For almost 10 years now, I’ve been running a couple of my own WordPress websites. The one you’re reading now, 6ft9 Writer, and my green technology website, Eco Tech Daily.
At the time of creating the websites, I arranged hosting through Bluehost – a popular WordPress cloud hosting company that came recommended by many people.
However, as you’ll see from my story below, over the years I became increasingly dissatisfied with the website speeds offered by Bluehost. And that’s what led me to switch over the hosting of my sites to one of their competitors, SiteGround.
Read on to hear my full story and why I recommend you also switch your WordPress hosting to SiteGround.
Slow Website Speed: Bluehost or WordPress Issue?
In the early days, I didn’t really know too much about WordPress or website hosting.
However, it was only a few months into the creation of my first website that I noticed that it was substantially slower than other similar sites. And WAY slower than top sites such as Amazon or the BBC.
I remember debating at the time whether it was WordPress or Bluehost that was causing the slowness of my website.
With WordPress, I knew that different themes, image optimisation and page layout (to name but a few) could be affecting my website speed. But as my website was fairly basic, I guessed that WordPress wasn’t the issue and that perhaps I needed to upgrade my Bluehost account to a faster service.
I don’t recall the exact amount more I paid for the hosting upgrade, but it was in the region of going from £5 per month to £15 per month. A big jump in monthly costs!
While the upgrade did help to speed up my website, sadly, it didn’t result in the boost in speed I was hoping for.
Still, I was on Bluehost’s top hosting plan, so I guessed that there was nothing else I could do to increase the speed of my website.
Or was there…
Search Engine Optimisation to the Rescue
Earlier this year, I began to actively seek ways to increase the number of visitors my websites were receiving.
The traffic to my sites had gradually increased over the years, but I certainly wasn’t seeing an influx of people reaching and reading my content.
This was partly my fault, as sometimes months went by without me posting any new content. But I also kept wondering if the mysterious art of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) could help me grow my website traffic.
I took a deep dive into SEO for several months (my wife would probably say I became obsessed with it!) and as well as learning some of the key elements of SEO – which you can find in my Super Simple SEO for Bloggers article – I also discovered that website speed was a major factor of SEO and how Google ranks websites.
This made me test the speed of my sites using a selection of SEO site checkers.
And guess what?
I discovered that the speed of my websites was typically listed as poor and was negatively impacting my SEO. This was despite me paying for the premium hosting plan with Bluehost.
This led me to wonder if I should change the cloud hosting company for my websites.
From Bluehost to SiteGround
As I mentioned earlier, I’m an obsessive researcher. So you won’t be surprised to hear that I spent a few weeks looking at dozens of WordPress hosting companies to see if any of them would be able to speed up my sites and improve the SEO of them.
The outcome of my research was that SiteGround caught my eye.
They strongly suggested that my websites would be faster with them compared to Bluehost. Plus they had introductory hosting plan offers that would save me money during the first 12 months. They also – as I discovered through chatting with them – had excellent customer support.
Now, bear in mind that I had been with Bluehost for almost 10 years, so the thought of moving away from them was somewhat nerve-racking.
- Would there be downtime of my sites during the move?
- Would my sites fail to load and display properly once moved to SiteGround?
- And was there a chance I could lose my sites completely?!
Fortunately, none of my fears were realised, and the process of moving the hosting of my websites from Bluehost to SiteGround was relatively smooth. (I did have one issue, which I’ll talk about in a moment.)
With the help of the SiteGround Migrator plugin for WordPress, I was able to move my sites across to the new host in about 90 minutes. This time included pointing my domain names to the new host.
The only issue I experienced during the move was when the SiteGround plugin announced that my Eco Tech Daily website was too big to migrate. I was shocked when I saw this message, as the site really isn’t that large – consisting mostly of a few dozen articles.
It took me 30 minutes or so of research to find the issue:
Years ago, I had installed a site back-up plugin, that unbeknown to me had been backing up my site twice a week for more than five years. While back ups are a good thing, this plugin had actually saved every single back up to my WordPress server, causing my site to be hundreds of times larger than it’s actual size!
Once I deleted these back-ups (and got rid of the plugin), my SiteGround migration was able to conclude seamlessly.
SiteGround Delivers The Goods
I’m pleased to say that from the moment I moved my websites to SiteGround hosting they have been running at speeds somewhere between 50-100% quicker than when they were hosted by Bluehost.
This is a substantial jump in speed, and not only makes my sites faster and more enjoyable for visitors, but has also helped them move from an SEO grade of poor – to an SEO grade of good.
Of course, you don’t need to take my word for this. You’re on one of my sites right now, so please have a look around and see just how quickly and smoothly all the pages load.
SiteGround offers a wide range of features that can help make your website faster and more secure. Here are a few examples:
- WordPress hosting: SiteGround offers WordPress hosting that is optimised for speed and performance.
- Content Delivery Network (CDN): SiteGround’s CDN provides accelerated delivery of your content to users around the world.
- Security: SiteGround takes security and performance seriously, ensuring your site is safe from unauthorised access.
How to Move Your WordPress Site to SiteGround
If you’ve interested in switching your WordPress hosting provider and speeding up your website, then I’d definitely recommend you check out SiteGround. Not only do they offer some great introductory offers, but their managed WordPress hosting is super-quick and their customer support is first rate.
Their website and support team will be able to answer any of your concerns or queries. You’ll also get an explanation of how to move your WordPress hosting to them.
Please don’t be like me.
I allowed my websites to be slow for many years, as the thought of moving WordPress host seemed daunting.
However, you really don’t need to worry about this. As I explained above, migrating to SiteGround is quick and easy, and your site will likely see an instant speed boost.
To be honest, I’ve been so impressed with SiteGround, that I’ve registered as one of their affiliates.
Simply sign up to a SiteGround hosting plan through my link, and I’ll receive a small referral commission (which helps support my site) – and you’ll get the best possible price plan.
A win-win situation!
