible to limit the downtime or slowdowns affecting it. With 24/7 customer support, trained and educated technicians are available to help you figure out and fix any problem you may have with your hosting. Response times are fast and as accurate as possible to get your website up and running again quickly.

Managed Hosting

Managing a server and maintaining a website takes a lot of work. You have to regularly check for updates to software, make sure your backups are running properly, and ensure no hacking attempts have been made. For many business owners, there just isn’t time in their schedule to do all this. Getting a managed hosting plan, however, allows you to keep on top of your website without spending the extra time. With managed hosting, a trained technician will keep an eye on your website for you, alerting you to any potential problems and keeping all of your security measures up to date.

Third-Party Application Integration

There are a lot of third-party applications out there that help businesses design and maintain a website. From website-building tools like WordPress to online store managers like Shopify, there are so many options to choose from to make your website perfect. Every hosting plan you choose has integration options that allow you to utilize these third-party applications with your hosting platform. You can get the designing and running aid of these apps while still benefiting from the hosting power your provider offers.

SSL Certification

Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certification is a must-have for nearly every website. This security measure helps protect you and your users whenever you connect to the server for your website. Getting SSL certification is easy and can prevent digital hacking attempts. It’s the best way to keep your data safe when uploading and connecting to the server.

Website Hosting Options at CirrusHosting

At CirrusHosting, we believe in making the hosting process as smooth and painless as possible. Our third-party application integration, free migration services, and 24/7 customer support help us bring powerful website hosting options to everyone. Whether you’re a small business looking to host a simple landing page or a large business with a complex site to host, we have the perfect hosting plan for you. You can browse our available hosting plans online or give us a call at 1-647-478-9984 to learn more about how we can help your hosting journey today.

Is a Dedicated Server Right for You?

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Having an online presence is important if you want your business to succeed these days. But each website has different needs to make sure it’s running smoothly. Dedicated servers help provide additional power and resources to bigger websites for an additional cost. They can also be used for hosting multiple websites at the same time. But a dedicated server can be expensive, especially if you need additional maintenance and management of your websites. If you’re thinking about getting a dedicated server, make sure you examine all aspects of the decision before making the switch.

Dedicated Server Cost

Dedicated servers are a costly business investment. But if you need them, they can help boost your company. A basic dedicated server plan can cost a minimum of CA$170/month, with more extensive options costing upwards of CA$1,230 a month. If you’re planning on getting a dedicated server, it’s important to make sure you have room in your budget.

While a dedicated server may sound costly, it can be worth the extra amount for your website. Dedicated servers allow you to have unlimited resources and power at your disposal, helping you keep your website up and running as smoothly as possible. If you choose to go with a cheaper hosting plan, you may save money initially. But if your website has high traffic or user interaction that causes it to run slow or experience downtimes, then you could be losing potential business. Sometimes, the extra cost for a dedicated server is necessary to ensure your website is working properly and your business continues to thrive.

Dedicated Server Technology

With a dedicated server, you can customize the hardware and software you need to fit your website. There’s a lot of variety when it comes to choosing a dedicated server plan, and each will fit a different business better than others. The most popular dedicated server plan includes:

  • E-2174G 3.8GHz – 4C/8T Hard Drive
  • CPU Benchmark 12278
  • 32 GB Memory
  • 2 x 250 GB SSD Disk
  • 10 TB Monthly Traffic
  • Hardware RAID

But for websites that need even more power, there are better plans that include additional resources, such as:

  • Dual Gold 5215 2.5G – 10C/20T Hard Drive
  • CPU Benchmark 22537
  • 256 GB Memory
  • 2 x 2 TB SSD Disk
  • 40 TB Monthly Traffic
  • 8 GB Cache Hardware RAID

When choosing a dedicated server plan for your website, make sure you research how much storage, memory, and monthly traffic allocation you’ll need to keep your website running. While it’s possible to change and alter your dedicated server, having everything you need from the outset is the best way to ensure everything works perfectly once you launch or update your website.

Dedicated Server Housing and Maintenance

Many larger companies purchase their own collection of dedicated servers and host them in their offices or warehouses. But this isn’t always an option, especially for smaller businesses or fully-remote companies. Housing and maintaining a server takes a lot of time and dedication. However, many companies can rely on hosting providers and data centers for their server management.

Dedicated Servers help keep your large-scale website working properly
Photo by Lars Kienle

Many data centers offer colocation services, where you can get your own dedicated server and house it in their center. By doing so, you protect your server from physical harm. Data centers are secured and protected by the most advanced safety features possible. The holding areas for servers are also routinely maintained and checked to help prevent overheating or other malfunctions.

Hosting providers also offer maintenance and management services for dedicated servers. This additional service helps protect your server from digital harm. Expert technicians keep an eye on your server to ensure all safety features are up-to-date and no hacking attempts are made. And if there is an issue, they’ll alert you right away and help you figure out how to rectify the issue.

Other Hosting Options

Dedicated servers aren’t right for everyone. They’re great if you have a lot of web traffic, need to power a bunch of features, and have the budget needed to keep your server up and running. But for businesses that can’t afford them or don’t need all those resources, there are other hosting options available as well.

Shared Hosting

Shared hosting is on the opposite side of the hosting package spectrum. It’s the most cost-effective option, but it doesn’t provide a lot of hosting power. It’s a great way to save money for websites that don’t get too much traffic or that are easy to run, such as one-page websites.

VPS Hosting

For an in-between option, there’s virtual private server hosting (VPS). With VPS, users are still sharing server space with other website owners, but only a set number share the server. The cost for VPS is more than shared hosting, but you get additional dedicated resources that help you run more complex websites. It’s a great option for businesses that need more power for their sites, but don’t quite need all the power of a dedicated server.

Dedicated Servers and Hosting with Cirrus Hosting

At Cirrus Hosting, we believe in providing the best hosting experience for all of our clients. Whether you’re choosing between dedicated servers, having one you need to house, or are looking for a cheaper hosting option, we have the package for you. Our trained and educated customer support technicians are available 24/7 to assist with any hiccups that may occur while hosting. We also provide free migration services and have integration with dozens of website applications and widgets. If you’re ready to take your website hosting experience to the next level, choose one of our hosting packages online or give us a call at 1-647-478-9984 for more information.

Having a Website on a Budget

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Having a website is the best way to help your business or personal brand grow. Most clients and customers expect a company to have some kind of online presence, and without one, your business could suffer. But not every business or brand can afford to buy their own server to host online. Thankfully, there are plenty of affordable web hosting options available to help small businesses and personal brand websites. With these budget-friendly options, anyone can get their company online without breaking the bank.

Affordable Website Design

Before you even begin thinking about hosting your website, you have to have a website to host. Designing a website is a massive undertaking, and it can be extremely costly if you pay for a professional developer. However, there are many third-party applications and widgets available now that make designing a website easy and affordable.

With website builders like WordPress, owners can create a site using templates and visual designers. This means you don’t have to have any coding or computer programming knowledge to make a professional and beautifully designed website. Hiring a website developer is costly, and taking the time and courses needed to learn how to develop a website is even more so. But by taking advantage of website builders and hosting providers that have third-party application integration, designing a website doesn’t have to be all that costly.

Website Design Tips

When choosing to design a website on your own, you save money. But you also lose out on the professional skills and techniques that a hired designer has. If you want to save money on your website design but still create a website that looks professional, follow these tips:

Stick to the same color scheme – You want the color scheme of your website to match any other color schemes you already have in marketing and promotional materials. This helps maintain brand integrity.

Don’t clutter pages – It may seem like everything is important, but try to evenly space out your content and put the truly important information at the top. A cluttered webpage is more likely to turn users away than pull them in.

Make navigation easy – Nothing is more frustrating on a website than when you can’t find what you’re looking for. Make sure your website has a navigation menu in an easily accessible location. And consider including a search bar if you have a lot of pages/content on your site.

With affordable web hosting options, anyone can have the website of their dreams online
Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash

Affordable Web Hosting

Now that you’ve designed your website, it’s time to host it. A few years ago, companies needed to buy their own servers, set them up in their own offices or storage facilities, and take care of maintaining them. But with more people hosting online now, website hosting providers have made the job easier and cheaper.

A website hosting provider stores a multitude of servers in their data centers and rents out space to website owners. Each server has the power to host many websites at once, allowing owners to share the cost with others. Of course, owners with more complex websites can still rent an entire server to themselves if they really need to. But for most, there are three main affordable web hosting options available.

Shared Hosting

Shared hosting is one of the most popular hosting options for small businesses and personal brands. With a shared hosting option, many website owners share server space with each other. By sharing the resources and power of a server, owners also share the cost. Instead of having to purchase an entire server for a small website, owners can now rent out a small section of a server that’s perfect for their hosting needs. Hosting a simple website with a shared hosting plan is a great way to stay within your hosting budget.

VPS Hosting

For websites that need a little extra power, virtual private server hosting is another affordable option. With VPS hosting, owners are still sharing server space with others, helping them cut down on the cost of a dedicated server. However, VPS hosting limits the number of websites that can be hosted at once. This allows each website that is hosted to have dedicated resources and power to use. More complex websites that see increased online traffic will find that VPS hosting is an affordable option that still provides the power they need to run their website.

WordPress Hosting

Many people turn to WordPress to design their websites. It’s a powerful website-building tool that can use themes and widgets to create attractive websites without extra hassle. With a WordPress hosting plan, owners can create their websites through WordPress and host them through their chosen provider. This way, owners get WordPress designs merged with the powerful hosting resources of a dedicated provider. This affordable website hosting option helps business owners build their online presence and enhance their SEO scores.

Affordable Web Hosting with Cirrus Hosting

Having a website is an important step in growing your online presence. Whether you’re building an online shop for your business or just trying to reach more readers for your blog, a website can help take you to the next level. But not every hosting option is within reach for small businesses and personal brands. At Cirrus Hosting, we provide affordable web hosting options to fit every budget. Our shared hosting, VPS hosting, and WordPress hosting plans can help you get your website online without having to go over budget. You can start browsing our available hosting packages online or give us a call at 1-647-478-9984 for more information on how we can help you achieve your website hosting goals.