[Hidden-tech] LiquidWeb sold to bottom feeders - time to switch hosts, any recommendations?

[Rob Laporte]

For nearly 2 decades now, I’ve watched web hosts rise on low price, then sooner or later either sell out with bad consequences or reduce quality because, well, they actually needed to make a profit. It happened to literally every one I’ve used, up to about 5 years ago, when we started reducing to zero our new web dev work. In the last ~12 years that we dealt with web hosts for clients, I always warned them that this will happen to them, hopefully later not sooner, and that the cost of switching is like a liability on a balance sheet that will be paid some time in the future. For the last five years, the few times I’ve advised on this at all, I’ve said anything under $30/month is a high risk, and more expensive is not a guarantee either. 

Unfortunately, as with so much of contemporary capitalism in the tech arena, economies of scale often enable larger organizations to offer more value than smaller local companies— if one does not count the value of paying more precisely to help local businesses, which I think is worth some extra cost, but not to the point of propping up a soviet shoe factory, so to speak. Increasingly over the last few years, local hosts rent from larger ones and resell as local. 

It’s worth searching a prospective web host’s site to see if they are offering large kickbacks through affiliate and agency incentive programs. Too large, and your paying more for marketing and less for server value. 

Many web hosts are migrating to technology that I suspect, but have to investigate further, pose SEO risks. I’ve definitely seen CDNs (content delivery networks) with or without some kinds of caching cause 301 redirect problems where you test the 301s and they work, but they do not work for Google or for people in other CDN locals. The rapidly ascending NGinx platform can be set-up this way. I’m not sure how much of such problems arise from the fundamental server architecture as opposed to how a given web host configures their servers. CDNs and caching have good purposes--and reduce web hosts' server and bandwidth costs--but until I learn more, I lean towards good old Apache servers. That all said, I’d love to hear from people who know a lot about CDNs, caching, and NGinx. 

Best Regards,

Rob Laporte
Founder & Managing Partner
DISC, Inc. - "Making Web Sites Make Money"
413-584-6500
Rob at 2disc.com
www.linkedin.com/in/2disc
www.2disc.com

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> On Aug 29, 2016, at 6:32 PM, Lisa Hoag <1world4all at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi Everyone, 
> Wow! thanks for the quick response :) Wonderful Hidden-Tech Community :)
> Some great suggestions which I will look into. Anyone else have thoughts?
> 
> Warm Regards to All,
> 
> Lisa
> 
> 
> On Mon, Aug 29, 2016 at 4:46 PM, Lisa Hoag <1world4all at gmail.com <mailto:1world4all at gmail.com>> wrote:
> Hi Fellow Folk :)
> 
> Another great hosting company bites the dust :( I just learned that Liquid Web sold my hosting account to Deluxe Check.
> 
> Does anyone have any suggestions about a webhost that they enjoy working with, that offers cPanel, and good phone tech support, preferably local and not likely to get bought up.
> A few years back I was working with a great hosting company, who got bought out by Deluxe Check.The customer service became really terrible, to the point where agents were apologizing to me that their company had been bought and they were being forced to provide poor service. I have no desire to do business with Deluxe again. 
> 
> Thanks for any suggestions. Very appreciated.
> 
> Best Regards,
> 
> Lisa
> 
> -- 
> Lisa Hoag Designs
> PO Box 983
> Wendell, MA 01379
> http://www.lisahoagdesigns.com <http://www.lisahoagdesigns.com/>
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Lisa Hoag Designs
> PO Box 983
> Wendell, MA 01379
> http://www.lisahoagdesigns.com <http://www.lisahoagdesigns.com/>
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