Every website owner wants to experience seamless, efficient and enhanced website performance and is constantly searching for ways to attain this aim. At the core of this blog are ways to augment website performance of those sites in particular that are using the service of shared hosting.

What is Shared Hosting?

Shared hosting is one of the many types of web hosting services, which include dedicated hosting, reseller hosting, cloud hosting, WordPress hosting and VPS. Web hosting services are offered through various feature-rich plans by companies that specialize in web hosting services. Such companies are known as web hosts or web hosting companies or web hosting service providers.

Web hosting is used for the purpose of making websites accessible over the Internet. Server space is provided in web hosting for storing the files of websites. In order for websites to be accessible these files need to be delivered from the server over the Internet to the devices of those individuals who are browsing the Internet to access websites. The technology and the services that are needed to make this possible are also offered by web hosting companies. Usually the most reliable web hosting services are referred to with terms such as the “Top Cloud Hosting”, the “Best Windows Shared Hosting”, the “Best Linux Shared Hosting” etc.

Shared hosting, which is a type of web hosting service, can be Windows-based or Linux-based. In this type of hosting, a single server hosts multiple websites, which use the same server and its resources. That is why it is one of the most economical options for web hosting. In shared hosting, a limit is imposed on the server resources that each website hosted on the same server can use. This limit depends on a user’s plan’s specifications.

Owing to it being economical, shared hosting is ideal for website owners with budget constraints, bloggers, small and medium-sized companies and also for websites that receive less traffic, as such websites don’t consume a lot of resources. Nevertheless, in shared hosting one must ensure to opt for a plan that provides high uptime, robust security, SSD (Solid State Drive), data backup facility and 24*7 customer care service, to ensure a seamless performance of one’s site. These are some of the essential features that need be present in a shared hosting plan for it to effectively deliver unhindered and efficient hosting service and satisfactory website performance.

The Most Common Issues Experienced by Websites in Shared Hosting

Shared hosting is economical and easy to set up, which are its main benefits. It has some drawbacks as well, which cause issues for the users of shared hosting services. Apart from being vulnerable to security risks, websites experience limitations on resource availability in shared hosting, based on their individual plans. Since the same server’s resources are being used by multiple websites, each website gets a certain portion of the total resources and not the entire resource of the server. This impacts a site’s performance adversely, more so when a website using shared hosting tries to add some resource-intensive functionality to his/her website. Another problem frequently encountered in shared hosting has to do with slow speed. This happens because a site’s performance gets impacted by the infrastructure of the shared server and by the activities of the other websites that are hosted on the same server. It is the lack of resources, caused by the limitations imposed on resources in shared hosting, which hamper a website’s performance in the shared hosting environment.

Enhancing Website Performance in Shared Hosting

If budget constraints or some other reasons prevent one from upgrading to a dedicated server or VPS or hosting that is cloud-based, then there is no need to fret about it. There are ways to boost one’s website’s performance even when one is using a shared hosting plan. Most of the top-tier hosting service providers offer efficient hosting solutions that use the latest technology to ensure the fastest speed of their clients’ sites.

There are many other ways, which help to boost a website’s performance in shared hosting. One of the solutions involves supercharging one’s website with a CDN (Content Delivery Network) solution. A CDN provides a cluster of servers in specific geographical areas. An exact copy of one’s site is hosted on each server. Every time an end user accesses a website, the server that is closest to that user geographically, responds. This directly enhances page loading speed of the website. One doesn’t need to change one’s hosting plan or implement any changes in one’s site to reap the benefit of this solution. The only requirement is to have an account with a CDN.

Alternatively, one can cache one’s website to attain enhanced website speed. Caching one’s website enables repeat visitors to access the site at very fast speed. Web cache execution differs and depends on one’s framework. Many web hosting companies provide built-in caching tools, which manage web performance efficiently and effortlessly.

Often a site’s design and implementation tactics are the prime reasons for the site experiencing slow speed. In such a scenario, one must ensure full optimization and compression of all images.  This boosts the speed of the site instantly. Any image on the site that had not been compressed and sized prior to uploading should be deleted and replaced with the resized/compressed file. Optimizing images and deleting excess media provides an effective solution for boosting a website’s speed and in turn its performance in shared hosting environment.