Every website online requires a web host. Hosting providers make the design, files and information about your site visible to hose searching online.
But not all hosting providers are right for your CBD company.
In fact, some may be outright disadvantageous, holding your company and brand back from reaching its true potential.
At DankGator, we specialize in one thing and one thing only: website design, hosting and marketing for CBD brands and dispensaries.
In this guide we explore how to choose the right host for your CBD website, providing you with a comprehensive run-down of why these elements are so important for a CBD brand to consider.
In a market as competitive as CBD is, you can’t afford to leave anything to chance.
What to Look for When Choosing a Host for Your CBD Website
What is CBD Hosting?
CBD hosting is a term used to describe a web host that hosts websites promoting or marketing CBD (and in some cases, legalized cannabis).
CBD hosting is unique in that the CBD industry is wrought with legal minefields, rules, regulations and compliance to consider.
The right host can make sure your website is always up to speed on these and a wide range of other issues. But more than that, the right website host will proactively help your brand succeed, driving performance, conversions, improved user experience, and more. All while protecting your company from would-be hackers and other online threats.
Types of CBD Hosting
Shared Host
The most budget-friendly, this type of hosting offers ‘shared’ use of resources with an often ‘oversold’ pool of other sites. With very little margin to be had, companies offer shared hosting that often suffers from low page speed, ‘bad neighborhoods’ (Bad IP location) next to other brands that may have been penalized by Google (or worse, hacked), and generally low performance. That’s said, if you’re on an extremely tight budget, you can get away with this type of hosting until you can afford something better.
Dedicated
The most robust and flexible in terms of performance, dedicated hosting is also the most complex and costly. Generally overkill for most CBD brands, dedicated hosting usually comes with the challenge of having to manage your own server (a technical full time job that might not be in your wheelhouse).
Cloud VPS
Cloud VPS providers like DankGator, offer the best of both worlds. They offer a dedicated amount of resources to each CBD website, robust speed and performance, management of the server, and great customer support, all without the high price tag of a dedicated server. In short, a cloud VPS is a virtual private server with a specified amount of resources allocated from a dedicated server for each customer.
Choosing the Right CBD Hosting: a guide
Fact is, the hosting landscape is a big one, with a myriad of options to choose from. Knowing what your CBD site will require, from memory and processing power, to host location can make a big difference when choosing the right company.
Below we outline the six key aspects of web hosting, and how those can dramatically impact your CBD brand in the marketplace.
1. Website Building Tools and High Converting Templates
At DankGator we specialize in CBD and dispensary websites. Because of this, we have a massive amount of data on what works and what doesn't in the industry. Using this knowledge, we created one of the most intuitive, easy-to-use, and powerful website builders in the industry. Best of all, you don’t even need to know how to code to create a visually stunning site that converts as good as it looks.
Moreover, we provide ready-to-go web templates so you can launch brands, products and funnels fast.
2. Faster is Better
If your website is the racecar, your web host is the high-octane fuel that makes it go faaaast! Speed is a critical component of any hosting decision.
Why?
Google Ranking (Core Vitals Update)
Google’s core vitals update now factors in page speed as a leading factor in measuring the user experience. This means that websites that load faster will get preferential treatment in ranking on their search engine.
Conversion Rate Optimization
Page speed is a leading driver of conversion rate optimization (CRO). Large-scale studies on eCommerce brands from mom and pop stores to the likes of Walmart and Amazon have found that every 1-second increase in page load speed results in a 2% increase in conversion rates. Even increases by as little as 100 milliseconds in load time have produced conversion rate boosts by as much as 1.11%.
Bounce Rate
Google’s own published research has shown that page load speeds of 3 seconds results in an increase of bounces (people who click on your site and leave before it has time to load), increased by 32%. Once you hit a 3-4 second load time, the percent of ‘abandoned’ visitors increase to darn near 40%. Can your CBD company afford to lose up to half of your hard-earned web traffic? This is yet another reason why ‘shared’ hosting can do way more harm than good.
3. A Host That Scales As Fast as You Do
Your company might be small now, but if you have big aspirations, you want a hosting provider that can scale with your company. Similarly, you need a host that can scale on-demand to meet the needs of elastic demand and large traffic increases from seasonal sales (i.e. 4:20) as well as marketing campaigns. At DankGator we know the CBD industry in and out, planning accordingly to help make sure your site is always ready to go.
4. Security – Know your site is protected day or night
Cyber threats are on the rise, and there’s more at risk than your reputation and data. CBD businesses are a favorite target of hackers, knowing that these websites process payment data and other useful personal information with orders.
And its not just the ‘big guys’ that get hit. According to Symantec and other leading security firms, more than 43% of all hacks are carried out against small businesses. With 62%of ALL SMBs reporting a cyber attack within the previous 12-month period.
These hacks often cost small to medium-sized businesses upwards of $2.2 million per incident, with almost half going offline for at least 8 hours. Worse yet, the financial cost of legally required notifications to customers, lost faith in the brand (decreased sales), and legally mandated identity theft monitoring is enough to cause almost half of SMBs to go out of business.
At DankGator we take the security of our customers seriously. As a top priority at the company, we employ industry-leading preventative measures to keep clients’ CBD sites safe and secure.
More than that, DankGator offers FREE SSL certificates for security, and automatic backups so even if your site goes down, you’re never left holding the bag.
4. Support You Can Count On
Running a CBD site or dispensary is challenging enough without having to worry about hosting issues slowing you down. Support is a key factor when choosing a web host. You want a provider that is responsive, friendly (for those times when you want to rip your hair out), insightful, and patient.
At DankGator, customer service and support is a guiding pillars of what we do. Technology can be complicated, and when things go wrong, we know it can cause a major upset for your business. From 24/7 monitoring, to lightning-fast response and remediation, we’re here when you need us most.
5. Uptime Guarantee
What good is a CBD site if it's not online when your customers need it? Although pretty standard at most reputable web hosts, having a 99.7% or higher uptime guarantee is worth checking on.
6. Cost of a CBD Host
While you shouldn’t have to pay an arm and a leg, you also don’t want to go too cheap either. Your host is a key partner in making sure your business is a success, and an investment into the digital presence of your brand.
Anything under $25/month is probably worthy of a red flag, while anything over $199/month is likely overkill unless you have a massive site with a ton of traffic.
At DankGator we meet brands in the middle, offering a TON of value for just $49.99/month, a fee that gets you a whole lot more than just web hosting.
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