Growing websites like travel blogs require more and more resources to keep performing at their best.
Travel blogs are equipped with lots of content, pictures, videos, and resources that are regularly updated to keep the content fresh and engaging.
This can mean a heavy load on servers and can send your website crashing if you do not have the best hosting provider keeping you up and running smoothly.
We have been running our travel blog now for 9 years and have used many different types of hosting providers from shared to dedicated servers.
Until recently we were hosted by Websynthesis and were very happy with them. And then their company was bought out and taken over by a very very expensive WP Engine. We didn’t want to pay more than our already $80 a month.
Thankfully, our website manager, Chris from RTWlabs knows his stuff and recommended we join Cloudways, a cloud hosting service he had been researching and surmised that they were the best option for us moving forward.
It has been several months now that we have been using Cloudways with no crashes or issues. We are very happy with them, especially considering our costs per month have almost halved and we still have a highly optimal and smooth running site.
Because I do not understand anything about the technical aspects of cloud hosting and why it’s a good choice for your blog, an expert from Cloudways offered to share the nitty gritty with you in this post.
Most of it goes over my head, but all I can tell you is I am happy with whatever that nitty gritty is doing in the background to keep me hosted and secure.
So what makes cloud hosting so important and what is the best cloud hosting for your travel blog? Let’s discuss!
WHAT IS CLOUD HOSTING?
Cloud hosting is one of the main foundations that brings out the best in your business by providing the resources to keep itself ahead of the competition.
This is especially true if your travel blog is powered by WordPress.
In the ever-evolving landscape of online business, conventional cloud hosting is obsolete, not user-friendly and lacks the necessary tools a growing business must have to perform at its best.
This is where managed cloud hosting is the only viable solution, and so one can say the best cloud hosting service should be managed.
Not all managed hosting services are good when it comes to WordPress-powered websites, but Cloudways is an exception to this case.
Cloudways is the best cloud hosting platform that offers 5 of the most popular hosting services like DigitalOcean, Linode, AWS, Vultr and the Google Compute Engine for you to host your WordPress website in just a few clicks.
But before we get into the details of why Cloudways is one the best managed cloud hosting platforms, let’s have a brief introduction before we get into the details of this cloud hosting review.
CLOUDWAYS — MANAGED HOSTING PLATFORM
Cloudways is a managed cloud hosting platform that offers a range of features for your PHP based websites like WordPress.
You can then select from 5 of the most popular cloud hosting services like AWS, Linode, Vultr, DigitalOcean, and the Google Compute Engine to get up and running from within a few clicks.
One of the many aspects where Cloudways excels is in its interface, which is optimized to be easy and user-centric in terms of understanding and navigation.
Cloudways is designed to make your experience with managed hosting seamless, secure, reliable and most of all, hassle-free.
WHY CLOUDWAYS IS THE BEST?
When you search online for “WordPress hosting”, you will get tons of names offering all kinds of services that may look compelling and interesting at first.
But for growing businesses, the list is narrowed down to just a few.
Your travel blog is special and requires more than just conventional hosting services, it requires the best cloud hosting provider that takes the brunt of the technical stuff that happens behind the scenes in a way that you focus more on expanding your business.
ULTIMATE PERFORMANCE
One of the most crucial byproducts of the best cloud hosting is superior performance.
With dedicated servers on Cloudways, there is no sharing with anyone else. You are given all the resources you’ll ever need to be worry free when it comes to performance.
How is this possible?
Cloudways brings built-in advanced cache features like Memcached, Varnish, and Redis on its platform that assures performance.
Servers on Cloudways are already PHP 7.x ready to help further improve response which translates into seamless server launch and performance. For reference, check out this benchmarking test conducted here.
I am sure you have heard many travel blogger complaints of crashing websites through hosting companies like Bluehost and Hostgator. This is because they are typically on shared servers – all cheap plans will be and the more you grow the more your site will start crashing as it doesn’t have enough resources on the shared server to keep it running smoothly.
SERVER SCALABILITY
Server scaling used to be a daunting task where users used to input lengthy codes to kill previous servers and wait endlessly for the codes to take effect.
Cloudways understands the value of time for you and your travel blog visitors. As a result they took measures to ensure that scaling servers is instantaneous.
From within the Cloudways interface, you now have the ability to vertically scale your servers according to the traffic you expect landing on your website.
All you need to do is slide with your mouse to scale your server. This ensures you feel secure in your growth and can know you can handle it. You do want to grow right?
Cloudways also provides Application and Server Cloning with just 1-click to help you make multiple copies of your entire servers.
In case something goes wrong, you already have a backup and with the Auto Healing feature, most calamities are taken care of from within the platform.
You can work better and engage more people into your work through One Account where you can add, manage and monitor multiple teams by giving them access to only the options you want.
With their Click Stop App feature, you have the freedom to stop and restart an application at your will, and upon stopping, the application is closed off the entire world wide web.
Having problems migrating your work onto Cloudways? Migration is just a few clicks away, not to mention, it’s Free.
ADVANCED SECURITY
Cloudways takes security very seriously and has put serious security protocols in place to make sure both your account and your servers are as safe as possible.
There are dedicated OS level firewalls in place to help filter out malicious content and intruders.
With regular security patching. Cloudways performs regular security patching to ensure a safe and reliable environment.
This approach towards Cloudways assures superior protection against malicious attacks and other vulnerabilities that are tried and tested to make sure they give you a worry-free experience.
Added to this is Two Factor Authentication for that additional layer of security to keep hackers away from logging into your Cloudways account.
Last but not least, there is IP Whitelisting that helps you create a list of IPs and regions for unrestricted access to SSH and SFTP.
24/7 CUSTOMER SERVICE
A good cloud hosting service gives customer service, but the best cloud hosting is known to provide unparalleled customer services.
Cloudways is one of the very best in terms of their customer services.
Let’s start with it being offered 24/7, live.
The strong knowledge base hub is there to help solve minor issues regarding understanding the platform. It is rarely used since the platform itself is extremely easy to navigate and understand.
The awesome customer service also provides 24/7 ticketings, so replies to your questions and concerns will be given quickly.
An active community takes part in helping each other get the best of this amazing platform and with the help of automated backups and up to date applications to support, you are always secure and taken care of.
WRAPPING UP!
What are you waiting for?
Every website powered by WordPress deserves the best hosting service and if the service is managed, you would not worry about technical things.
Now you are secure and have a stable platform to concentrate on growing your business. Believe me, the last thing you want to be dedicating your time is solving a website crashing problem.
(As an experienced professional travel blogger I can’t tell you how stressful it is when your website goes down. I’m so grateful this is not an issue for me anymore!- Caz)
So, If you have a travel blog powered by WordPress that needs a boost in terms of speed, reliability, security, and support, check out Cloudways now and get on board.
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