We Recommend SiteGround Hosting for WordPress
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4 Reasons Why We Use SiteGround
The Albemarle PR shop and all of the WordPress and Weebly sites you see available for purchase are hosted with SiteGround. We’ve been paying customers since 2016. There are over 1,000,000 domains pointed to SiteGround servers.
- 24/7 Support
Siteground has an online database that covers the most common questions you might have about their products. They also offer support 24/7 by phone, chat, and email/tickets. Their customer satisfaction rate was over 96% in 2016, 97.3% in 2017, and 98% in 2018.
You can view reviews for SiteGround here.
- Speed
Siteground’s terms state that you’ll have 99.99 uptime using their speed technology.
If you’re using WordPress with Siteground, you’ll also benefit from their SG Optimizer Plugin. It optimizes images and uses caching so that your WordPress site runs 20% to 500% faster.
- Security Made Simple
They constantly monitor WordPress vulnerabilities and protect users. Especially because most WordPress updates contain security patches, it is very important to keep your core WordPress files and plugins updated. SiteGround has an option to enable auto updates.
Siteground automatically installs the Let’s Encrypt certificate for free. If you plan to use subdomains, you can choose a Wildcard SSL for free. Using the Let’s Encrypt certificate will make all of your pages display HTTPS. A site with HTTPS across all pages is favored by Google and makes browsing more secure.
- Daily Backups
All plans come with automatic daily backups. This is an important step to have in place in case plugins you install on your WordPress site cause problems. With the GoGeek plan, you can make your own backups of files, databases, and emails whenever you’d like. The GoGeek plan also has a feature that allows you to restore a previous version of your site using one of your backups.
How to Get Started with SiteGround
1. Choose your hosting plan
Siteground offers different plans so you can work within your budget and upgrade as needed.
StartUp is a great option if you have a personal blog, classroom site, or another small site. It’s designed for lower traffic sites and starts at only $6.99/month.
GrowBig includes the option for multiple websites and upgraded features such as SuperCacher for increasing website speed. This plan offers hosting for unlimited sites as long as your traffic does not exceed 25,000 hits per month. The GrowBig plan starts at $9.99/month.
GoGeek is for e-commerce shops, larger sites, and web developers. Although all plans come with 1 year free SSL, GoGeek includes PCI compliance to help prevent credit card fraud. With the SiteGround Staging tool, you can create and manage development copies of your sites. The GoGeek plan starts at $14.99/month.
Let’s jump to common questions about hosting with SiteGround…
What If I Have an Existing WordPress Site?
Both the GrowBig and GoGeek plans offer a professional transfer service for free if you’d like to receive assistance with migrating your existing WordPress site, email, and FTP. All plans work with their free Migrator plugin if you’d like to move your WordPress site on your own.
What plan should I get if I want to host a WordPress site?
Each hosting plan has 1-click install options for WordPress. SiteGround is recommended by WordPress.org as one of the best and brightest WordPress hosting providers. If you want to install WooCommerce or another plugin for an e-commerce solution, you will need to purchase the GoGeek plan.
What plan should I get if I want to host a Weebly site?
Each hosting plan includes the drag-and-drop builder called Weebly. Depending on what additional features you may need, you may want to consider hosting your site on Weebly’s servers. Although the free Weebly plan comes with SiteGround hosting plans, you will still be required to pay upgrade fees to gain additional features on your Weebly site. If you create a subdomain, you can use Weebly for landing pages that you link to from your WordPress site.
Step 2. Choose Your Domain
You can purchase a new domain or transfer an existing domain. Siteground offers a free website transfer with their hosting service. (Unfortunately, this is not an option for Weebly users.)
Step 3. Review and Complete
Many hosting providers only apply discounts if you purchase plans for 2+ years. With SiteGround, the hosting discount is provided on new account periods of 1 year or more.