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People often ask: when is it the best time to select a managed host for managed WordPress hosting your WordPress site? There are many reasons you might want to select a managed host, and we're going to walk you through a few of the main reasons in this blog post.
Before we start we need to understand the difference between a managed host and a non-managed host. A managed host is a host that specializes in a certain type of platform. With WPEngine for example they only host sites that run on the WordPress platform. So their support, their servers, their software are all specialized around WordPress.
A non-managed host is a host that hosts any type of website, WordPress, Magento, or any other type of website platform. Again, in this post we're going to talk about the reasons why you would want to pick a managed host rather than a non-managed host.
The first reason you may want to pick a managed host is that maybe you're not a developer. Managed hosts like WPEngine allow you to have all kinds of special tools related to your platform. For example, at WPEngine, they have what's called one-click staging where you can click one button and create a copy of your website where you can test changes without messing up your live site. That’s a huge deal if you’re not a developer. Having the ability to experiment without the fear of ruining your live site will save you plenty of time and headaches.
On top of one-click staging, WPEngine does automatic backups of your site. Again, no technical knowledge needed to backup your website. If you make a mistake, just click back to your most recent staging and no harm done! They also include what's called a CDN or a Content Distribution Network that distributes parts of your website (like images and scripts) all around the web to make your website load much, much faster. This is an automated and integrated part of WPEngine. Again, if you're not a developer, you might not have the skills to implement staging servers and backups, and CDNs. But that’s okay! It's included as part of the WPEngine service.
Another reason to choose managed WordPress hosting like WPEngine is for protection from your site going down or being hacked. The reason is that managed hosts, because they specialize in one platform, tend to be more secure and stable. At WPEngine, they include a hacking guarantee where they will help you recover your site for free if you're hacked.
Additionally they maintain a list of banned plugins. These are plugins that are known to cause security or performance issues. WPEngine doesn't allow customers to install those plugins, which helps keep the entire platform more secure for your website.
If you have a really valuable site, that’s another reason you may want to choose a managed host. The stability and speed of picking a managed host, like WPEngine, where all of the caching, server infrastructure and software is fine-tuned and highly optimized for WordPress, is going to deliver a more stable and faster experience for your customers. Faster websites result in less bounced visitors, which means higher revenue for your website. It means better SEO, and means an overall lift in the performance for the business of your website.
WPEngine also does automatic updates for WordPress. They'll make sure that your version of WordPress is up to date and if they discover a bad plugin they will alert you that the plugin is installed in your site. This gives you that extra layer of security with your web host.
Another major reason you might want to consider switching to a managed website host, like WPEngine, is the support is central to your platform. Meaning that every support person at WPEngine spends their entire day supporting WordPress sites. So you're going to get better support from people who are more knowledgeable and more able to help you answer your specific questions relating to your website.Managed WordPress hosting is a good choice if you're not a developer and you want the tools the developers use that make running your website easier. At WPEngine you get one-click staging, backups and CDN. If you've had trouble with your site being down or hacked in the past, if you run a valuable website and page speed is important to you, if you want to rank well in search engines, and have a low bounce rate so that you convert more visitors, consider choosing a managed host like WPEngine.
Feel confident in your website. Feel confident in your business and know that you have a partner that understands your platform and can support you fully. Take advantage of WordPress centered support, the automatic WordPress updates and all of the other features behind WPEngine's service.
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