Table of contents of the article:
What is the best WordPress hosting and above all what advantages does it offer compared to another WordPress hosting? What is different among the many offers on the market?
These are roughly the doubts and the most frequent questions that many WordPress or WooCommerce users ask themselves when they have to choose a hosting, perhaps having to understand the often substantial price difference.
How to choose fast WordPress hosting?
In a world where marketing reigns supreme, able to deceive the decision-making process of each of us, made up of unlikely slogans, as much as of false reviews obtained by paying bloggers and affiliates, answering these questions is the most necessary we feel the need to Do.
Any hosting provider and Web Performance expert with something real to say, show, and demonstrate has always used the American before/after comparison to want to measure the added value in terms of improvements they have made, in the eternal and always correct philosophy of "measure and decide."
This time we want to take a different approach to what is de facto a standard rule, that is, measuring the Google PageSpeed score first and measuring the Google PageSpeed score after to measure and show with screenshots how much we have been able to improve the scores, perhaps by acting on the new Core Web Vitals metrics.
This time we want to do the opposite, that is to measure the values of a site of one of our customers and then remeasure them on the hosting of the new provider and show you what is lost by not having us as suppliers.
The Asso360 affair
Asso360 is THE accounting and management software for associations, a cloud-based accounting and management platform dedicated to sports associations, non-profits, and third sector organizations that helps them manage their organizations easily and optimally on a daily basis.
The software was born modular, with a management component that resides on Microsoft environments and a commercial part used to promote the product and related services, that is a website created entirely in WordPress that lists all the features of the software and communicates the points of strength of successful software.
At Managedserver.it, we have always been committed to managing the availability of the asso360.it WordPress site and related third-party services , excluding the management part, offering a WordPress Hosting service and related technical/system consultancy, also resolving collateral issues when requested with our valuable contacts.
Asso360 was born in the Marche region, from the challenge of its creator who over time with audacity and perseverance and the collaboration of trusted developers manages to create a practically new market, that of third sector associations and entities.
This does not go unnoticed and with the interest of most of the major national players in the field of management and office software, it was decided to enter into collaboration with Buffetti, a name that needs no introduction whose history and fame is now a tradition for generations.
The story is reported by the main national newspapers and relaunched everywhere.
The purchase of Asso360 and the migration to the Buffetti proprietary platforms.
As we have learned over the past 5 years, success always involves a phase of reorganization. If we also want to remember different experiences, in the success phase we always tend to reorganize the company, change some variables, some components, some suppliers. Sometimes it goes well, sometimes it goes wrong, it always depends on whether decisions are made with full knowledge of the facts, in the always valid and eternal entrepreneurial rule "measure to decide".
Sometimes decisions are the result of habits, of written and unwritten rules, of "it has always been done this way" and of the desire to continue to "always do this".
It therefore happens that sooner or later the request arrives to move the site to their servers supervised by their technicians because this is how things must go, and Buffetti, the new takeover, acquiring the software, certainly has all the technical figures and all the know-how in the company to be able to manage. the best company official website of Asso360.
Or maybe not ?
Measure to decide.
We therefore wanted to measure some KPI "Key perfomance Indicators" to show and demonstrate that sometimes, in good faith, perhaps out of traditionalism, perhaps out of superficiality, even the giants make mistakes.
Far be it from us to criticize absolutely legitimate choices of a company that does not need “Buffetti” explanations and presentations. This article is not for them, too high up and with traditionalistic models that would make any conversation in vain in an extremely sparkling and dynamic historical and technological context.
This article, this post written at 3 am is for you reader. To make you understand that a hosting is not the same as another hosting and that probably after you have finished this article you will not make the same mistake as Buffetti.
We measure the PageSpeed score obtained on our WordPress hosting.
Throughout 2020, we focused heavily on Google's new Core Web Vitals . From its introduction, seemingly just a vanity metric, until Google announced that site speed measured in Core Web Vitals was also a good ranking factor, we sought to develop the appropriate expertise to provide solutions not only on the server side but also on the application side.
Therefore, at the beginning of 2021 we introduced satellite activities to our Hosting Performance services in order to guarantee a double benefit to the customer, speed for the navigator and speed for Google or as Google expects it.
In summer 2021, we decided with the developer to optimize asso360.it as it had never been done before. We have therefore implemented all the best practices on the server and application side by processing changes to our software stack to obtain what on November 12 (one week before delivery to the new supplier) we can see in these screenshots, both mobile and desktop of the Google PageSpeed test Insight:
Two very important scores in the “green zone”, indicating a nice 93 on the Mobile Device Test, and a perfect 100 on Desktop devices.
In short, two scores that in some way mean that although the WordPress site was originally problematic and at times a disaster, with a bit of work, commitment and dedication we managed to bring it to values that were, if not perfect, at least very high , certainly worthy of a brand on a par with the Asso360 management system, the flagship of management systems for associations, but also on a par with the new Buffetti who, as already reiterated, needs no further introduction.
This improvement has value both for the user's navigation speed, who finds a lean, fast, responsive and snappy site, and for Google, which tends to position a fast site that satisfies the criteria introduced with the Core Web Vitals better than a slow or non-compliant site.
For some time, in fact, the Mountain View search engine has been looking for an improvement, to make users' navigation effective.
It should be remembered that, in addition to these parameters, there are other positioning factors considered indispensable by the search engine:
- Optimization mobile friendly
- Using a protocol HTTPS for the security of a website
- Minimize loading time of the pages
- Better structure advertisements present.
We have written several articles and posts about Core Web Vitals like this one Core Web Vitals : A guide to Google's vital parameters Core Web Vitals as well as a real commercial service specifically designed to improve the performance of WordPress and the performance of WooCommerce but also of other CMS that you can find here Core Web Vitals Optimization
We measure the PageSpeed score obtained on their WordPress hosting.
We therefore wanted to repeat the operation and measure again the values obtained on their new Hosting which also benefits from CloudFlare.
We browsed the website of the new Linux system support company that supports Buffetti products and, as colleagues, we still denote preparation and competence in the field, reading about many virtualization solutions and containers, until we were pleasantly surprised that they also use backup software such as Borg and Restic like us and exactly for the same purpose and in exactly the same order.
In short, if their systems engineer ever reads this article, we want to express our sincere compliments.
However, even the best system administrator with objectively high intrinsic capabilities, if not verticalized on the new web-side challenges and specifically on Google Core Web Vitals , will end up providing an excellent service but with the same methods that were used a few years ago which today, with increasingly stringent metrics that are difficult to achieve without specialization, produces gaps and problems to the detriment of the site owner and also of the site's navigator.
Repeating the same Google PageSpeed Insight tests this is what emerges today Tuesday 7 December:
Mobile Score
Desktop Score
We can therefore note, by comparing the initial situation, that we have gone from 1,9 to 10,5 seconds for what concerns the Mobile user experience and from 0,5 to 2 seconds for what concerns the Desktop user experience.
Basically, after switching to a new provider, the site was 4 times slower on desktop and 5 times slower on mobile.
What does a slow site mean for a visitor?
A website is considered slow when it takes more than 3 seconds to load, regardless of the device used.
Statistics show that a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load has very high abandonment rates. People are in a hurry and those on the web are even more in a hurry. For an online business, a slow site can lead to a sharp decline in revenue.
A slow website has three major negative effects on the operator's bottom line, factors that significantly impact their online success. Specifically, they are:
- usability. The ability to engage customers and theirs retention they are influenced by the loading time of the web pages and by the response time of user requests. The better the performance of the site, the greater the satisfaction of the consumer, who therefore lends greater confidence in the brand and the offers proposed. In this way it is possible to consolidate and expand one's customer base;
- conversion. Their rate decreases as a website's load times increase. It was found that 40% of customers completely abandon the site if it takes more than 3 seconds to load the pages. On the other hand, 47% of the waiting time that they are willing to allow is a maximum of 2 seconds. As a result, access speed is critical to maintain its operations. Secondly we must not forget that the first impressions they matter.
Therefore a user tends to no longer refer to a slow website, preferring that of a competing operator who knows how to offer better performance in finding information about his hotel, offers or to book. If the loading time is high, customers are dissuaded from a future return. For 52% of people, the faster the website is, the more they tend to be loyal to it, while if the loading times are slow 79% abandon it. Furthermore, 44% would advise their friends not to use a site where they have had a negative experience;
- visibility. In most cases, users access a website after searching for certain keywords on a search engine, most often Google. The latter uses for displaying the SERP (search engine results page) site speed as a ranking factor. This is a device designed to ensure the best possible online experience for users. So loading times directly affect the likelihood that the site will be easily found by search engine users.
What does a low PageSpeed score mean for Google?
In May 2020, Google announced the introduction of Core Web Vitals , a set of metrics to evaluate the quality of user experience on web pages.
Google's idea is to encourage the development of pleasant and easy to navigate websites so that the user can find what he is looking for quickly and with satisfaction.
Core Web Vitals will soon become ranking factors, joining the many parameters Google uses to decide the order in which web pages appear in the search engine. In short, it's best to get to know them now because, starting in 2021, SEO will also mean taking care of your website's user experience.
With Core Web Vitals, Google will introduce a new set of ranking factors that transcend SEO and extend to web design and development. So, what? SEOs will work more closely with web designers and developers; at the same time, SEOs will need to embody at least some of these other professional roles, acquiring or enhancing the web development skills that allow them to design, build, and rank beautiful, fast, and easy-to-navigate websites.
Conclusions and reflections
Large companies and groups often have serious difficulties in objectively understanding and evaluating decision-making choices and the reasons behind them. The lack of verticalization on certain issues and the desire to keep "everything in-house" without delegating externally, unfortunately, leads to a limbo-like situation, in which "everything works" but not optimally.
In short, it's certainly easier for a CTO or CEO to realize that something isn't working if they're faced with a site that's down and unreachable or has a glaring 500 error, rather than having a site that works well, opens and navigates well overall, but with speeds 4 or 5 times slower than in the past, which could potentially be achieved by relying on reference figures like us and specialized personnel specialized in certain topics such as Core Web Vitals and Web performance.
Who cares to evaluate the actual soundness of the choice made and the change? What advantages did it bring? What disadvantages did it bring? These are the questions every manager should ask themselves when deciding to change suppliers in any context, according to the good principle of measuring before deciding, thus avoiding gut or traditional decisions " because it's always been done that way ," and meritocratically recognizing the competence of those who, with numbers in hand, demonstrate and demonstrate the ability to achieve outstanding results (better than competitors) and achieving a win-win balance with advantages certainly in favor of the client.
For our part, the "two of spades" (pleasantly speaking) obtained by Asso360 (forgive the pun) instead led us to understand some communication shortcomings on our part which are among other things the reasons why some customers they do not understand what we do and why we are different and better than other hosting providers.
In this regard, we wrote this post, with the hope of creating awareness in the understanding of the differences that exist between many Hosting services in which everyone rightly or wrongly says and claims (without any proof) to be the best.
