How To Host Or Migrate A Website In 2025: Factors That May Break Rankings [+ Checklist] via @sejournal, @inmotionhosting

This post was sponsored by InMotion Hosting. The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor’s own.

Is your website struggling to maintain visibility in search results despite your SEO efforts?

Are your Core Web Vitals scores inconsistent, no matter how many optimizations you implement?

Have you noticed competitors outranking you even when your content seems superior?

In 2025, hosting isn’t just a backend choice. It’s a ranking signal.

In this guide, you’ll learn how hosting decisions impact your ability to rank, and how to choose (or migrate to) hosting that helps your visibility.

Learn to work with your rankings, not against them, with insights from InMotion Hosting’s enterprise SEO specialists.

Jump Straight To Your Needs

Best For Hosting Type How Easy is Migration?
Growing SMBs VPS Easy: Launch Assist (free)
Enterprise / SaaS Dedicated Very Easy: White-Glove + Managed Service

Don’t know which one you need? Read on.

Hosting Directly Impacts SEO Performance

Your hosting environment is the foundation of your SEO efforts. Poor hosting can undermine even the best content and keyword strategies.

Key Areas That Hosting Impacts

Core Web Vitals

Server response time directly affects Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) and First Input Delay (FID), two critical ranking factors.

Solution: Hosting with NVMe storage and sufficient RAM improves these metrics.

Crawl Budget

Your website’s visibility to search engines can be affected by limited server resources, wrong settings, and firewalls that restrict access.

When search engines encounter these issues, they index fewer pages and visit your site less often.

Solution: Upgrade to a hosting provider that’s built for SEO performance and consistent uptime.

Indexation Success

Proper .htaccess rules for redirects, error handling, and DNS configurations are essential for search engines to index your content effectively.

Many hosting providers limit your ability to change this important file, restricting you from:

– Editing your .htaccess file.

– Installing certain SEO or security plugins.

– Adjusting server settings.

These restrictions can hurt your site’s ability to be indexed and affect your overall SEO performance.

Solution: VPS and dedicated hosting solutions give you full access to these settings.

SERP Stability During Traffic Spikes

If your content goes viral or experiences a temporary surge in traffic, poor hosting can cause your site to crash or slow down significantly. This can lead to drops in your rankings if not addressed right away.

Solution: Using advanced caching mechanisms can help prevent these problems.

Server Security

Google warns users about sites with security issues in Search Console. Warnings like “Social Engineering Detected” can erode user trust and hurt your rankings.

Solution: Web Application Firewalls offer important protection against security threats.

Server Location

The location of your server affects how fast your site loads for different users, which can influence your rankings.

Solution: Find a web host that operates data centers in multiple server locations, such as two in the United States, one in Amsterdam, and, soon, one in Singapore. This helps reduce loading times for users worldwide.

Load Times

Faster-loading pages lead to lower bounce rates, which can improve your SEO. [Server-side optimizations], such as caching and compression, are vital for achieving fast load times.

These factors have always been important, but they are even more critical now that AI plays a role in search engine results.

40 Times Faster Page Speeds with Top Scoring Core Web Vitals with InMotion Hosting UltraStack One. (Source: InMotion Hosting UltraStack One for WordPress )Image created by InMotion Hosting, 2025.

2025 Update: Search Engines Are Prioritizing Hosting & Technical Performance More Than Ever

In 2025, search engines have fully embraced AI-driven results, and with this shift has come an increased emphasis on technical performance signals that only proper hosting can deliver.

How 2025 AI Overview SERPs Affect Your Website’s Technical SEO

Google is doubling down on performance signals. Its systems now place even greater weight on:

  • Uptime: Sites with frequent server errors due to outages experience more ranking fluctuations than in previous years. 99.99% uptime guarantees are now essential.
  • Server-Side Rendering: As JavaScript frameworks become more prevalent, servers that efficiently handle rendering deliver a better user experience and improved Core Web Vitals scores. Server-optimized JS rendering can make a difference.
  • Trust Scores: Servers free of malware with healthy dedicated IP addresses isolated to just your site (rather than shared with potentially malicious sites) receive better crawling and indexing treatment. InMotion Hosting’s security-first approach helps maintain these crucial trust signals.
  • Content Freshness: Server E-Tags and caching policies affect how quickly Google recognizes and indexes new or updated content.
  • TTFB (Time To First Byte): Server location, network stability, and input/output speeds all impact TTFB. Servers equipped with NVMe storage technology excel at I/O speeds, delivering faster data retrieval and improved SERP performance.
Infographic Illustrating How Browser Caching Works (Source: Ultimate Guide to Optimize WordPress Performance )Created by InMotion Hosting. May, 2025

Modern search engines utilize AI models that prioritize sites that deliver consistent, reliable, and fast data. This shift means hosting that can render pages quickly is no longer optional for competitive rankings.

What You Can Do About It (Even If You’re Not Into Technical SEO)

You don’t need to be a server administrator to improve your website’s performance. Here’s what you can do.

1. Choose Faster Hosting

Upgrade from shared hosting to VPS or dedicated hosting with NVMe storage. InMotion Hosting’s plans are specifically designed to boost SEO performance.

2. Use Monitoring Tools

Free tools like UptimeRobot.com, WordPress plugins, or cPanel’s resource monitoring can alert you to performance issues before they affect your rankings.

3. Implement Server-Side Caching

Set up caching with Redis or Memcached using WordPress plugins like W3 Total Cache, or through cPanel.

4. Add a CDN

Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) can enhance global performance without needing server changes. InMotion Hosting makes CDN integration easy.

5. Utilize WordPress Plugins

Use LLMS.txt files to help AI tools crawl your site more effectively.

6. Work with Hosting Providers Who Understand SEO

InMotion Hosting offers managed service packages for thorough server optimization, tailored for optimal SEO performance.

Small Business: VPS Hosting Is Ideal for Reliable Performance on a Budget

VPS hosting is every growing business’s secret SEO weapon.

Imagine two competing local service businesses, both with similar content and backlink profiles, but one uses shared hosting while the other uses a VPS.

When customers search for services, the VPS-hosted site consistently appears higher in results because it loads faster and delivers a smoother user experience.

What Counts as an SMB

Small to medium-sized businesses typically have fewer than 500 employees, annual revenue under $100 million, and websites that receive up to 50,000 monthly visitors.

If your business falls into this category, VPS hosting offers the ideal balance of performance and cost.

What You Get With VPS Hosting

1. Fast Speeds with Less Competition

VPS hosting gives your website dedicated resources, unlike shared hosting where many sites compete for the same resources. InMotion Hosting’s VPS solutions ensure your site runs smoothly with optimal resource allocation.

2. More Control Over SEO

With VPS hosting, you can easily set up caching, SSL, and security features that affect SEO. Full root access enables you to have complete control over your server environment.

3. Affordable for Small Businesses Focused on SEO

VPS hosting provides high-quality performance at a lower cost than dedicated servers, making it a great option for growing businesses.

4. Reliable Uptime

InMotion Hosting’s VPS platform guarantees 99.99% uptime through triple replication across multiple nodes. If one node fails, two copies of your site will keep it running.

5. Better Performance for Core Web Vitals

Dedicated CPU cores and RAM lead to faster loading times and improved Core Web Vitals scores. You can monitor server resources to keep track of performance.

6. Faster Connections

Direct links to major internet networks improve TTFB (Time To First Byte), an important SEO measure.

7. Strong Security Tools

InMotion Hosting provides security measures to protect your site against potential threats that could harm it and negatively impact your search rankings. Their malware prevention systems keep your site safe.

How To Set Up VPS Hosting For Your SEO-Friendly Website

  1. Assess your website’s current performance using tools like Google PageSpeed Insights and Search Console
  2. Choose a VPS plan that matches your traffic volume and resource needs
  3. Work with your provider’s migration team to transfer your site (InMotion Hosting offers Launch Assist for seamless transitions)
  4. Implement server-level caching for optimal performance
  5. Configure your SSL certificate to ensure secure connections
  6. Set up performance monitoring to track improvements
  7. Update DNS settings to point to your new server

Large & Enterprise Businesses: Dedicated Hosting Is Perfect For Scaling SEO

What Counts As An Enterprise Business?

Enterprise businesses typically have complex websites with over 1,000 pages, receive more than 100,000 monthly visitors, operate multiple domains or subdomains, or run resource-intensive applications that serve many concurrent users.

Benefits of Dedicated Hosting

Control Over Server Settings

Dedicated hosting provides you with full control over how your server is configured. This is important for enterprise SEO, which often needs specific settings to work well.

Better Crawlability for Large Websites

More server resources allow search engines to crawl more pages quickly. This helps ensure your content gets indexed on time. Advanced server logs provide insights to help you improve crawl patterns.

Reliable Uptime for Global Users

Enterprise websites need to stay online. Dedicated hosting offers reliable service that meets the expectations of users around the world.

Strong Processing Power for Crawlers

Dedicated CPU resources provide the power needed to handle spikes from search engine crawlers when they index your site. InMotion Hosting uses the latest Intel Xeon processors for better performance.

Multiple Dedicated IP Addresses

Having multiple dedicated IP addresses is important for businesses and SaaS platforms that offer API microservices. IP management tools make it easier to manage these addresses.

Custom Security Controls

You can create specific firewall rules and access lists to manage traffic and protect against bots. DDoS protection systems enhance your security.

Real-Time Server Logs

You can watch for crawl surges and performance issues as they happen with detailed server logs. Log analysis tools help you find opportunities to improve.

Load Balancing for Traffic Management

Load balancing helps spread traffic evenly across resources. This way, you can handle increases in traffic without slowing down performance. InMotion Hosting provides strong load balancing solutions.

Future Scalability

You can use multiple servers and networks to manage traffic and resources as your business grows. Scalable infrastructure planning keeps your performance ready for the future.

Fixed Pricing Plans

You can manage costs effectively as you grow with predictable pricing plans.

How To Migrate To Dedicated Hosting

  1. Conduct a thorough site audit to identify all content and technical requirements.
  2. Document your current configuration, including plugins, settings, and custom code.
  3. Work with InMotion Hosting’s migration specialists to plan the transition
  4. Set up a staging environment to test the new configuration before going live
  5. Configure server settings for optimal SEO performance
  6. Implement monitoring tools to track key metrics during and after migration
  7. Create a detailed redirect map for any URL changes
  8. Roll out the migration during low-traffic periods to minimize impact
  9. Verify indexing status in Google Search Console post-migration

[DOWNLOAD] Website Migration Checklist

Free Website Migration Checklist download from InMotion Hosting – step-by-step guide to smoothly transfer your websiteImage created by InMotion Hosting, May 2025

    Why Shared Hosting Can Kill Your SERP Rankings & Core Web Vitals

    If you’re serious about SEO in 2025, shared hosting is a risk that doesn’t come with rewards.

    Shared Hosting Issues & Risks

    Capped Resource Environments

    Shared hosting plans typically impose strict limits on CPU usage, memory, and connections. These limitations directly impact Core Web Vitals scores and can lead to temporary site suspensions during traffic spikes.

    Resource Competition

    Every website on a shared server competes for the same limited resources.

    This becomes even more problematic with AI bots accessing hundreds of sites simultaneously on a single server.

    Neighbor Problems

    A resource-intensive website on your shared server can degrade performance for all sites, including yours. Isolated hosting environments eliminate this risk.

    Collateral Damage During Outages

    When a shared server becomes overwhelmed, not only does your website go down, but so do connected services like domains and email accounts. InMotion Hosting’s VPS and dedicated solutions provide isolation from these cascading failures.

    Limited Access to Server Logs

    Without detailed server logs, diagnosing and resolving technical SEO issues becomes nearly impossible. Advanced log analysis is essential for optimization.

    Restricted Configuration Access

    Shared hosting typically prevents modifications to server-level configurations that are essential for optimizing technical SEO.

    Inability to Adapt Quickly

    Shared environments limit your ability to implement emerging SEO techniques, particularly those designed to effectively handle AI crawlers. Server-level customization is increasingly important for SEO success.

    In 2025, Reliable Hosting Is a Competitive Advantage

    As search engines place greater emphasis on technical performance, your hosting choice is no longer just an IT decision; it’s a strategic marketing investment.

    InMotion Hosting’s VPS and Dedicated Server solutions are engineered specifically to address the technical SEO challenges of 2025 and beyond. With NVMe-powered storage, optimized server configurations, and 24/7 expert human support, we provide the foundation your site needs to achieve and maintain top rankings.

    Ready to turn your hosting into an SEO advantage? Learn more about our SEO-first hosting solutions designed for performance and scale.


    Image Credits

    Featured Image: Image by Shutterstock. Used with permission.

    In-Post Image: Images by InMotion Hosting. Used with permission.

    Google’s Martin Splitt: JavaScript-Loaded Images Can Be Indexed via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

    Google’s Developer Advocate Martin Splitt recently debunked a common SEO myth. He confirmed that images loaded with JavaScript can be indexed by Google when set up correctly.

    Splitt shared these insights during the SEO for Paws Conference, a live-streamed fundraiser by Anton Shulke.

    Here’s how to avoid common image indexing issues when loading images with JavaScript.

    JavaScript Image Loading Isn’t the Problem

    When asked about images loaded by JavaScript, Splitt clarified that the method is not to blame for indexing issues.

    Splitt explains:

    “JavaScript to load images is fine. A purely JavaScript image loading solution can absolutely get your images indexed.”

    This comment clears up worries among many SEO pros. Images may not appear in Google Images for reasons other than using JavaScript.

    The Real Culprits Behind Unindexed Images

    Splitt explained that something else is usually wrong if JavaScript-loaded images don’t appear in search results.

    He pointed to a few common issues:

    • Sitemap Problems: Sometimes, key images are missing from XML sitemaps.
    • HTTP Headers: Some image files may have headers that stop them from being indexed.
    • Rendered HTML Issues: If images don’t appear in the rendered HTML (the version Google sees after JavaScript runs), they won’t get indexed.

    Debugging JavaScript Image Indexing Issues

    Splitt offers a simple process to spot problems. Start by checking if images appear in the rendered HTML using tools like Search Console’s URL Inspection tool.

    Splitt explains:

    “You would have to check: is the rendered HTML containing the images? If it is, fantastic. If it’s not, then something else is off.”

    Since Google indexes the rendered HTML, any image missing from it won’t be found by Googlebot.

    See Splitt’s full talk on JavaScript SEO in the video below:

    Common JavaScript Image Loading Techniques & Their SEO Impact

    There are several ways to load images with JavaScript. Some common methods include:

    • Lazy Loading: Loads images only when needed.
    • Progressive Loading: Shows a low-quality image first, then upgrades to a high-quality one.
    • Infinite Scroll Loading: Loads images as users continue to scroll.
    • Background Image Insertion: Adds images through CSS backgrounds.

    If they are set up properly, all these methods can work with Google’s indexing. Each may need its own checks to ensure everything is working as expected.

    Best Practices for SEO-Friendly JavaScript Image Loading

    Even though JavaScript-loaded images can be indexed, following these best practices can help avoid issues:

    • Verify with the URL Inspection Tool: Ensure images appear in the rendered HTML.
    • Update Your XML Sitemaps: Include key images with proper tags.
    • Use Alt Text: Provide clear alt text for images loaded via JavaScript.
    • Use Native Lazy Loading: Add the loading="lazy" attribute where it makes sense.
    • Check Robots.txt: Ensure you are not blocking JavaScript resources that load images.

    What This Means for SEO Professionals

    Instead of avoiding JavaScript, verify that images are loaded correctly and appear in the rendered HTML.

    As websites rely more on JavaScript, understanding these details is key. SEO professionals who learn to troubleshoot and optimize JavaScript-based image loading will be better prepared to support their clients’ visibility in search results.

    Looking Ahead

    This clarification is timely. Many modern sites built with frameworks like React, Vue, or Angular load images using JavaScript instead of traditional tags.

    Splitt’s insights help dispel the myth that JavaScript harms image indexing. Developers can now focus on performance without worrying about SEO penalties.


    Featured Image: Alicia97/Shutterstock

    AI Crawlers Are Reportedly Draining Site Resources & Skewing Analytics via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

    Website operators across the web are reporting increased activity from AI web crawlers. This surge raises concerns about site performance, analytics, and server resources.

    These bots consume significant bandwidth to collect data for large language models, which could impact performance metrics relevant to search rankings.

    Here’s what you need to know.

    How AI Crawlers May Affect Site Performance

    SEO professionals regularly optimize for traditional search engine crawlers, but the growing presence of AI crawlers from companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Amazon presents new technical considerations.

    Several site operators have reported performance issues and increased server loads directly attributable to AI crawler activity.

    “SourceHut continues to face disruptions due to aggressive LLM crawlers,” reported the git-hosting service on its status page.

    In response, SourceHut has “unilaterally blocked several cloud providers, including GCP [Google Cloud] and [Microsoft] Azure, for the high volumes of bot traffic originating from their networks.”

    Data from cloud hosting service Vercel shows the scale of this traffic: OpenAI’s GPTBot generated 569 million requests in a single month, while Anthropic’s Claude accounted for 370 million.

    These AI crawlers represented about 20 percent of Google’s search crawler volume during the same period.

    The Potential Impact On Analytics Data

    Significant bot traffic can affect analytics data.

    According to DoubleVerify, an ad metrics firm, “general invalid traffic – aka GIVT, bots that should not be counted as ad views – rose by 86 percent in the second half of 2024 due to AI crawlers.”

    The firm noted that “a record 16 percent of GIVT from known-bot impressions in 2024 were generated by those that are associated with AI scrapers, such as GPTBot, ClaudeBot and AppleBot.”

    The Read the Docs project found that blocking AI crawlers decreased their traffic by 75 percent, from 800GB to 200GB daily, saving approximately $1,500 per month in bandwidth costs.

    Identifying AI Crawler Patterns

    Understanding AI crawler behavior can help with traffic analysis.

    What makes AI crawlers different from traditional bots is their frequency and depth of access. While search engine crawlers typically follow predictable patterns, AI crawlers exhibit more aggressive behaviors.

    Dennis Schubert, who maintains infrastructure for the Diaspora social network, observed that AI crawlers “don’t just crawl a page once and then move on. Oh, no, they come back every 6 hours because lol why not.”

    This repeated crawling multiplies the resource consumption, as the same pages are accessed repeatedly without a clear rationale.

    Beyond frequency, AI crawlers are more thorough, exploring more content than typical visitors.

    Drew DeVault, founder of SourceHut, noted that crawlers access “every page of every git log, and every commit in your repository,” which can be particularly resource-intensive for content-heavy sites.

    While the high traffic volume is concerning, identifying and managing these crawlers presents additional challenges.

    As crawler technology evolves, traditional blocking methods prove increasingly ineffective.

    Software developer Xe Iaso noted, “It’s futile to block AI crawler bots because they lie, change their user agent, use residential IP addresses as proxies, and more.”

    Balancing Visibility With Resource Management

    Website owners and SEO professionals face a practical consideration: managing resource-intensive crawlers while maintaining visibility for legitimate search engines.

    To determine if AI crawlers are significantly impacting your site:

    • Review server logs for unusual traffic patterns, especially from cloud provider IP ranges
    • Look for spikes in bandwidth usage that don’t correspond with user activity
    • Check for high traffic to resource-intensive pages like archives or API endpoints
    • Monitor for unusual patterns in your Core Web Vitals metrics

    Several options are available for those impacted by excessive AI crawler traffic.

    Google introduced a solution called Google-Extended in the robots.txt file. This allows websites to stop having their content used to train Google’s Gemini and Vertex AI services while still allowing those sites to show up in search results.

    Cloudflare recently announced “AI Labyrinth,” explaining, “When we detect unauthorized crawling, rather than blocking the request, we will link to a series of AI-generated pages that are convincing enough to entice a crawler to traverse them.”

    Looking Ahead

    As AI integrates into search and discovery, SEO professionals should manage crawlers carefully.

    Here are some practical next steps:

    1. Audit server logs to assess AI crawler impact on your specific sites
    2. Consider implementing Google-Extended in robots.txt to maintain search visibility while limiting AI training access
    3. Adjust analytics filters to separate bot traffic for more accurate reporting
    4. For severely affected sites, investigate more advanced mitigation options

    Most websites will do fine with standard robots.txt files and monitoring. However, high-traffic sites may benefit from more advanced solutions.


    Featured Image: Lightspring/Shutterstock

    9 Trends You Should Watch To Keep Your Website Afloat in 2025

    This post was sponsored by Bluehost. The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor’s own.

    Is my website ready for 2025’s tech and SEO changes?

    How can I keep my site fast, secure, and user-friendly?

    What makes a hosting provider future-proof?

    In 2025, the extent to which you adapt to emerging technologies, changing user expectations, and evolving search engine algorithms will determine if you’ll thrive or struggle to stay relevant.

    Staying ahead of emerging trends is essential for maintaining a fast, secure, and user-friendly website.

    Optimizing performance, strengthening security measures, and enhancing user experience will be key factors in staying competitive.

    The first step to ensuring your website remains resilient and future-ready is choosing a reliable hosting provider with scalable infrastructure and built-in optimization tools.

    1. AI-Powered User Experience

    Artificial intelligence has transformed how websites interact with visitors, making online experiences more personalized, engaging, and efficient.

    Use AI For Higher Conversion Rates

    AI-driven personalization allows websites to deliver tailored content and product recommendations based on user behavior, preferences, and past interactions to create an intuitive experience.

    The result? Visitors remain engaged, increasing conversions.

    Chatbots and AI-powered customer support are also becoming essential for websites looking to provide instant, 24/7 assistance.

    These tools answer common questions, guide users through a website, and even process transactions, reducing the need for human intervention while improving response times.

    And they’re gaining in popularity.

    71% of businesses in a recent survey either already have a chatbot integrated into their sites and customer service processes or plan to get one in the near future.

    And they’re reaping the benefits of this technology; 24% of businesses with a chatbot already installed report excellent ROI.

    Use AI For Speeding Up Website Implementation

    AI is also revolutionizing content creation and website design.

    Based on user data, automated tools can generate blog posts, optimize layouts, and suggest design improvements.

    This streamlines website management, making it easier for you to maintain a professional and visually appealing online presence.

    For example, many hosting providers now include AI-powered website builders, offering tools that assist with design and customization. These features, such as responsive templates and automated suggestions, can make building and optimizing a website more efficient.

    2. Voice Search & Conversational Interfaces

    Voice search is becoming a major factor in how users interact with the web, with more people relying on smart speakers, mobile assistants, and voice-activated search to find information.

    To put this into perspective, ChatGPT from OpenAI reportedly holds 60% of the generative AI market, performing more than one billion searches daily. If just 1% of those are via its voice search, that equates to 10 million voice searches every day on ChatGPT alone.

    Reports estimate 20.5% of people globally use voice search daily. And these numbers are increasing.

    You need to adapt by optimizing for conversational SEO and natural language queries, which tend to be longer and more specific, making long-tail keywords and question-based content more important than ever.

    To stay ahead, websites should structure content in a way that mimics natural conversation:

    • FAQ-style pages.
    • Featured snippet optimization.
    • Ensuring fast-loading, mobile-friendly experiences.

    If this is an upgrade that makes sense for your industry, be sure that your host supports SEO-friendly themes and plugins that help websites rank for voice queries.

    3. Core Web Vitals & SEO Best Practices

    Google continues to refine its ranking algorithms, with Core Web Vitals playing a critical role in determining search visibility.

    Implement Core Web Vital Data & Monitor Website Speed

    These performance metrics, Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), measure how quickly a page loads, how responsive it is, and how stable its layout appears to users.

    Websites that meet these benchmarks not only rank higher in search results but also provide a better overall user experience.

    One study found that pages ranking in the top spots in the SERPs were 10% more likely to pass CWV scores than URLs in position 9.

    Ensure Your Website Is Faster Than Your Competitors To Rank Higher

    As part of the prioritization of performance, mobile-first approach remains essential; Google prioritizes sites that are fast and responsive on smartphones and tablets.

    Ensuring faster load times through optimized images, efficient coding, and proper caching techniques can make a significant impact on search rankings.

    Leverage Structured Data To Tell Google What Your Website Is About

    Structured data, on the other hand, helps search engines better understand a website’s content, improving the chances of appearing in rich snippets and voice search results.

    4. Mobile-First & Adaptive Design

    With mobile devices accounting for the majority of web traffic, mobile optimization remains a top priority in 2025.

    Google’s mobile-first indexing means that search engines primarily evaluate the mobile version of a site when determining rankings.

    A website that isn’t optimized for mobile results in overall poor performance, lower search rankings, and a frustrating user experience.

    To keep up, many websites are adopting:

    • Adaptive design – Ensures that websites adjust dynamically to different screen sizes, providing an optimal layout on any device.
    • Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) – Combine the best features of websites and mobile apps, offering faster load times, offline capabilities, and app-like functionality without requiring a download.

    Best practices for a seamless mobile experience include responsive design, fast-loading pages, and touch-friendly navigation.

    Optimizing images, minimizing pop-ups, and using mobile-friendly fonts and buttons can also greatly enhance usability.

    5. Enhanced Website Security & Data Privacy

    Cyber threats are becoming more sophisticated.

    You must take proactive measures to protect your websites from attacks, data breaches, and unauthorized access.

    Implementing strong security protocols not only safeguards sensitive information but also builds trust with visitors.

    Key security measures include:

    • SSL certificates – Encrypt data transmitted between users and a website, ensuring secure connections—something that search engines and users now expect as a standard feature.
    • Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) – Adds an extra layer of security by requiring multiple verification steps before granting access, reducing the risk of compromised credentials.
    • Zero-trust security models – Ensures that all access requests, even from within a network, are continuously verified, minimizing potential security gaps.

    Beyond technical defenses, compliance with evolving privacy laws such as GDPR and CCPA is essential.

    You must be transparent about how they collect, store, and process user data, providing clear consent options and maintaining privacy policies that align with current regulations.

    6. Sustainability & Green Web Hosting

    Every website, server, and data center requires energy to function, contributing to global carbon emissions.

    Optimizing websites through lighter code, efficient caching, and reduced server load also plays a role in minimizing environmental impact.

    Choosing a hosting provider that values sustainability is an important step toward a greener web.

    For example, Bluehost has taken steps to improve energy efficiency, ensuring that website owners can maintain high-performance sites while supporting environmentally friendly initiatives.

    7. AI-Generated & Interactive Content

    AI tools can assist in creating blog posts, product descriptions, and videos with minimal manual input, helping businesses maintain a steady content flow efficiently.

    Beyond static content, interactive features like quizzes, calculators, and AR are becoming key for user engagement.

    These elements encourage participation, increasing time on site and improving conversions.

    To integrate interactive features smoothly, a hosting provider that supports interactive plugins and flexible tools can help keep websites engaging and competitive.

    8. The Role of Blockchain in Web Security

    Blockchain is emerging as a tool for web hosting and cybersecurity, enhancing data security, decentralization, and content authenticity.

    Unlike traditional hosting, decentralized networks distribute website data across multiple nodes, reducing risks like downtime, censorship, and cyberattacks. Blockchain-powered domains also add security by making ownership harder to manipulate.

    Beyond hosting, blockchain improves data verification by storing information in a tamper-proof ledger, benefiting ecommerce, digital identity verification, and intellectual property protection.

    9. The Importance of Reliable Web Hosting

    No matter how advanced a website is, it’s only as strong as the hosting infrastructure behind it. In 2025, website performance and uptime will remain critical factors for success, impacting everything from user experience to search engine rankings and business revenue.

    Scalable hosting solutions play a crucial role in handling traffic spikes, ensuring that websites remain accessible during high-demand periods.

    Whether it’s an ecommerce store experiencing a surge in holiday traffic or a viral blog post drawing in thousands of visitors, having a hosting plan that adapts to these changes is essential.

    Reliable hosting providers help mitigate these challenges by offering scalable infrastructure, 100% SLA uptime guarantees, and built-in performance optimizations to keep websites running smoothly.

    Features like VPS and dedicated hosting provide additional resources for growing businesses, ensuring that increased traffic doesn’t compromise speed or stability. Investing in a hosting solution that prioritizes reliability and scalability helps safeguard a website’s long-term success.

    Future-Proof Your Website Today

    The digital landscape is changing fast, and staying ahead is essential to staying competitive.

    From AI-driven personalization to enhanced security and sustainable hosting, adapting to new trends ensures your site remains fast, secure, and engaging. Investing in performance and user experience isn’t optional, it’s the key to long-term success.

    Whether launching a new site or optimizing an existing one, the right hosting provider makes all the difference.

    Bluehost offers reliable, high-performance hosting with built-in security, scalability, and guaranteed uptime, so your website is ready for the future.

    Get started today and build a website designed to thrive.


    Image Credits

    Featured Image: Image by Bluehost. Used with permission.

    Google Reveals How It Prefetches Search Results For Faster Loading via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

    Google has shared new details on how it uses the Speculation Rules API to speed up clicks on search results.

    When searching in Chrome, Google preloads parts of a webpage before you click, leading to faster load times.

    Here’s an overview of how it works and the benefits Google has observed.

    How Prefetching Works

    Google loads the top two search results before you click them. When you see the results on the screen, your browser automatically fetches these links.

    If you click on one, it will already be partially loaded, reducing your wait time.

    Google explains:

    “Google Search has been making use of the Speculation Rules API to improve navigation speed from the search results page to the result links and they’ve been using a few features of the API that may be of interest to other site owners.”

    Early on, one of Google’s primary tactics was:

    “One of the first uses of speculation rules was to prefetch the first two search results.”

    In other words, your browser quietly fetches the HTML from the top search results as soon as you land on the results page, giving you a head start if you decide to click.

    Performance Gains

    Tests show a noticeable speed boost.

    On Chrome for Android, Google recorded a 67-millisecond drop in Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), while Desktop Chrome users saw a 58.6-millisecond improvement.

    Beyond prefetching the top two results, Google selectively prefetches other results when a user’s cursor hovers over them on desktop:

    “[The Speculation Rules API] was enhanced with an eagerness property that allows speculations to only happen when the user hovers on, or starts to click a link. Google Search decided to move beyond the first two search results and also prefetch remaining search results—but only when the user hovers over the link…”

    The hover action triggers a moderate prefetch, saving bandwidth for links that might not be clicked.

    Mobile devices, however, lack hover functionality, so Google didn’t see the same benefits there.

    Future Experiments & Browser Support

    Google is exploring prerendering entire search results pages (SERPs) in certain scenarios, such as when you start typing a search in Chrome’s address bar.

    Other search engines can adopt this technology, too, but Google remains the main implementer for now.

    The Speculation Rules API currently works in Chromium-based browsers like Chrome.

    Why This Matters

    Prefetching can shave critical milliseconds off your page load time.

    Google notes that even slight speed boosts matter, especially with billions of daily searches.

    If your audience primarily uses Chrome, you could see performance gains by implementing the Speculation Rules API on your site.


    Featured Image: Thaspol Sangsee/Shutterstock

    10 Hosting Trends Agencies Should Watch In 2025

    This post was sponsored by Bluehost. The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor’s own.

    Which hosting service is best for agencies?

    How do I uncover what will be best for my clients in 2025?

    What features should my hosting service have in 2025?

    Hosting has evolved well beyond keeping websites online.

    Hosting providers must align their services to meet clients’ technological needs and keep up with constantly changing technological advances.

    Today, quality hosting companies must focus on speed, security, and scalability. Staying ahead of hosting trends is critical to maintaining competitive offerings, optimizing workflows, and meeting client demands.

    So, what should you watch for in 2025?

    The next 12 months promise significant shifts in hosting technologies, with advancements in AI, automation, security, and sustainability leading the way.

    Understanding and leveraging these trends enables agencies and professionals to provide better client experiences, streamline operations, and reduce the negative effects of future industry changes.

    Trend 1: Enhanced AI & Automation Implemented In Hosting

    AI and automation are already transforming hosting, making it smarter and more efficient for service providers, agencies, brands, and end-point customers alike.

    Hosting providers now leverage AI to optimize server performance, predict maintenance needs, and even supplement customer support with AI-driven features like chatbots.

    As a result, automating routine tasks such as backups, updates, and resource scaling reduces downtime and the need for manual intervention. These innovations are game-changing for those managing multiple client sites and will become increasingly important in 2025.

    It only makes sense.

    Automated systems free up valuable time, allowing you more time to focus on strategic growth instead of tedious maintenance tasks. AI-powered insights can also identify performance bottlenecks, enabling you to address issues before they impact your website or those of your clients.

    Agencies that adopt these technologies this year will not only deliver exceptional service but also be able to position themselves as forward-thinking.

    Bluehost embraces automation with features like automated backups, one-click updates, and a centralized dashboard for easy site management. These tools streamline workflows, enabling agencies and professionals to manage multiple sites with minimal effort while ensuring optimal performance.

    Trend 2: Multi-Cloud & Hybrid Cloud Solutions Are Now Essential

    In 2025, as businesses demand more flexibility and reliability from their online infrastructure, multi-cloud and hybrid cloud solutions will become essential in the hosting world.

    These approaches offer the best of both worlds:

    • The ability to leverage multiple cloud providers for redundancy and performance.
    • The option to combine public and private cloud environments for greater control and customization.

    For agencies managing diverse client needs, multi-cloud and hybrid cloud strategies provide the scalability and adaptability required to meet modern demands. Multi-cloud solutions allow agencies to distribute their clients’ workloads across multiple cloud providers, ensuring that no single point of failure disrupts their operations.

    This feature is particularly valuable for agencies with high-traffic websites, where downtime or slow performance can have a significant impact on revenue and user experience. Hybrid cloud solutions, on the other hand, let agencies blend the scalability of public clouds with the security and control of private cloud environments.

    This service is ideal for clients with sensitive data or compliance requirements, such as ecommerce or healthcare businesses.

    Bluehost Cloud provides scalable infrastructure and tools that enable agencies to customize hosting solutions to fit their clients’ unique requirements. Our cloud hosting solution’s elastic architecture ensures that websites can handle sudden traffic spikes without compromising speed or reliability.

    Additionally, our intuitive management dashboard allows agencies to easily monitor and allocate resources across their client portfolio, making it simple to implement tailored solutions for varying workloads.

    By adopting multi-cloud and hybrid cloud strategies, agencies can offer their clients enhanced performance, improved redundancy, and greater control over their hosting environments.

    With our scalable solutions and robust toolset, agencies can confidently deliver hosting that grows with their clients’ businesses while maintaining consistent quality and reliability. This flexibility not only meets today’s hosting demands but also helps position your agency for long-term success in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.

    Trend 3: Edge Computing & CDNs Replace AMP For Improving Website Speed

    As online audiences grow, the demand for faster, more responsive websites has never been higher. Edge computing and Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) are at the forefront of this evolution, enabling websites to reduce latency significantly. For agencies managing clients with diverse and international audiences, these technologies are crucial for improving user experience and ensuring website performance remains competitive.

    Edge computing brings data processing closer to the end user by leveraging servers located at the “edge” of a network, reducing the time it takes for information to travel.

    Combined with CDNs that cache website content on servers worldwide, these technologies ensure faster load times, smoother navigation, and better performance metrics.

    These features are especially beneficial for media-heavy or high-traffic websites, where even a slight delay can impact engagement and conversions.

    Bluehost integrates with leading CDN solutions to deliver content quickly and efficiently to users across the globe. By leveraging a CDN, Bluehost ensures that websites load faster regardless of a visitor’s location, enhancing user experience and SEO performance.

    This integration simplifies the optimization of site speed for agencies with multiple clients. By adopting edge computing and CDN technology, you can help your clients achieve faster load times, improved site stability, and higher customer satisfaction.

    Bluehost’s seamless CDN integration enables you to deliver a hosting solution that meets the expectations of a modern, global audience while building trust and loyalty with your clients.

    Trend 4: Core Web Vitals & SEO Hosting Features Make Or Break Websites

    Core Web Vitals play an important role in today’s SEO, as Google is increasingly emphasizing website performance and user experience in its ranking algorithms. Today, loading speed, interactivity, and visual stability impact a site’s ability to rank well in search results and keep visitors engaged.

    That means optimizing Core Web Vitals isn’t just an SEO task for agencies managing client websites. Fast load times and responsive design are critical parts of delivering a high-quality digital experience. For example, metrics like Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), which measures how quickly a page’s main content loads, depend heavily on hosting infrastructure.

    Agencies need hosting solutions optimized for these metrics to ensure their clients’ sites stay competitive in the SERPs.

    Bluehost offers a WordPress-optimized hosting environment with features specifically designed to improve load times and server response speeds. From advanced caching technology to robust server architecture, Bluehost ensures that sites meet Core Web Vitals standards with ease.

    Additionally, our hosting solutions include tools for monitoring site performance, allowing agencies to proactively address any issues that could impact rankings or user experience.

    By prioritizing Core Web Vitals and leveraging SEO-focused hosting features, agencies can enhance their clients’ visibility, engagement, and overall online success. With Bluehost’s optimized hosting solutions, you’ll have the tools and infrastructure needed to deliver fast, stable, and high-performing websites that delight users and search engines.

    Trend 5: Sustainable Hosting Practices Help Reduce Energy Consumption

    Sustainability is no longer just a buzzword. It’s a key consideration for businesses and agencies alike. As 2025 progresses, more clients will prioritize environmentally conscious practices, and hosting providers will step up to offer greener solutions, such as energy-efficient data centers and carbon offset programs.

    Migrating to a sustainable hosting provider not only supports client values but also demonstrates a commitment to responsible business practices, which will resonate more with consumers in 2025 than ever before.

    Efficient hosting practices reduce energy consumption and create a more sustainable digital ecosystem. It will also allow you to help clients meet their environmental goals without compromising on performance.

    These benefits are especially valuable for clients with higher energy and performance demands, such as those in ecommerce, media-heavy, or high-traffic industries.

    Bluehost has long been recognized as a trusted hosting provider that operates with efficiency in mind.

    Our robust, energy-efficient infrastructure already aligns with the sustainability goals of environmentally conscious clients.

    In addition, our long-standing reputation, proven history with WordPress, and demonstrable reliability enhance your clients’ sustainability objectives, ensuring they can operate responsibly and confidently.

    By choosing sustainable hosting practices and partners like Bluehost, you can contribute to a greener digital future while reinforcing your clients’ environmental commitments and strengthening client relationships by aligning with their values.

    Trend 6: Security Must Be A Core Offering

    Security is a non-negotiable priority for any website. Cyber threats like data breaches, malware, and DDoS attacks are on the rise, and the consequences of a breach, including lost revenue, damaged reputations, and potential legal issues, can devastate clients. As a result, offering secure hosting solutions with proactive security measures is essential to safeguarding clients’ businesses and building trust.

    These key features include SSL certificates, which protect sensitive data while boosting SEO rankings and user trust, and regular malware scans to prevent vulnerabilities.

    They should also include automated backups that enable quick restoration in the event of a crash or attack and provide comprehensive protection and peace of mind. Essential security features are standard in Bluehost hosting plans, including SSL certificates, daily automated backups, and proactive malware scanning.

    These built-in tools eliminate the need for additional solutions, added complexity, or costs. For agencies, our security features reduce risks for your clients and provide peace of mind.

    By choosing a hosting provider like Bluehost, you can prioritize client security, reinforce client trust, and minimize emergencies, allowing you to avoid spending time and resources addressing threats or repairing damage.

    In short, by partnering with Bluehost, security becomes a core part of your agency’s value proposition.

    Trend 7: Hosting Optimized For AI & Machine Learning Is Key To High Visibility On SERPs

    As artificial intelligence and machine learning become increasingly integrated with websites and applications in 2025, hosting providers must keep pace with the increasing demands these technologies place on infrastructure.

    AI-driven tools like chatbots, recommendation engines, and predictive analytics require significant computational power and seamless data processing.

    AI and machine learning applications often involve handling large datasets, running resource-intensive algorithms, and maintaining real-time responsiveness. Hosting optimized for these needs ensures that websites can perform reliably under heavy workloads, reducing latency and downtime and delivering consistent performance.

    If you plan to be successful, you’ll also require scalable scalable hosting solutions. These solutions allow resources to expand dynamically with demand, accommodate growth, and handle traffic surges.

    Bluehost’s scalable hosting is built to support advanced tools and applications, making it an ideal choice for agencies working on AI-driven projects. Our robust infrastructure delivers consistent performance, and flexibility allows you to scale easily as your client’s needs evolve. By leveraging Bluehost, agencies can confidently deliver AI-integrated websites that meet modern performance demands.

    Trend 8: Managed Hosting Helps You Focus More On Profits

    In 2025, websites will become increasingly complex. Businesses will require higher performance and reliability, and everyone will be looking to operate as lean and efficiently as possible. These trends mean managed hosting will become the go-to solution for agencies and their clients.

    Managed hosting shifts time-intensive technical maintenance away from agencies and business owners by including features such as automatic updates, performance monitoring, and enhanced security. In short, managed hosting enables you to simplify workflows, save time, and deliver consistent quality to your clients.

    These hosting services are particularly valuable for WordPress websites, where regular updates, plugin compatibility checks, and security enhancements occur frequently but are essential to maintaining optimal performance.

    Managed hosting also typically includes tools like staging environments, which allow agencies to test changes and updates without risking disruptions to live sites and ensure you can deliver a seamless experience to clients.

    Bluehost offers managed WordPress hosting that includes automatic updates, staging environments, and 24/7 expert support. These features allow you to handle technical details efficiently while focusing on delivering results for your clients without added stress or time.

    Trend 9: The Shift Toward Decentralized Hosting Boosts Your Brand’s Longevity

    In 2025, expect to see decentralized hosting gain attention as a futuristic approach to web hosting. Like Bitcoin and similar advancements, the technology leverages blockchain technology and peer-to-peer networks to create hosting environments that prioritize privacy, resilience, and independence from centralized control.

    While this model appears to provide exciting new opportunities, it’s still in the early stages. It faces challenges in scalability, user-friendliness, and widespread adoption, which agencies can’t typically rely on for client sites.

    Decentralized hosting may become a viable option for specific use cases, such as privacy-focused projects or highly distributed systems. However, centralized hosting providers still offer the best balance of reliability, scalability, and accessibility for most businesses and agencies today.

    For these reasons, agencies managing client websites will continue to focus on proven, reliable hosting solutions that deliver consistent performance and robust support.

    So, while decentralized hosting may gain traction this year, Bluehost will continue to provide a trustworthy hosting environment designed to meet the needs of modern websites. With a strong emphasis on reliability, scalability, and user-friendly management tools, we offer a proven solution agencies can depend on to deliver exceptional client results.

    Trend 10: Scalable Hosting For High-Growth Websites Is Key For Growth

    As businesses grow, their websites will experience increasing traffic and resource demands. High-growth websites, such as e-commerce platforms, content-heavy blogs, or viral marketing campaigns, require hosting solutions that can scale instantly. And scalable hosting is critical to delivering consistent user experiences and avoiding downtime during peak periods.

    Scalable hosting like Bluehost ensures your clients’ websites can easily adjust resources like bandwidth, storage, and processing power to meet fluctuating demands. Our scalable hosting solutions are designed for high-growth websites. Our unmetered bandwidth and infrastructure were built to handle traffic surges, ensuring websites remain fast and accessible.

    These features make us the ideal choice for agencies looking to future-proof their clients’ hosting needs.

    As the digital landscape continues to evolve in 2025, keeping up with the latest trends in hosting is essential for agencies to provide top-tier service, drive client satisfaction, and maintain a competitive edge. From AI and automation to scalability and security, the future of hosting demands flexible, efficient solutions tailored to modern needs.

    By understanding and leveraging these trends, you can position your agency as a trusted partner and deliver exceptional results to your clients, whether by adopting managed hosting or integrating CDNs.

    Bluehost hosting will meet today’s demands while helping to prepare agencies like yours for tomorrow. With features like 100% uptime guaranteed through our Service Level Agreement (SLA), 24/7 priority support, and built-in tools like SSL certificates, automated backups, and advanced caching, Bluehost offers a robust and reliable hosting environment.

    Additionally, Bluehost Cloud makes switching easy and cost-effective with $0 migration costs and credit for remaining contracts, giving you the flexibility to transition seamlessly without the high cost.

    Take your agency’s hosting strategy to the next level with Bluehost. Discover how our comprehensive hosting solutions can support your growth, enhance client satisfaction, and keep your business ahead of the curve.


    Image Credits

    Featured Image: Image by Bluehost. Used with permission.

    Maximize SEO Efforts: How To Fix Website Issues That Drain Time, Money & Performance

    This post was sponsored by Bluehost. The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor’s own.

    Your website’s hosting is more than a technical decision.

    It’s a cornerstone of your business’s online success that impacts everything from site speed and uptime to customer trust and overall branding.

    Yet, many businesses stick with subpar hosting providers, often unaware of how much it’s costing them in time, money, and lost opportunities.

    The reality is that bad hosting doesn’t just frustrate you. It frustrates your customers, hurts conversions, and can even damage your brand reputation.

    The good news?

    Choosing the right host can turn hosting into an investment that works for you, not against you.

    Let’s explore how hosting affects your bottom line, identify common problems, and discuss what features you should look for to maximize your return on investment.

    1. Start By Auditing Your Website’s Hosting Provider

    The wrong hosting provider can quickly eat away at your time & efficiency.

    In fact, time is the biggest cost of an insufficient hosting provider.

    To start out, ask yourself:

    • Is Your Bounce Rate High?
    • Are Customers Not Converting?
    • Is Revenue Down?

    If you answered yes to any of those questions, and no amount of on-page optimization seems to make a difference, it may be time to audit your website host.

    Why Audit Your Web Host?

    Frequent downtime, poor support, and slow server response times can disrupt workflows and create frustration for both your team and your visitors.

    From an SEO & marketing perspective, a sluggish website often leads to:

    • Increased bounce rates.
    • Missed customer opportunities.
    • Wasted time troubleshooting technical issues.

    Could you find workarounds for some of these problems? Sure. But they take time and money, too.

    The more dashboards and tools you use, the more time you spend managing it all, and the more opportunities you’ll miss out on.

    For example, hosts offering integrated domain and hosting management make overseeing your website easier and reduce administrative hassles.

    Bluehost’s integrated domain services simplify website management by bringing all your hosting and domain tools into one intuitive platform.

    2. Check If Your Hosting Provider Is Causing Slow Site Load Speeds

    Your website is often the first interaction a customer has with your brand.

    A fast, reliable website reflects professionalism and trustworthiness.

    Customers associate smooth experiences with strong brands, while frequent glitches or outages send a message that you’re not dependable.

    Your hosting provider should enhance your brand’s reputation, not detract from it.

    How To Identify & Measure Slow Page Load Speeds

    Identifying and measuring slow site and page loading speeds starts with using tools designed to analyze performance, such as Google PageSpeed Insights, GTmetrix, or Lighthouse.

    These tools provide metrics like First Contentful Paint (FCP) and Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), which help you see how quickly key elements of your page load.

    Pay attention to your site’s Time to First Byte (TTFB), a critical indicator of how fast your server responds to requests.

    Regularly test your site’s performance across different devices, browsers, and internet connections to identify bottlenecks. High bounce rates or short average session durations in analytics reports can also hint at speed issues.

    Bandwidth limitations can create bottlenecks for growing websites, especially during traffic spikes.

    How To Find A Fast Hosting Provider

    Opt for hosting providers that offer unmetered or scalable bandwidth to ensure seamless performance even during periods of high demand.

    Cloud hosting is designed to deliver exceptional site and page load speeds, ensuring a seamless experience for your visitors and boosting your site’s SEO.

    With advanced caching technology and optimized server configurations, Bluehost Cloud accelerates content delivery to provide fast, reliable performance even during high-traffic periods.

    Its scalable infrastructure ensures your website maintains consistent speeds as your business grows, while a global Content Delivery Network (CDN) helps reduce latency for users around the world.

    With Bluehost Cloud, you can trust that your site will load quickly and keep your audience engaged.

    3. Check If Your Site Has Frequent Or Prolonged Downtime

    Measuring and identifying downtime starts with having the right tools and a clear understanding of your site’s performance.

    Tools like uptime monitoring services can track when your site is accessible and alert you to outages in real time.

    You should also look at patterns.

    Frequent interruptions or prolonged periods of unavailability are red flags. Check your server logs for error codes and timestamps that indicate when the site was down.

    Tracking how quickly your hosting provider responds and resolves issues is also helpful, as slow resolutions can compound the problem.

    Remember, even a few minutes of downtime during peak traffic hours can lead to lost revenue and customer trust, so understanding and monitoring downtime is critical for keeping your site reliable.

    No matter how feature-packed your hosting provider is, unreliable uptime or poor support can undermine its value. These two factors are critical for ensuring a high-performing, efficient website.

    What Your Hosting Server Should Have For Guaranteed Uptime

    A Service Level Agreement (SLA) guarantees uptime, response time, and resolution time, ensuring that your site remains online and functional. Look for hosting providers that back their promises with a 100% uptime SLA.

    Bluehost Cloud offers a 100% uptime SLA and 24/7 priority support, giving you peace of mind that your website will remain operational and any issues will be addressed promptly.

    Our team of WordPress experts ensures quick resolutions to technical challenges, reducing downtime and optimizing your hosting ROI.

    4. Check Your Host For Security Efficacy

    Strong security measures protect your customers and show them you value their privacy and trust.

    A single security breach can ruin your brand’s image, especially if customer data is compromised.

    Hosts that lack built-in security features like SSL certificates, malware scanning, and regular backups leave your site vulnerable.

    How Hosting Impacts Security

    Security breaches don’t just affect your website. They affect your customers.

    Whether it’s stolen data, phishing attacks, or malware, these breaches can erode trust and cause long-term damage to your business.

    Recovering from a security breach is expensive and time-consuming. It often involves hiring specialists, paying fines, and repairing the damage to your reputation.

    Is Your Hosting Provider Lacking Proactive Security Measures?

    Assessing and measuring security vulnerabilities or a lack of proactive protection measures begins with a thorough evaluation of your hosting provider’s features and practices.

    1. Review Included Security Tools

    Start by reviewing whether your provider includes essential security tools such as SSL certificates, malware scanning, firewalls, and automated backups in their standard offerings.

    If these are missing or come as costly add-ons, your site may already be at risk.

    1. Leverage Brute Force Tools To Check For Vulnerabilities

    Next, use website vulnerability scanning tools like Sucuri, Qualys SSL Labs, or SiteLock to identify potential weaknesses, such as outdated software, unpatched plugins, or misconfigured settings.

    These tools can flag issues like weak encryption, exposed directories, or malware infections.

    Monitor your site for unusual activity, such as unexpected traffic spikes or changes to critical files, which could signal a breach.

    1. Make Sure The Host Also Routinely Scans For & Eliminates Threats

    It’s also crucial to evaluate how your hosting provider handles updates and threat prevention.

    • Do they offer automatic updates to patch vulnerabilities?
    • Do they monitor for emerging threats and take steps to block them proactively?

    A good hosting provider takes a proactive approach to security, offering built-in protections that reduce your risks.

    Look for hosting providers that include automatic SSL encryption, regular malware scans, and daily backups. These features not only protect your site but also give you peace of mind.

    Bluehost offers robust security tools as part of its standard WordPress hosting package, ensuring your site stays protected without extra costs. With built-in SSL certificates and daily backups, Bluehost Cloud keeps your site secure and your customers’ trust intact.

    5. Audit Your WordPress Hosting Provider’s Customer Support

    Is your host delivering limited or inconsistent customer support?

    Limited or inconsistent customer support can turn minor issues into major roadblocks. When hosting providers fail to offer timely, knowledgeable assistance, you’re left scrambling to resolve problems that could have been easily fixed.

    Delayed responses or unhelpful support can lead to prolonged downtime, slower page speeds, and unresolved security concerns, all of which impact your business and reputation.

    Reliable hosting providers should offer 24/7 priority support through multiple channels, such as chat and phone, so you can get expert help whenever you need it.

    Consistent, high-quality support is essential for keeping your website running smoothly and minimizing disruptions.

    Bluehost takes customer service to the next level with 24/7 priority support available via phone, chat, and email. Our team of knowledgeable experts specializes in WordPress, providing quick and effective solutions to keep your site running smoothly.

    Whether you’re troubleshooting an issue, setting up your site, or optimizing performance, Bluehost’s dedicated support ensures you’re never left navigating challenges alone.

    Bonus: Check Your Host For Hidden Costs For Essential Hosting Features

    Hidden costs for essential hosting features like:

    • Backups.
    • SSL certificates.
    • Additional bandwidth can quickly erode the value of a seemingly affordable hosting plan.

    What Does This Look Like?

    For example, daily backups, which are vital for recovery after data loss or cyberattacks, may come with an unexpected monthly fee.

    Similarly, SSL certificates, which are essential for encrypting data and maintaining trust with visitors, are often sold as expensive add-ons.

    If your site experiences traffic spikes, additional bandwidth charges can catch you off guard, adding to your monthly costs.

    Many providers, as you likely have seen, lure customers in with low entry prices, only to charge extra for services that are critical to your website’s functionality and security.

    These hidden expenses not only strain your budget but also create unnecessary complexity in managing your site.

    A reliable hosting provider includes these features as part of their standard offering, ensuring you have the tools you need without the surprise bills.

    Which Hosting Provider Does Not Charge For Essential Features?

    Bluehost is a great option, as their pricing is upfront.

    Bluehost includes crucial tools like daily automated backups, SSL certificates, and unmetered bandwidth in their standard plans.

    This means you won’t face surprise fees for the basic functionalities your website needs to operate securely and effectively.

    Whether you’re safeguarding your site from potential data loss or ensuring encrypted, trustworthy connections for your visitors, or need unmetered bandwidth to ensure your site can handle traffic surges without penalty, you’ll gain the flexibility to scale without worrying about extra charges.

    We even give WordPress users the option to bundle premium plugins together to help you save even more.

    By including these features upfront, Bluehost simplifies your WordPress hosting experience and helps you maintain a predictable budget, freeing you to focus on growing your business instead of worrying about unexpected hosting costs.

    Transitioning To A Better Hosting Solution: What To Consider

    Switching hosting providers might seem daunting, but the right provider can make the process simple and cost-effective. Here are key considerations for transitioning to a better hosting solution:

    Migration Challenges

    Migrating your site to a new host can involve technical hurdles, including transferring content, preserving configurations, and minimizing downtime. A hosting provider with dedicated migration support can make this process seamless.

    Cost of Switching Providers

    Many businesses hesitate to switch hosts due to the cost of ending a contract early. To offset these expenses, search for hosting providers that offer migration incentives, such as contract buyouts or credit for remaining fees.

    Why Bluehost Cloud Stands Out

    Bluehost Cloud provides comprehensive migration support, handling every detail of the transfer to ensure a smooth transition.

    Plus, our migration promotion includes $0 switching costs and credit for remaining contracts, making the move to Bluehost not only hassle-free but also financially advantageous.

    Your hosting provider plays a pivotal role in the success of your WordPress site. By addressing performance issues, integrating essential features, and offering reliable support, you can maximize your hosting ROI and create a foundation for long-term success.

    If your current hosting provider is falling short, it’s time to evaluate your options. Bluehost Cloud delivers performance-focused features, 100% uptime, premium support, and cost-effective migration services, ensuring your WordPress site runs smoothly and efficiently.

    In addition, Bluehost has been a trusted partner of WordPress since 2005, working closely to create a hosting platform tailored to the unique needs of WordPress websites.

    Beyond hosting, Bluehost empowers users through education, offering webinars, masterclasses, and resources like the WordPress Academy to help you maximize your WordPress experience and build successful websites.

    Take control of your website’s performance and ROI. Visit the Bluehost Migration Page to learn how Bluehost Cloud can elevate your hosting experience.

    This article has been sponsored by Bluehost, and the views presented herein represent the sponsor’s perspective.


    Image Credits

    Featured Image: Image by Bluehost. Used with permission.

    7 Things To Look For In An SEO-Friendly WordPress Host

    This post was sponsored by Bluehost. The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor’s own.

    When trying to improve your WordPress site’s search rankings, hosting might not be the first thing on your mind.

    But your choice of hosting provider can significantly impact your SEO efforts.

    A poor hosting setup can slow down your site, compromise its stability and security, and drain valuable time and resources.

    The answer? Choosing the right WordPress hosting provider.

    Here are seven essential features to look for in an SEO-friendly WordPress host that will help you:

    1. Reliable Uptime & Speed for Consistent Performance

    A website’s uptime and speed can significantly influence your site’s rankings and the success of your SEO strategies.

    Users don’t like sites that suffer from significant downtime or sluggish load speeds. Not only are these sites inconvenient, but they also reflect negatively on the brand and their products and services, making them appear less trustworthy and of lower quality.

    For these reasons, Google values websites that load quickly and reliably. So, if your site suffers from significant downtime or sluggish load times, it can negatively affect your site’s position in search results as well as frustrate users.

    Reliable hosting with minimal downtime and fast server response times helps ensure that both users and search engines can access your content seamlessly.

    Performance-focused infrastructure, optimized for fast server responses, is essential for delivering a smooth and engaging user experience.

    When evaluating hosting providers, look for high uptime guarantees through a robust Service Level Agreement (SLA), which assures site availability and speed.

    Bluehost Cloud, for instance, offers a 100% SLA for uptime, response time, and resolution time.

    Built specifically with WordPress users in mind, Bluehost Cloud leverages an infrastructure optimized to deliver the speed and reliability that WordPress sites require, enhancing both SEO performance and user satisfaction. This guarantee provides you with peace of mind.

    Your site will remain accessible and perform optimally around the clock, and you’ll spend less time troubleshooting and dealing with your host’s support team trying to get your site back online.

    2. Data Center Locations & CDN Options For Global Reach

    Fast load times are crucial not only for providing a better user experience but also for reducing bounce rates and boosting SEO rankings.

    Since Google prioritizes websites that load quickly for users everywhere, having data centers in multiple locations and Content Delivery Network (CDN) integration is essential for WordPress sites with a global audience.

    To ensure your site loads quickly for all users, no matter where they are, choose a WordPress host with a distributed network of data centers and CDN support. Consider whether it offers CDN options and data center locations that align with your audience’s geographic distribution

    This setup allows your content to reach users swiftly across different regions, enhancing both user satisfaction and search engine performance.

    Bluehost Cloud integrates with a CDN to accelerate content delivery across the globe. This means that whether your visitors are in North America, Europe, or Asia, they’ll experience faster load times.

    By leveraging global data centers and a CDN, Bluehost Cloud ensures your site’s SEO remains strong, delivering a consistent experience for users around the world.

    3. Built-In Security Features To Protect From SEO-Damaging Attacks

    Security is essential for your brand, your SEO, and overall site health.

    Websites that experience security breaches, malware, or frequent hacking attempts can be penalized by search engines, potentially suffering from ranking drops or even removal from search indexes.

    Therefore, it’s critical to select a host that offers strong built-in security features to safeguard your website and its SEO performance.

    When evaluating hosting providers, look for options that include additional security features.

    Bluehost Cloud, for example, offers comprehensive security features designed to protect WordPress sites, including free SSL certificates to encrypt data, automated daily backups, and regular malware scans.

    These features help maintain a secure environment, preventing security issues from impacting your potential customers, your site’s SEO, and ultimately, your bottom line.

    With Bluehost Cloud, your site’s visitors, data, and search engine rankings remain secure, providing you with peace of mind and a safe foundation for SEO success.

    4. Optimized Database & File Management For Fast Site Performance

    A poorly managed database can slow down site performance, which affects load times and visitor experience. Therefore, efficient data handling and optimized file management are essential for fast site performance.

    Choose a host with advanced database and file management tools, as well as caching solutions that enhance site speed. Bluehost Cloud supports WordPress sites with advanced database optimization, ensuring quick, efficient data handling even as your site grows.

    With features like server-level caching and optimized databases, Bluehost Cloud is built to handle WordPress’ unique requirements, enabling your site to perform smoothly without additional plugins or manual adjustments.

    Bluehost Cloud contributes to a better user experience and a stronger SEO foundation by keeping your WordPress site fast and efficient.

    5. SEO-Friendly, Scalable Bandwidth For Growing Sites

    As your site’s popularity grows, so does its bandwidth requirements. Scalable or unmetered bandwidth is vital to handle traffic spikes without slowing down your site and impacting your SERP performance.

    High-growth websites, in particular, benefit from hosting providers that offer flexible bandwidth options, ensuring consistent speed and availability even during peak traffic.

    To avoid disaster, select a hosting provider that offers scalable or unmetered bandwidth as part of their package. Bluehost Cloud’s unmetered bandwidth, for instance, is designed to accommodate high-traffic sites without affecting load times or user experience.

    This ensures that your site remains responsive and accessible during high-traffic periods, supporting your growth and helping you maintain your SEO rankings.

    For websites anticipating growth, unmetered bandwidth with Bluehost Cloud provides a reliable, flexible solution to ensure long-term performance.

    6. WordPress-Specific Support & SEO Optimization Tools

    WordPress has unique needs when it comes to SEO, making specialized hosting support essential.

    Hosts that cater specifically to WordPress provide an added advantage by offering tools and configurations such as staging environments and one-click installations specifically for WordPress.

    WordPress-specific hosting providers also have an entire team of knowledgeable support and technical experts who can help you significantly improve your WordPress site’s performance.

    Bluehost Cloud is a WordPress-focused hosting solution that offers priority, 24/7 support from WordPress experts, ensuring any issue you encounter is dealt with effectively.

    Additionally, Bluehost’s staging environments enable you to test changes and updates before going live, reducing the risk of SEO-impacting errors.

    Switching to Bluehost is easy, affordable, and stress-free, too.

    Bluehost offers a seamless migration service designed to make switching hosts simple and stress-free. Our dedicated migration support team handles the entire transfer process, ensuring your WordPress site’s content, settings, and configurations are moved safely and accurately.

    Currently, Bluehost also covers all migration costs, so you can make the switch with zero out-of-pocket expenses. We’ll credit the remaining cost of your existing contract, making the transition financially advantageous.

    You can actually save money or even gain credit by switching

    7. Integrated Domain & Site Management For Simplified SEO Administration

    SEO often involves managing domain settings, redirects, DNS configurations, and SSL updates, which can become complicated without centralized management.

    An integrated hosting provider that allows you to manage your domain and hosting in one place simplifies these SEO tasks and makes it easier to maintain a strong SEO foundation.

    When selecting a host, look for providers that integrate domain management with hosting. Bluehost offers a streamlined experience, allowing you to manage both domains and hosting from a single dashboard.

    SEO-related site administration becomes more manageable, and you can focus on the things you do best: growth and optimization.

    Find A SEO-Friendly WordPress Host

    Choosing an SEO-friendly WordPress host can have a significant impact on your website’s search engine performance, user experience, and long-term growth.

    By focusing on uptime, global data distribution, robust security, optimized database management, scalable bandwidth, WordPress-specific support, and integrated domain management, you create a solid foundation that supports both SEO and usability.

    Ready to make the switch?

    As a trusted WordPress partner with over 20 years of experience, Bluehost offers a hosting solution designed to meet the unique demands of WordPress sites big and small.

    Our dedicated migration support team handles every detail of your transfer, ensuring your site’s content, settings, and configurations are moved accurately and securely.

    Plus, we offer eligible customers a credit toward their remaining contracts, making the transition to Bluehost not only seamless but also cost-effective.

    Learn how Bluehost Cloud can elevate your WordPress site. Visit us today to get started.


    Image Credits

    Featured Image: Image by Bluehost. Used with permission.

    In-Post Image: Images by Bluehost. Used with permission.

    4 New Techniques To Speed Up Your Website & Fix Core Web Vitals via @sejournal, @DebugBear

    This post was sponsored by DebugBear. The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor’s own.

    Want to make your website fast?

    Luckily, many techniques and guides exist to help you speed up your website.

    In fact, just in the last year, several new browser features have been released that offer:

    • New ways to optimize your website.
    • New ways to identify causes of slow performance.

    All within your browser.

    So, this article looks at these new browser SEO features and how you can use them to pass Google’s Core Web Vitals assessment.

    Why Website Performance Is Key For User Experience & SEO

    Having a fast website will make your users happier and increase conversion rates.

    But performance is also a Google ranking factor.

    Google has defined three user experience metrics, called the Core Web Vitals:

    • Largest Contentful Paint: how quickly does page content appear?
    • Cumulative Layout Shift: does content move around after loading?
    • Interaction to Next Paint: how responsive is the page to user input?

    For each of these metrics there’s a maximum threshold that shouldn’t be exceeded to pass the web vitals assessment.

    Metric thresholds for Google Core Web Vitals, October 2024

    1. Add Instant Navigation With “Speculation Rules”

    New Key Definitions:

    When websites are slow to load that’s usually because various resources have to be loaded from the website server. But what if there was a way to achieve instant navigations, where visitors don’t have to wait?

    This year Chrome launched a new feature called speculation rules, which can achieve just that. After loading the initial page on a website, other pages can be preloaded in the background. Then, when the visitor clicks on a link, the new page appears instantly.

    Best of all, this feature is easy to implement just by adding a

    The SEO Agency Guide To Efficient WordPress Hosting & Management via @sejournal, @kinsta

    This post was sponsored by Kinsta. The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor’s own.

    Managing client sites can quickly become costly in terms of time, money, and expertise, especially as your agency grows.

    You’re constantly busy fixing slow WordPress performance, handling downtime, or regularly updating and backing up ecommerce sites and small blogs.

    The solution to these challenges might lie in fully managed hosting for WordPress sites.

    Opting for a fully managed hosting provider that specializes in WordPress and understands agency needs can save you both time and money. By making the switch, you can focus on what truly matters: serving your current clients and driving new business into your sales funnel.

    WordPress Worries & How To Keep Clients Happy

    For SEO agencies managing multiple client sites, ensuring consistently fast performance across the board is essential. Websites with poor performance metrics are more likely to see a dip in traffic, increased bounce rates, and lost conversion opportunities.

    Managed hosting, especially hosting that specializes and is optimized for WordPress, offers agencies a way to deliver high-speed, well-performing sites without constantly battling technical issues.

    Clients expect seamless performance, but handling these technical requirements for numerous websites can be a time-consuming process. While WordPress is versatile and user-friendly, it does come with performance challenges.

    SEO agencies must deal with frequent updates, plugin management, security vulnerabilities, and optimization issues.

    Challenges like bloated themes, inefficient plugins, and poor hosting infrastructure can lead to slow load times. You also need to ensure that client WordPress sites are secured against malware and hackers, which requires regular monitoring and updates.

    With managed hosting, many of these tasks are automated, significantly reducing the workload on your team.

    Managed hosting for WordPress simplifies the process by providing a full suite of performance, security, and maintenance services.

    Instead of spending valuable time on manual updates, backups, and troubleshooting, you can rely on your hosting provider to handle these tasks automatically, resulting in reduced downtime, improved site performance, and a more efficient use of resources.

    Ultimately, you can focus your energy on SEO strategies that drive results for your clients.

    Basics Of Managed Hosting For WordPress

    Managed hosting providers like Kinsta take care of all the technical aspects of running WordPress websites, including performance optimization, security, updates, backups, and server management.

    We take over the responsibilities ensure the platform runs smoothly and securely without the constant need for manual intervention.

    Kinsta also eliminates common performance bottlenecks in WordPress include slow-loading themes, outdated plugins, inefficient database queries, and suboptimal server configurations.

    Key Benefits Of Efficient Managed Hosting For SEO

    1. Performance & Speed

    Core Web Vitals, Google’s user experience metrics, play a significant role in determining search rankings. Managed hosting improves metrics like LCP, FID, and CLS by offering high-performance servers and built-in caching solutions.

    CDNs reduce latency by serving your website’s static files from servers closest to the user, significantly improving load times.

    Kinsta, for example, uses Google Cloud’s premium tier network and C2 virtual machines, ensuring the fastest possible load times for WordPress sites. We also provide integrated CDN services, along with advanced caching configurations, which ensure that even resource-heavy WordPress sites load quickly.

    And the benefits are instantly noticeable.

    Before the switch, Torro Media faced performance issues, frequent downtimes, and difficulties scaling their websites to handle traffic growth. These issues negatively affected their clients’ user experience and SEO results.

    After migrating to Kinsta, Torro Media saw noteable improvements:

    • Faster website performance – Site load times significantly improved, contributing to better SEO rankings and overall user experience.
    • Reduced downtime – Kinsta’s reliable infrastructure ensured that Torro Media’s websites experienced minimal downtime, keeping client websites accessible.
    • Expert support – Our support team helped Torro Media resolve technical issues efficiently, allowing the agency to focus on growth rather than troubleshooting.

    As a result, Torro was able to scale its operations and deliver better results for its clients.

    2. WP-Specific Security

    Security is a critical component of managed hosting. Platforms like Kinsta offer automatic security patches, malware scanning, and firewalls tailored specifically for WordPress.

    These features are vital to protecting your clients’ sites from cyber threats, which, if left unchecked, can lead to ranking drops due to blacklisting by search engines.

    Downtime and security breaches negatively impact SEO. Google devalues sites that experience frequent downtime or security vulnerabilities.

    Managed hosting providers minimize these risks by maintaining secure, stable environments with 24/7 monitoring, helping ensure that your clients’ sites remain online and safe from attacks.

    3. Automatic Backups & Recovery

    Automatic daily backups are a standard feature of managed hosting, protecting against data loss due to server crashes or website errors. For agencies, this means peace of mind, knowing that they can restore their clients’ sites quickly in case of a problem. The ability to quickly recover from an issue helps maintain SEO rankings, as prolonged downtime can hurt search performance.

    Managed hosting providers often include advanced tools such as one-click restore points and robust disaster recovery systems. Additionally, having specialized support means that you have access to experts who understand WordPress and can help troubleshoot complex issues that affect performance and SEO.

    Importance Of An Agency-Focused Managed WordPress Hosting Provider

    For SEO agencies, uptime guarantees are essential to maintaining site availability. Managed hosting providers, like Kinsta, who specialize in serving agencies, offer a 99.9% uptime SLA and multiple data center locations, ensuring that websites remain accessible to users across the globe.

    Scalability and flexibility matter, too. As your agency grows, your clients’ hosting needs may evolve. Managed hosting platforms designed for agencies offer scalability, allowing you to easily add resources as your client portfolio expands.

    With scalable solutions, you can handle traffic surges without worrying about site downtime or slowdowns.

    Agency Dashboard - Managed Hosting for WordPress

    1. The Right Dashboards

    A user-friendly dashboard is crucial for managing multiple client sites efficiently. Kinsta’s MyKinsta dashboard, for example, allows agencies to monitor performance, uptime, and traffic across all sites in one centralized location, providing full visibility into each client’s website performance.

    Hosting dashboards like Kinsta’s MyKinsta provide real-time insights into key performance metrics such as server response times, resource usage, and traffic spikes. These metrics are essential for ensuring that sites remain optimized for SEO.

    2. Balance Costs With Performance Benefits

    For agencies, managing hosting costs is always a consideration. While managed hosting may come with a higher price tag than traditional shared hosting, the benefits, such as faster performance, reduced downtime, and enhanced security, translate into better client results and long-term cost savings.

    Kinsta offers flexible pricing based on traffic, resources, and features, making it easier for agencies to align their hosting solutions with client budgets.

    By automating tasks like backups, updates, and security management, managed hosting allows agencies to significantly reduce the time and resources spent on day-to-day maintenance. This frees up your team to focus on delivering SEO results, ultimately improving efficiency and client satisfaction.

    Don’t think it makes that big of a difference? Think again.

    After migrating to Kinsta, 5Tales experienced:

    • Improved site speed – Load times dropped by over 50%, which enhanced user experience and SEO performance.
    • Better support – Kinsta’s specialized support team helped troubleshoot issues quickly and provided expert-level advice.
    • Streamlined management – With our user-friendly dashboard and automated features, 5Tales reduced the time spent on maintenance and troubleshooting.

    Overall, 5Tales saw an increase in both client satisfaction and SEO rankings after moving to Kinsta.

    3. Managed Hosting & Page Speed Optimization

    Tools like Kinsta’s Application Performance Monitoring (APM) provide detailed insights into website performance, helping agencies identify slow-loading elements and optimize them. This level of transparency enables faster troubleshooting and more precise optimization efforts, which are critical for maintaining fast page speeds.

    It’s also easy to integrate managed hosting platforms with your existing tech stack. Kinsta works seamlessly with SEO tools like Google Analytics, DebugBear, and others, allowing agencies to track site performance, analyze traffic patterns, and ensure sites are running at peak efficiency.

    Conclusion

    Managed hosting is not just a convenience. It’s a critical component of success for SEO agencies managing WordPress sites.

    By leveraging the performance, security, and time-saving benefits of a managed hosting provider like Kinsta, agencies can improve client results, enhance their relationships, and streamline their operations.

    When it comes to SEO, every second counts. A fast, secure, and well-maintained website will always perform better in search rankings. For agencies looking to deliver maximum value to their clients, investing in managed hosting is a smart, long-term decision.

    Ready to make the switch?

    Kinsta offers a guarantee of no-shared hosting, 99.99% uptime guarantee, and 24/7/365 support, so we’re here when you need us. Plus, we makes it easy, effortless, and free to move to Kinsta.

    Our team of migration experts have experience switching from all web hosts. And when you make the switch to Kinsta, we’ll give you up to $10,000 in free hosting to ensure you avoid paying double hosting bills.


    Image Credits

    Featured Image: Image by Kinsta. Used with permission.

    In-Post Image: Images by Kinsta. Used with permission.