As an agency or freelance web developer working with smaller businesses, you must be familiar with the struggle of choosing web hosting for your clients. Most of them go with budget-friendly solutions without even considering alternatives.
The reason behind that choice is fairly simple – lower monthly costs. For a small business owner every dollar counts. Where do they cut expenses? Anywhere they can.
For a web developer serving such clients, pushing good hosting puts you at risk of losing a deal. While offering budget-friendly solutions to please your clients may work, it is also considered a short-term strategy.
Without proper hosting in place, your newly designed WordPress sites will hit the wall of hosting limits in terms of speed and performance. No matter how good your tech stack is, your online portfolio ends up being full of poorly performing sites which is not your fault. This leads to top-dollar clients who are looking for top performance. It all comes down to slowing the growth of your agency.
I know that convincing clients to cash out can be tricky. A long time ago, I was starting my career in web design facing the same problems. At that time, there was no one there to give me a piece of advice so it took a while.
To help you out, I have summarized the tips to help you convince your clients to go with good WordPress hosting right from the start.
Match your competitors
Business competition is strong across all industries. There is a never-ending battle going on to take first spot in Google Search results. Everyone wants to be at the top.
Website performance plays a significant role in ranking your website higher. It can boost or lower your SEO efforts and ranking. Choosing high-performing hosting for your WordPress site is an easy way to get an extra SEO score.
Sites, like Hosting Checker, allow you to identify the hosting solutions used by competitors. With that information available, talk to your client to discuss their options.
The key is to make sure you match your competitors in terms of the hosting quality or go an extra step. That way, you will ensure that your client has a competitive advantage when it comes to website speed and performance.
Hosting invoice vs Mobile bill
One thing I am repeating to my students at the university – your hosting invoice should not be smaller than a monthly phone bill.
Your hosting is a business instrument that keeps your website working. It builds your brand recognition, promotes products and services, generates leads, and sells.
As for the mobile phones, it is a mixed story. While we use mobile phones for business purposes, data shows that the majority of the engagement goes into non-professional activities.
Staying connected and informed is important but being ready to pay more for leisure than business investment is wrong.
Return on Investment (ROI) does not apply to online ads exclusively. You need to keep ROI in mind when managing your spending. And, while you can not affect your mobile phone bill that much, make sure that your monthly hosting invoice matches your phone bill (at least).
Change unneeded habits
The good old trick of cutting your spending on a daily unnecessary routine still works.
How much do you spend on those small things that you could easily avoid? Like small snacks, you pick up while waiting in line at the shopping mall just because you have nothing to do. I bet you have several bucks reserved for that routine. In a year, those bucks convert into hundreds.
While it is hard to change your habits, taking small steps can help you get there. Even if you skip it several times, you will get extra cash to invest in your business. Nothing big but enough to choose a better mail service provider or web hosting.
Less maintenance – more savings
Many savings come with a pinch of salt. Saving on your web hosting costs is not an exception.
As a web developer, you have increased risks of facing configuration and maintenance issues. With that said, not all small clients are able or willing to pay you for extra hours spent on their website.
As a professional, you are in the position to offer an excellent maintenance service while also taking care of the fact that your customers do not overpay for issues that could be easily avoidable.
Use it when pitching to your clients by explaining to them how choosing good hosting can help them reduce unforeseen website maintenance expenses down the road.
Better hosting – better options
For a non-technical person, all hostings may look the same, but in reality, they are very different.
Good hosting is more than just a space to store your website so it is available online. It is a set of tools that ensure your website functions properly, more efficiently, and is safe. There are extensions in place that help you to keep your website healthy. Plus, it is already included in the price.
Things like security scans, free SSL certificates, and caching are considered standards in the industry.
Can you have the same features on budget-friendly hosting? Sure, but you have to pay extra. The paradox is that buying those extra options as separate extensions can result in higher prices.
Noisy neighbors
Budget-friendly hosting providers usually offer shared hosting solutions. An easy way to reduce monthly costs but also a painful one.
Shared means shared so there is a high chance that you can end up sharing your server resources with what is called a noisy neighbor. What does it mean? You may have another website on the same server that will consume most of the resources leaving your website struggling.
To avoid such a scenario, consider putting your client on dedicated cloud hosting where resource consumption is controlled and distributed equally. You will minimize downtime risks for your clients making sure they can capture new leads and generate sales without interruptions.
Conclusions
Convincing small businesses to spend more can be tricky. Their resources are limited and there is not much that can be done.
At the same time, explaining the growth benefits and guiding them through alternative saving options can help. At the end of the day, it is not only theirs but also in your interests for them to grow their business.
Can good hosting contribute to your growth? I’m sure it does.
