Malfunctions that occur during the life of a website are part of its operation—it is not really possible to manage a website with zero problems. In some cases, malfunctions are caused by poor website maintenance, poor website construction, or incorrect use of content management systems such as WordPress. Sometimes the source of the malfunctions is the website's hosting server – in such cases, you should contact the hosting service to get a response and have the problem addressed.
Website hosting – common problems
Website loads slowly
A slow website is a common problem, especially in the age of WordPress sites. In many cases, the slowness of the website is due to its poor operation, such as installing too many plugins. However, there are cases where the slowness is due to a malfunction in the hosting server. First, it is recommended to check that the website is indeed slow and that it is not a temporary problem that will resolve itself after a few minutes. Check the website using an external speed test tool to make sure that it is indeed loading slowly from different computers. Also check from mobile phones and computers connected to different internet providers.
Keep in mind that a website hosted on a server abroad will load more slowly than a website hosted in Israel. Cheap website hosting abroad is also of lower quality and is based on inferior hardware, so your website may be consistently slow. If your target audience is in Israel, we recommend choosing Israeli website hosting.
You can also log into the control panel of the hosting server to check if there are any indications of a malfunction. If the control panel does not load at a reasonable speed, there may indeed be a problem with your website's hosting server. In this case, contact technical support to resolve the issue.
Fast website hosting is critical to running a successful website. If you frequently experience server slowness, you may be on an overcrowded shared server or simply have a subpar hosting company. Moving your website to a new host is not complicated and can save you a lot of headaches and money.
Server crashes
When a website hosting server crashes and is down for a period of time, it is a serious problem. In this situation, your website will simply not load, and you may see an error screen when you try to access the site. Usually, errors originating from the hosting server appear with a 5XX code. For example, error code 500 indicates an internal server error, code 504 indicates that the server did not respond to the request in time, and so on.
Server crashes are an important test for your hosting service. If the malfunction is fixed quickly, and the hosting company provides updates, operates transparently, and truly cares about your websites, then everything is fine. If the malfunctions recur constantly, last a long time, and there is no response or adequate response from the hosting company, then it's time to switch.
Deletion of information
Unfortunately, due to a lack of professionalism that is very common in Israel, we often hear about incidents of entire websites being deleted from hosting servers. Such a serious malfunction can occur when the server is managed negligently or when the hardware is faulty. And even if information is deleted, the worst-case scenario is when there are no backups for the websites that were stored on the server. Before you even choose a website hosting company, it is highly recommended to make sure that the company performs automatic backups on a daily basis and stores them on a separate server (backups are useless if they are also deleted from the malfunctioning server). At Linux Hosting, we take care of your information and perform daily backups. You can perform backups on the server yourself if necessary, and save them on your computer.
Hacking the hosting server
Security threats to servers and websites are only increasing. There are all kinds of indications that a website has been hacked: sometimes it will be vandalized and the home page will become something completely different from the original, sometimes links to spam sites will be planted in it, sometimes you will see a warning on Google about malicious code being found on the site, and sometimes the hackers will even delete the site entirely.
Admittedly, with high-quality backups, any hacked website can be restored to life in a short time, but if you experience repeated hacks on your website (and you have done everything possible to strengthen its security yourself), it may be that your website hosting is not secure—and you should move away from it quickly.
It is very important to make sure that the hosting company takes care of security. Check with the company: Is a firewall installed, what operating system is on the server, is there software that scans the server for viruses, and what is the backup policy? A reputable hosting company will emphasize the importance of information security and provide you with clear answers on the subject. In any case, don't forget to back up the website yourself and save the backups on your computer or in the cloud to ensure that you can quickly restore the website or transfer it to another host if necessary.