The blame game
It\’s simple. Hosting is extremely complex. Despite Big Host\’s efforts to convince the world otherwise, web hosting will never be a commodity because every business has unique web hosting needs.
For many local business owners thats a hard pill to swallow. Aren\’t we just talking about web hosting here? How hard can it be?
Well, that\’s exactly what Big Host wants you to think. To maximize profits their profits they try to convince you that the issues aren\’t actually issues. If they can\’t, they have to convince you the problem is SOMEONE ELSES issue. When you realize they\’re providing a substandard service you\’ll either pull your money or they\’ll have to provide more customer service and watch their profit margin shrink. They of course don\’t want either of those things to happen.
Anyone who\’s ever built a website and tried to get it ranked already knows the truth– quality web hosting matters. There are literally hundreds of variables that must be considered when someone is trying to optimize a website for search engine indexation. All those factors are crunched in the web developer\’s cost-benefit analyzer planted on the top of their head slightly above their eyes.
Hosting with big business
Need a little more convincing? Here is a little snapshot of what the world looks like to the big hosting company you hired to maintain their website.
- If I upgrade PHP, will this orphaned WordPress I took over break? (That might cost me 2-3 days, and lots of angry phone calls. I\’m leaving it alone.)
- Who is making sure the SSL is paid up and the redirects work? (Hmmm, I deal with it if it expires and they call me to fix it. That will be a good payday.)
- Is it worth the time and energy to add caching? (I\’m not touching that with a ten-foot pole)
- Okay, but does the kind of content being served work better with Memcached Or Redis? (Yeah right. This bird\’s nest of code will never rank high enough to get traffic anyway so it doesn\’t even matter.)
- Who are are these users with full WordPress Admin access? (Beats me. It was there when they hired me, so it must be okay. )
- Do we have auto-updates, or did we temporarily disable them to maintain backwoods compatibility? (The owner will never know the difference unless it breaks. I\’ll be paid and long gone before that ever happens so moving on.)
- One of those WordPress admins installed the WP File Manager plugin. How quickly can we restore from backup? (I sent the owner the link to buy web hosting from Big Host. You mean you didn\’t select the optional $3 remote backup service buried on the fifth page of the checkout screen? Well, why not? IT\’S RIGHT THERE! You really should have done that. Then we would have had a backup. You need to call Big Host support and see what they can do.)
Invest in your Business
The reality is the $10 a month you pay for hosting services is not enough money to cover those issues. Still, someone needs to take care of problems as they arise or your orphaned, abandoned website will start sputtering and die.
In short, Big Host is operating on a cost-plus pricing model which is ….lock everything down, open it up so novice webmasters can support the end-users, and route support overseas to protect razor-thin hosting margins. They are not thinking about how those decisions impact your local business. Nope, that\’s up to you. They just host.
The good news is we have a call center and dedicated servers in Dallas, Texas that is up, running, and ready to help. We have an entire team waiting by the phones Monday through Friday to offer you fast customer service. The staff at Rise Local is educated and equipped to manage all of your hosting and SEO needs. Break up with Big Host and put your business on the path to prosperity.