Category: Top Hostings

In
case you don’t know, Google displays all websites as “Not Secure” which doesn’t
have SSL certificates. It means you might lose customers’ faith. As SSL
certificate is here to protect your data, it is actually needed to accept online
payment. Normally, you may have to pay a hefty price to buy SSL certificates
individually. If you are just making a business website or start a blog, you
might want to keep costs down. There are different ways to save more on website
by getting a free SSL certificate. Here’s how to get free SSL certificate for
WordPress site and get started.

About SSL

SSL
refers to Secure Sockets Layer. It is basically an internet protocol to secure
data transfer between the website and browser. By visiting a website, every
user transfers information. This information can be sensitive sometimes like
card details, bank information or login. Information can be hacked if you use
the normal http. This is where you need to use https or SSL. SSL certificate
should be issued by a recognized authority. It is highlighted and verified in
the address bar of your browser with padlock sign and https.

Do I need SSL
Certificate for WordPress Site?

HTTPS/SSL
is needed for all websites to be used on the web. But it is especially
recommended for websites that collect user info like payment information, login
details, and credit cards. If you are going to run membership website,
ecommerce store, or need users to login, SSL certification is needed right
away. A lot of online payment services need your site to use HTTPs/SSL before
getting payments.

Along
with security, SSL certificate also leads positive impression of brand among
users. It is also recommended to use SSL by Google and, according to research,
SSL enables websites to rank higher. If your website doesn’t use SSL
certificate, users’ browsers show that the website is not secure. It affects
user’s trust and brand image on your site.

How SSL Certificate
Works?

Now
that you have learned about SSL and why you need it, you might be wondering how
it works. SSL secures information as it encrypts the data transfer between the
website and user’s browser. When a user visits HTTPS/SSL website, their browser
verifies if SSL certificate of the website is valid. If everything is fine,
browser uses the public key of the website to encrypt the data. Then, the data
is sent back to the server where it is decrypted with secret private key and
public key.

Cost of SSL
Certificates

SSL certificate cost varies from one authority to another. Their pricing could be from $50 to $200 per year. Some service providers offer add-on services with certificates which may affect cost of SSL certificate. If you are about to buy SSL certificate, it is recommended to use Siteground. They are one of the best domain registration providers in the world.

Their
hosting plans are also very affordable. After buying a hosting plan, you can
ask them to install SSL certificate for you. Make sure you get hosting plan
with SSL certificate for free.

Getting SSL
certificate for free?

There
are many website owners who avoid SSL because of additional cost. So, a lot of
small websites become vulnerable to information and data theft. Let’s Encrypt
is a non-profit project which can fix it by adding a free certificate. This
certificate authority provides a free SSL certificate to the website owners. If
maximum websites use SSL, internet can become a safer place. It quickly earned
support of several leading companies like Facebook, Google, WordPress.com,
Shopify, etc.

But
the problem is that installing free SSL certificate is difficult for a beginner
by Let’s Encrypt as it needs server systems and coding knowledge. Luckily,
there are many WordPress hosting companies that offer free SSL certificate
included in hosting plans. Some of the top hosting companies offering SSL certificates
are Siteground, HostGator, WP Engine and others. 

If
you are using one of these hosting providers, you can simply turn on SSL
certificate for free from hosting dashboard. Login to your cPanel in your
hosting account and go to “Security” section.

According
to your hosting company, the control panel of your web hosting may be different
than the process above. If you can’t find the free SSL option, you may ask
hosting provider to activate it.

If you don’t get the free SSL from your hosting company and wondering whether you should switch to another web host, you can read our guide about 7 Signs to Change Your Web Host.

Steps to Install
Free SSL Certificate and Set up WordPress

Once
you have free SSL certificate enabled, you may have to set up WordPress to use
HTTPs rather than HTTP in all URLs. Install and activate the plugin named
Really Simple SSL on the website.

Once
it is activated, plugin will see if SSL certificate is enabled. Then, HTTP or
HTTPs will be turned on and change your website settings to use HTTPs/SSL. To
make your website secure, you need to ensure that URLs of the site loads with
HTTPS protocol. With this plugin, you can fix the URLs when page is being
loaded.

Even
though a single URL loads with insecure protocol, browser treats the whole
website as not secure. To fix your URLs, you will have to use the inspect tool
function of the browser to find them and replace with correct HTTPS URL.

With
Really Simple SSL, you can easily set up SSL certificate for free in WordPress.
This is why it is recommended for all users. 
When page loads, it can catch the insecure URL. So, it may increase the
load time of your page a bit. So, it is wise to use the manual method to set up
free SSL if you are worried about WordPress speed.

We
hope this guide has helped you to get SSL certificate for free with your
hosting plan for your WordPress site.

Are you done with your existing WordPress hosting provider? Don’t know whether you need to change host? If so, keep reading as we are going to discuss seven signs to know when you need to change your web host.

Face Your Biggest Fear

Most beginners avoid switching hosts as it needs technical skills to move a website without any single downtime. If you’re a kind of savvy, you may like our guide How to switch to a New Server or Web Host without any single downtime.

Even though it doesn’t need any coding knowledge thanks to several plugins out there, it is a bit doubtful for many beginners. Luckily, there are many hosting companies which take responsibility to migrate your site, especially if you request them.

What are the charges? It is up to the size of your website. It is free in most cases. However, you may pay a small fee sometimes. But this service is available even though it is not promoted. You can simply ask them.

Now that you have relieved your biggest stress, it’s time to look at the main instances when you need to change your hosting provider.

Constant and Unexpected Server Downtimes

For your overall SEO rankings, web traffic, and overall reputation, downtimes do more harm than good. No one wants to land a site which doesn’t open most of the time. If your site remains down most of the time in a week, it is clear that it’s time to switch.

How do you know your site is running down? As you cannot visit your site 24×7, you may never know until you use a monitoring service. Luckily, there are several services out there to help you monitor the uptime of your site for free.

Uptime means your server which is being online. Downtime refers to the instance when your server is unreachable. If there is 99% server uptime, your site has had minor outrages in a particular month. You can even inquire about the downtime from hosting support team if it occurs. If they don’t give reason that is convincing, you are free to switch.

Unusual Internal Server Errors

Internal Server error is one of the most common errors on WordPress and is quite very frustrating at all. The error message itself cannot point user towards the right direction to resolve the same. If you are frequently seeing these internal server errors on your site, it is not a good sign. You need to find a hosting provider who is knowledgeable and experienced in setting up their servers for WordPress.

Error Making Database Connection

If you are constantly seeing the “Error Establishing Database Connection”, it means you have a large plugin or you are exceeding the limit of your host servers. In any of those cases, the host support team should help you. If they cannot help, host support should be available for you. If they cannot help, it is better to switch to someone else.  

Site is Suspended

A lot of web hosting providers have the right to take your site down, especially when there is illegal activity detected. However, there are some hosting companies that can suspend your accounts without notifications for unwanted things like overages. Your host should be able to care of your website as you are relying on them with your digital space. If your site is suspended by a hosting company without notification, you should have serious talks to them. If that conversation has no point, it’s time to switch to a hosting provider who is helpful. You also need to keep backups as some hosts have access to your data hostage.

Bad Customer Support

There is probably no web host which has 100% record of exceptional customer service. Keeping everyone happy is next to impossible. It is quite obvious that the users who leave reviews are usually pissed off. With that said, good customer service is very vital in terms of web hosting. So, it is important to ask these questions yourself – Is your hosting support helpful and knowledgeable? Are they fast to respond? The hosts often deny helping with WordPress while claiming that software support is not included in their policy. If you don’t get much support, you need to move.

Slow Speed

Page speed really matters when it comes to optimize your site to ensure higher search rankings and better user experience. Slow sites are usually caused when there are too many users or too many requests on the server. In any case, your host must be able to figure out the cause of slow speed of your site. If you are getting too many requests, you can fix it with some changes, be it optimizing the server or removing a plugin. But if the issue is having too many users on the same server, it’s time to upgrade your plan with your host.

You’ve outnumbered your account

If you have been blogging for a long time, there are chances that you have outnumbered your hosting account. If your site is hosted on a shared platform, it means it shares resources with several other sites on same server. Though you can limit and control the resources you use, you cannot control what other sites do. If your site remains busier than other sites on a server, you will be slowing down the websites. A lot of shared hosting providers will terminate your resources without any sign. If you are having problem with slow sites or you end up spending more time explaining your problem, it’s time to switch to a new host.

So, are you ready to move?

If you are reading this post, there are chances that you may have decided to move to web host. Finding a host can deal with all scenarios, offering best in class support and great network uptime.

For doing this, we recommend to switch to Siteground. Their servers are optimized well and are WordPress ready. They offer CDN support, in-built caching, and best support.

Do you want to move your WordPress site to a different server or a new host? When migrating your site or switching web host to a new server, the major risk is potential downtime and data loss. Here, we will discuss how to migrate your WordPress site to a new host without any single downtime.

Choosing New WordPress host

If you have ended up with a slow host, even when your WordPress site is optimized, you need to switch to a new host which can handle increasing traffic. Choose the new host wisely to avoid the chances of moving again soon. If you are looking for the best-shared hosting, WordPress.org officially recommends Bluehost.

But if you are looking for location-based providers or cloud hosting, it is better to go with Siteground, as their datacenters are located in 3 continents.

If managed WordPress hosting is your choice, it is recommended to go for WP Engine as they are the well known-hosting service providers.

First Option – Site Migration Tools

Siteground and Wpengine provide free migration tools to their customers. If you want to get very high speed hosting with free migration tools, you must switch to siteground hosting or WpEngine hosting. As WpEngine is little expensive due to its VIP features. You must know about the features of WpEngine from WpEngine Review. 

Rest, I believe if you have a limited budget then you should try siteground hosting. There is no match with siteground hosting.  

Second Option – Have a Duplicator to Migrate Smoothly

First of all, install a free Duplicator plugin on your website before migrating. It is a free plugin also used to move your website to a new domain without compromising your SEO efforts. However, we will discuss how to use it with no downtime.

• After installing and activating Duplicator, go to Duplicator > Packages.
• Click “Create New” button on the top right side.
• Click Next and follow the steps.
• Scan results check out and click the Build button.
• This process may take some time.
• It will show download options once the process is finished for Archive and Installer package. Click “One-click download’ to download both.
• The archive is the copy of your site and installer will make the installation process smoother.

Import WordPress Site to a New Host

Now that you have removed both the installer and archive files, the next step is uploading them to a new web host. You can connect to a new web host with FTP. Usually, you will want to enter the domain name of your website as host when it comes to connecting your FTP client. As your domain name is pointing to old host, you have to connect by entering the IP address of your server or hostname of the server. You can get this info from cPanel dashboard of new hosting account.

Change Host Files to Avoid Downtime

Once you upload both files to a new web host, access the installer.php file in the browser. You can access the file with a URL like – http://www.xyz.com/installer.php. Well, it will take you to the old web host and it will show 404 error, which means your domain name still open at an old web host. Normally you will want to change the domain name servers and point to a new host. But it will result in users getting broken website as you migrate the same.  

You can access a new site with a hosts file on your PC. It can map domain names to particular IP addresses. With those changes, you can access files on a new host with your own domain name and the rest of the world can still access your site from the old host and it has 100% uptime.

Create MySQL Database on New Host

Before running installer on the new host, you first have to create MySQL database on a new account. If you have created MySQL database already, you can enter the next step.

Create a database in cPanel

• First of all, click on MySQL database on Databases section in the cPanel dashboard of your new hosting account.
• You can create a new database in a field. Enter your database name and click on “Create Database”
• Scroll down to MySQL Users after creating MySQL database. Enter user and password for new user and click “Create a user” button. You have to add a user to your database which will give the username all the permissions to work on the database.
• Go to “Add user to a Database” section, select database user created from the dropdown next to the user, select database, and click on add button. 
• Now your database is ready. Note your database user and password.

Start the process of Duplicator Migration

Now we are all set to run the installer. Go to this address in your browser and replace xyz.com with the domain name. The installer will run certain tests and show you the option “Pass” next to validation and archive tests. Check the checkbox of “Terms and Conditions” and proceed by clicking on the Next button.

You will have to enter MySQL host, username, database name, and password. The host is usually localhost. Later on, you will enter details of the database created by you in the last step. Click “Test Database” button to ensure that you have entered the right details. If duplicator can connect, you can see a string mentioned with Pass. You will see the details of the database connection. Click on Next button. Now your WordPress database will be imported by the Duplicator from archive zip in the new database.

Next, you will need to update the URL or Path. You don’t have to change anything if you are not changing the domain name. Click Next to continue. Duplicator will run the last steps and show the login button. Now you can enter the WordPress site with a new host to ensure that everything is going well.

Update Your Domain

Now that you have created a copy of the WordPress database and files on the hosting server, your domain still points to the old hosting account. You have to switch DNS name servers to update your domain. Your users are taken to the new address of the website when they type domain on the browsers. Once you register your domain with your host, it is ideal to transfer the domain to your new host. If you have used registrar like Namecheap, Godaddy, etc, it is time to update name servers. You can get the information from the new web host. It may take up to 4 to 48 hours to change DNS for all users.

Web hosting is one of the important aspects of every successful website but it is often overlooked by many. It is very vital to choose the best WordPress hosting to fulfill your needs to boost sales and improve your SEO. There are different WordPress hosting options out there, including Shared, Free, Dedicated, VPS, and managed hosting. We will help you pick the best WordPress hosting in this guide.

WPEasier is the leading WordPress resource where we have helped millions of users with our years of experience with WordPress hosting providers. Read on to know things you should consider before relying on a WordPress hosting provider.

What is Required for WordPress Hosting?

You will be shocked to hear that WordPress is extremely lightweight and it supports all good hosting providers. Here are some of the common requirements for WordPress hosting –

• MySQL 5.6 or higher
• PHP v.7 or higher

Thanks to the popularity of WordPress, all of the leading hosting companies have 1-click WordPress install options. All hosting providers provide complete support for WordPress site.

What to consider when Picking WordPress Hosting Provider?

Security, speed, and reliability are some of the key factors you need to keep in mind when going for WordPress hosting. You should consider your needs which are the very important factor to keep in mind. You should evaluate your needs before investing in WordPress hosting to save hundreds of dollars yourself.

Types of WordPress hosting and Your Needs

As discussed above, there are different hosting options out there, including Shared, Free, Dedicated, VPS, and Managed hosting. Here are the best solutions for you –

Free WordPress Hosting

You can easily avail free web hosting for yourself but virtually all of them have some issues. You can usually find free hosting offered in small groups or online forums. They are managed by a person who is reselling small space of their server to gain some revenue. Another issue is that you need to have their banner ads to their site. Some may even ask you to add text links in the footer of site. They will sell text link or banner ad to cover the cost of free space while making profits. The major downside of free host with ads is that they are not reliable. You never know when they will stop offering free hosting. If you want to start your website or business, choose one of the below options.

Shared Hosting

Shared hosting is indeed the most popular WordPress hosting used by the startups. It is quite a good point to start and is very affordable for new users. Shared hosting is where you can share large server with plenty of sites. With several sites on one server, you can offer service at very affordable price.

When it comes to shared hosting, the major problem is limited resources. You have usage limits even though it says unlimited. If your site starts taking a lot of load, they will obviously force you to upgrade account. If they don’t take such action, it can have adverse impact on overall performance of site hosted on one server.

WordPress VPS Hosting

Virtual Private Server or VPS is a virtual machine which refers to partitioning physical server into several servers according to the needs of customer. Even though you share server with several others, you can have much control as dedicated server. It has ample privacy of separate server which can be configured to run specific programs.

Intermediate users, developers and medium-size bloggers often use VPS to scale websites. If you don’t have any technical knowhow, you have to buy managed VPS. WordPress hosting provider is responsible to manage all upgrades and they can help you when needed.

Dedicated Server Hosting

It is actually a physical server you can lease from hosting provider. It means you can have total control on the server, along with choice of hardware, OS etc.  You don’t need to have dedicated server when starting out. Once your site starts getting specific traffic, you can upgrade to dedicated server. We recommend using a dedicated server from Hostgator.

If you don’t have experience with servers or don’t have system administrator, you can go with managed dedicated server. The hosting providers have full-time administrators who are assigned to manage your servers. Apart from software updates, they also provide phone support and are also responsible for server monitoring. A lot of leading websites use clusters of dedicated servers. If your blog receives very high traffic, it is ideal to choose WordPress dedicated servers.

Managed Hosting

With a lot of people using WordPress, there is no lack of web hosting providers who have been offering managed WordPress hosting solution. You can have account with one of these hosting providers to host WordPress sites. You don’t have to worry on anything. You just sit back and relax if you have managed WordPress hosting.

They have full-time staff to optimize your site performance, ensure security of your site, and ensure regular backups. They also advise you if you need to fix a specific plugin.

All in all, managed WordPress hosting is the fast and convenient WordPress hosting with best staff support with years of experience. When it seems great, managed hosting plans are on higher side.

If you are a well-established blogger who can bear expenses with your revenue, you can definitely go with managed hosting. If you don’t have skills or time or even staff to deal with complex technical aspects of the server, it is better to go with managed hosting. For managed hosting, we recommend you to go with WPEngine.

Conclusion

Now that you know all the options available for WordPress hosting, you need to make your decision. Relying on a specific web hosting provider is not that easy especially if you want to start a blog. There are lots of bells and whistles when you have small or medium sized website.  So, we recommend you to consider the above factors before choosing a WordPress hosting provider.

When it comes to change web hosting of your WordPress website or wordpres migration, it kills mind and gives huge frustration. At first, the user tries to use several plugins. You might have also used several plugins then move to go for manual methods. The manual method is not too tuff as it looks to people. In managed wordpress hosting, you need not to do manual migration. All things are latest and you will migrate easily just with few clicks. So, this article is not for managed wordpress hosting users. It is for manual migration method.

Follow the steps

1 – Go to C-panel, click on file manager and download the config.php file. Open config.php file into notepad and copy the user database name.

2 – After then back to c-panel and click on MySQL databases, there you will see your database name which you copied from a config.php file. Click on the database and you will be redirected to phpmyadmin and then you will see the export option and then go to export the database. Just import the database and keep in your hard-drive.

Till now, you have config.php file and MySQL database. Now you have to copy media library means images, files, videos.

3. Now, Go to again File Manager and then click on Wp-admin then you will see Upload folder. Just copy the whole Upload folder into your hard drive.

Now you have config.php, database, and upload folder. Here, you have taken all the important things now you have to migrate to another hosting. Here, we have to change the DNS server name and migrate successfully website one place to another place

4. Go to you Domain Manager. Go to DNS Manager and change the IP or name server into your domain provider panel. In DNS Manager, you will see Type, Name, and Value. All boxes will be editable which will be below and it may change according to different hosting providers. But most of the information is the same. In Type column, you can see A. In Name, you will see @ and in Value, you have to put new hosting providers IP. By this way, you change IP.

You can also change nameserver but it is not necessary because IP is main but if you would like then you can go to Name Servers and put your New Hosting name servers there.

Till this point, you have successfully pointed your domain to another hosting provider and you have a complete database in your Hard drive.

5. In the other hosting provider, click on C-panel and then go to WordPress Installation. Make a new installation. After then, Go to File Manager rename the uploads folder and copy paste the upload folder which you have in your hard drive.

6. Now go to Cpanel again and go to MySQL Database. Here, open the database, it will redirect to Phpmyadmin and then you will see the import option. Just click on that and import the database which you have in your hard drive.

7. Now go to File Manager, open the config.php file in file manager and Old Config.php into notepad. You will see a Prefix ‘_wp’ or anything may be last few rows. In the New Config.php file, put the old prefix. It is just a small change and now you have connected your database with your file system.

Now you have successfully migrated to new hosting. I prefer to use siteground for wordpress hosting. You must check my review on Siteground.