There sure is no shortage of web hosting providers today. There are hundreds of options on the market that tout great features and dirt cheap starter plans. But if you’re serious about growing your WooCommerce business into an outstanding niche brand, you cannot compromise on the quality of those important hosting features, something your everyday providers don’t boast about. In this post, you’ll learn how WP Engine’s managed hosting can boost your sales.
Your web host plays a huge role in the success of your online venture. Host-dependent factors like site speed, security, scalability, and customer support make a difference in your bottom-line.
Not every web host is built the same, and for your WooCommerce store it’s imperative you find a host that’s specialized specifically in hosting WordPress environments. And so, as the name suggests, enter WP Engine. It is a managed hosting provider exclusively for WordPress websites. If you’re not using WordPress (WooCommerce) for your eCommerce store, this hosting provider is not for you.
WP Engine is one of the most well-known names in the space of managed WordPress hosting and while you can find other providers that offer similar managed hosting services, WP Engine stands out from its rivals because of its laser-targeted focus on the needs of WordPress users, such as bloggers and WooCommerce entrepreneurs.
Unlike regular “shared” hosting plans, “managed” WordPress hosting takes care of the technical aspects such as plugin management and website performance, so business owners can concentrate on growing their business.
Founded in 2010, it is not the first to offer managed WordPress hosting, but it is the biggest company in this sector. With over 120,000 customers in 140 countries, WP Engine unquestionably has loads of experience hosting a variety of WordPress sites. In fact, according to their homepage, “500,000 digital experiences are powered by WP Engine.”
By offering high-performance hosting environments especially optimized for WordPress websites, while also handling many of the continuous tasks required to run a stable and secure WooCommerce store, WP Engine is a solid pick for anyone who needs more than what an average low-cost web host can render.
Let’s take a deeper look into how hosting on WP Engine can increase your store’s sales.
Sublime performance
Optimizing site speed should always be your first priority as an eCommerce store owner. Most users today don’t have the patience for your site to load. They will simply head elsewhere if they have to wait for your site to load.
This is where WP Engine’s integrated caching and Content Delivery Network (CDN) make their difference known.
Caching is a technique in which your site’s content is temporarily stored in the web browser, consequently reducing server load each time your site is loaded. WP Engine boasts its own proprietory caching technology called EverCache which is fully integrated into their hosting environment. So, you don’t need any third-party caching plugins that bloat your website.
Plus, WP Engine employs MaxCDN powered integrated CDN to serve your site across the planet ensuring your visitors always have the shortest path on the internet to reach your store.
So, for someone from Spain trying to reach your web server all the way in the USA, WP Engine’s global network of servers will instead find the closest server to them (one in Europe) and serve your site from there. This means faster-delivered content and a better shopping experience. Not to mention the higher search rankings that come with a fast loading website.
Stellar security
A fairly common criticism which WordPress receives is the slight lack of security. However, what those critics often fail to consider is that there’s also a large WordPress community fighting those security threats. Most bugs are normally found without delay and the knowledge is spread amongst the community.
WP Engine supplements this with its world-class security team and security protocols. If there’s any critical security update, you’ll be the first to get the information and if you don’t get around to updating your site or plugin, it’ll do it for you.
With its “disallowed plugin” check, WP Engine checks for plugins with known issues or conflicts on their network and notify you if it finds one on your site. If you don’t delete them, it’ll also automatically do it for you to ensure the security and consistency of your store.
As your WooCommerce store grows more and more successful, you are going to garner unwanted attention from malicious parties. To shield your business, WP Engine has established a number of standards that effectively thwart those malicious attacks. These comprise:
- Dedicated environments for premium customers
- Automatic scanning and disabling of malicious plugins
- Limitations on who can write to your file system, plus complete logs anytime anyone writes to your system
- Logically segregated and fully encrypted backups in the event that something does happen to your data
- Routine scanning for vulnerabilities and prompt handling of identified threats
And, of course, WP Engine includes a free SSL certificate in all their plans. This is indispensable, particularly for eCommerce websites. With an SSL certificate, everything between your customer’s browser and your online store is being encrypted, including login credentials, credit card details, and other sensitive information.
Automatic backups
Besides keeping your WooCommerce store up to date, WP Engine’s automatic nightly backups will keep your store’s data safe from being lost. This automatic backup and restore functionality is actually quite elegant. The backup process is seamless, occurring behind the scenes every night.
Each backup is performed at a fixed interval and it covers all files, themes, plugins, and database records. Furthermore, you can request backups when needed, which is something most hosts do not offer.
Restoring backups is just as straightforward. A couple of clicks is all it takes to restore your site to a previous version in less than sixty seconds.
For WooCommerce stores, this means all your site’s data, your customers, and sales history are safely recorded and secure. In the event anything goes wrong with your store, you can easily roll back without any difficulty.
If you want, you can also manually create a full backup at any time in the WP Engine User Portal. This is a handy feature that works very well. Manually creating a backup point before making changes to your website, such as installing a new theme or plugin, gives you a swift way to roll your site back should something go wrong. The backup files are available on the portal, but you can download them as ZIP files for safekeeping if you want.
24/7/365 qualified support
The importance of choosing a hosting provider who understands the ins-and-outs of WordPress and has experience troubleshooting business websites cannot be stressed enough. As your WooCommerce store scales new heights, you are bound to run into issues you can’t solve on your own.
This is where you’ll benefit from an award-winning support team. With more than 100 full-time WordPress specialists on staff, this is one of the very few hosts that appreciates the intricacies of keeping your WordPress hosting server running like a smooth-running machine.
Getting in touch with their team is a piece of cake too, with 24/7/365 support available through either live chat, email, or phone. They have a 97% customer satisfaction rating and the support representative doesn’t just point you to an article and go “all the best!”, but rather works with you to solve the problem swiftly.
Note that while 24/7 live chat support is available on all plans, 24/7 phone support is available on all plans excluding the entry-level Startup plan.
Your move
It is safe to say that WP Engine delivers well on the promises of rendering a stable, high-performance WordPress hosting environment. Countless happy clients and hosting reviewers attest to this.
Features like automated backups, free migrations, and periodic security scans together with a commendable 24/7 support team should take a great deal of hassle out of managing your WooCommerce store. In addition, you have access to more than 35 premium StudioPress themes which helps to offset some of the cost of hosting your store with WP Engine.
The convenient developer-friendly features such as the development, staging, and production environments, as well as the ability to transfer sites to clients, are some more reasons to consider WP Engine.
All these features and the quality on offer warrants the premium price tag of WP Engine. Besides, there’s a competitive 60-day money-back guarantee that lets you try out WP Engine without any major commitment.
Look at this way: letting a renowned managed WordPress hosting provider take care of your website and its technical complexities for a few extra bucks enables you to focus on other important facets of scaling your eCommerce business, such as inventory management, marketing, and UX design, to name a few.
So, if your store generates good revenue, and you have the financial framework in place, it makes sense to invest in a premium, tried-and-true web hosting like WP Engine. After all, running an online business is a marathon, not a sprint.
