‘I don’t know what to do – I’m not a webdesigner, I’m a…’
I’ve had a few clients give me this line over the last couple of weeks and it’s highlighted a really important point about websites.
If you have a website then it is obviously hosted somewhere.
When your website goes down, or there is some issue with it loading properly, then you may need to speak to your website hosting company.
There are many UK website hosting companies such as Ionos, GoDaddy, WpEngine, Fasthosts, UK2Net, Bluehost, or One.com.
Each of them typically charge you per month for offering services such as website hosting, email hosting and more.
However, when you are in trouble and your website is down – how helpful are they?
What do your web host actually do?
Whereas your webdesigner builds or manages your website, your web host simply puts it on a server where it is accessible online 24/7.
It is their job to provide a secure, fast server which loads your website for your visitors without any issue.
Web hosts will usually have access to massive datacentres across the world and therefore they can provide hosting services at competitive rates.
They will also be able to view your website code, produce logs of traffic, log errors and manage your website database too.
Your website hosting company when your site goes down
A website can go down for a number of reasons such as:
- An out of date plugin
- Badly written code
- A website conflict
- A security feature – such as blocking IPs
When this happens you may experience what is called a server 500 error.
At this point you really need to speak to your website hosting company.
Since they host your website it is their job to check the server, review any error logs, and see if they can help fix the issue.
In more severe cases they may be able to revert to recent backup.
Website hosting company tech support
We often have clients who host their websites with 3rd party website hosting companies.
When they have issues with their websites they will sometimes ask us to speak to their providers on their behalf.
As such I’ve spoken to many, many web hosting companies and I have mixed opinions on their support.
Whereas some are always available on the phone or online chat, usually the person on the other side is a general support person based overseas.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it just means for more technical issues you have to be passed up the chain (think of how it feels when you call your bank).
On some occasions I’ve been told the wrong thing by tech support from some of these companies!
More recently, I’ve had clients complaining they cannot get support from their website hosts and therefore their sites are still down.
This is unacceptable.
Website hosting by StudioRav
If you want to ensure your website is always up – and when it does go you get first-class support – then host your website with us.
By choosing StudioRav as your UK website hosting company you will benefit from:
- Much quicker turnaround in us reviewing your website, server and identifying the problem
- Our top-rated technical support
- Daily, weekly and monthly backups
- Suggestions on improving website and speed
- Competitive pricing in line with your business size
All of the above will mean you don’t have to spend hours in online chat requesting support, or on the phone waiting in a queue.
For many of our clients this service has been vital and helped them when their websites have gone down at the most unexpected of times.
As stated above we also give you recommendations on improving your set up such as moving to a dedicated server rather than a shared one, or adding anti-spam features or speed improvements.
By working with StudioRav we will help you keep your website up and running smoothly, whilst also being on hand to rectify any downtime or server errors.
Review your website hosting
If you’re thinking of changing your website hosting, or you would like to review your existing hosting set up please contact us or call on 0800 002 5152.
we understand not everyone is technical so we will explain everything in a simple, clear way and help guide you to the best solution for you.