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Navigate Your Website to Success: Speed Improvement To-Do List

speed improvement to do list

With summer in full swing in the Northern Hemisphere and business slowing down, now is the perfect time to optimize your website for the busy season in September. Use this quieter period to improve your site’s speed and implement new features, so that you’ll be well-prepared to attract and engage more customers when business picks up.

Why optimize website speed?

A website is considered fast if it loads for under 2 seconds. If your page takes more than 3 seconds to display all of its assets, the chance of bounce triples as visitors nowadays aren’t willing to wait anymore!

Having a fast site is critical, as it directly affects user experience, engagement, conversions, and SEO. Here’s how:

  • User experience: consumers expect websites to load quickly, and if that doesn’t happen, the likelihood of them leaving the website – bouncing – before it fully loads increases. 
  • Engagement: an optimized website responds more quickly to visitors’ interactions (e.g. clicking on menus, buttons, filling out forms) and respectively, encourages visitors to engage more with the website’s content.
  • Conversions: the more visitors interact with the website, the bigger the chance of them completing desired actions such as making a purchase, signing up for your newsletter, etc.
  • SEO: Web page speed is a ranking factor in Google’s search algorithm as it impacts user experience. Faster sites rank better!

Website Speed Improvement To-Do List:

To help you improve your speed, we’ve created an easy-to-apply to-do list with essential steps. Follow it to make a noticeable difference in your site’s performance.

1. Test your current website speed

💡WHY: When it comes to website speed, every second counts, so it’s a good practice to test your website periodically. As we mentioned, if your website loads for more than 2 seconds, then it’s considered slow, and applying the next steps is crucial.

❓HOW: You can test how fast your website loads for real users with online tools like Pingdom, GTmetrix, or Google PageSpeed Insights. If you have installed our Speed Optimizer plugin, you can check your site speed directly there.  

Along with your website loading time, these tools can help you observe: your page size, content size by content type, performance grade (an assessment of your website overall performance), the load time of the largest content element (e.g. your hero image), suggestions on how to improve page speed, and more.

2. Choose a fast web hosting service

💡WHY: As a website owner, choosing the right web hosting solution is the first critical decision you have to make. Having your website hosted on a fast infrastructure is the foundation of a well-performing website. It has a direct impact on key aspects like server performance, the way traffic is handled and allocated (especially important for sites with traffic spikes during busy periods), network latency, caching and CDN mechanisms, redundancy, uptime, server-level security, and many many more. It can also save you quite a lot of the work mentioned in this to-do list.

❓HOW: Before choosing a web hosting provider, or transferring to a new host, research their hosting infrastructure and technologies provided. With SiteGround, you can rest assured that your website will have one of the best foundations for optimal performance, powered by the latest technologies in the industry. As a company with 20 years of experience in providing advanced web hosting and trusted by the owners of over 3,000,000 domains, we have crafted a robust, ultrafast infrastructure:

3. Use a lightweight website template

💡WHY: Having a lightweight and reputable website template for your website is an important aspect of its good performance. Such templates usually have well-written, optimized code which makes it easier and quicker for a browser to render the page. They are optimized for mobile devices, have smaller graphic file sizes, and respectively – less data to be downloaded. 

❓HOW: When choosing a template for your website, make sure to select a lightweight one from a trustworthy provider. Spend some time browsing reviews and evaluating its characteristics. If you’re looking for a WordPress theme, check out our detailed article on how to choose a theme. If you already have a website but wish to change its WordPress theme due to non-optimal performance, follow the steps in our article on what to do before changing a WordPress theme. If you’re using another content management system (Joomla, Magento, Drupal, etc.), browse their knowledge base resources to find similar guides on the steps you should not miss.

4. ​Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN)


💡 WHY: Using a CDN is a smart decision if you have visitors from different countries or continents and you want your website to load quickly from any part of the world. A CDN caches your site’s content and distributes it across multiple data centers worldwide. So when a visitor opens your website, it loads faster from the nearest to that visitor data center for optimal performance.

❓HOW: At SiteGround, you get a standard CDN integrated and free with every hosting plan. You can also enjoy our Premium CDN at 50% OFF (a limited-time promo!) – a powerful upgrade of the standard service that will turbocharge your website. With it, you can activate the CDN service for all your domains (subdomains, parked, etc.) and cache unlimited CDN traffic. The Premium CDN stores not only the static, but also the dynamic content of your website which makes it a top performance enhancement for dynamic websites.

5. Limit the use of plugins and third-party scripts on your website

💡 WHY: Third-party plugins, scripts, and extensions can introduce important and useful new functionalities to your website, however, it’s crucial to limit their use as they can also contribute to a slow website. The more add-ons you get, the higher the risk of cluttering and deteriorating website performance.

❓HOW: As a start, make sure you’re using only the solutions you actually need. Regularly review them and remove the ones you don’t use anymore or those that have overlapping functionalities. Opt for lightweight plugins with good reputation and reviews as they have a greater chance of being well-coded and optimized for performance. Regularly update them as developers often release updates to improve performance and security issues.

6. Ensure your site is running on the latest stable version of PHP

💡 WHY: PHP is a widely used open-source language for web development. Many popular website content management systems like WordPress, Magento, Drupal, and Joomla are built using PHP. If your website is PHP-based, make sure it is on the latest PHP version as it influences both security and performance. Newer versions typically include optimizations that can greatly improve the speed of code execution, and provide important security improvements.

❓HOW: Managing the PHP of your website depends on the control panel and functionality that your web host provides. With SiteGround, you get a Managed PHP service which means that we will update your PHP whenever there is a new, stable version so that you don’t have to worry about it. The service is enabled by default for all new websites, and clients can switch it OFF and ON in their Site Tools. To check if your Managed PHP is enabled, go to Devs > PHP Manager > PHP Version > pencil icon.

7. Check your hosting provider’s MySQL setup

💡 WHY: MySQL, as one of the most popular database management systems, is used for storing and retrieving data efficiently on countless modern applications and websites. 

Having a fast MySQL setup is vital for the overall performance of your database-driven websites (online stores, blogs, news sites, online forums and communities, streaming and educational sites, job portals, financial, and many more). A well-optimized setup would be able to handle a large number of database queries much more efficiently, thus leading to significantly improved website loading time. 

❓HOW: While having a fast MySQL setup is important, it is also quite technical and is usually in the hands of the web hosting provider so make sure they do their best to make their MySQL work fast. For SiteGround clients, we created an out-of-the-box server-side solution years ago to optimize the processing of MySQL database queries. It is enabled by default and brings down the number of slow queries between 10 and 20 times.

8. Enable caching

💡WHY: Caching is an effective technique to optimize the load time of your website by storing a copy of its content temporarily on the server. This significantly reduces the time it takes for a web page to load for visitors and enhances their website navigation experience.

❓HOW: Reputable web hosting providers usually provide their users with built-in caching solutions that can be enabled with a few clicks. For instance, at SiteGround, we have an in-house caching system called SuperCacher. It offers three caching layers: 

  • NGINX Direct Delivery for caching static content like images, CSS and JavaScript files; 
  • Dynamic Cache – a full-page caching mechanism for dynamic resources;
  • Memcached which caches and speeds up database queries results.  

With Dynamic and Memcached solutions enabled on top of the static cache, you can expect a website boost by up to 5X!


Alternatively, for WordPress, you may activate plugins that would cache the content of your site, but the level of performance improvements they would deliver cannot match the boost you would get when the caching happens in the server memory.

9. Ensure your images are optimized

💡 WHY: It’s a good practice to resize your images before even uploading them to your website as large image files can significantly slow down your website. Having them optimized after upload is crucial to improve loading time and lower bandwidth costs.

❓HOW: There are several basic things that you can do to optimize your images. 

  • Reduce their number: browse your website’s images and leave only those that add value to your website, delete the rest.
  • Reduce their size: before uploading images to your website, make sure they are optimal in size, not bigger than the size you’ll be displaying them in, and preferably save them in the WebP format which offers good compression while keeping high quality. As for the images that are already on your site, use image compression to reduce their size. There are different third-party tools and plugins you can use for that purpose. If you’re on WordPress, the Speed Optimizer can again come in handy.

10. Implement lazy loading

💡 WHY: Lazy loading is a technique used to optimize web page performance by loading images and other resources only when they are needed. By deferring the loading of non-essential content until it’s about to come into view, lazy loading significantly reduces initial page load times and data usage. This is especially beneficial for visitors on slower connections or mobile devices. 

❓HOW: If you’re using WordPress, you can use a plugin such as the Speed Optimizer plugin with the built-in lazy load media functionality. For non-WordPress websites, consider exploring different lazy loading techniques outlined here, ensuring your websites enjoy faster loading times.

11. Compress other files

💡 WHY: Another way to reduce your website loading speed is by compressing your web content files (CSS files, HTML, JavaScript files) to make them smaller. For that purpose, you can use Brotli which is a highly effective compression algorithm developed by Google. Other popular algorithms include Gzip and Deflate. Learn more about them in our article where we explain the difference between Brotli and Gzip in detail.

❓HOW: Brotli needs to be enabled on your server by your web hosting provider. If you’re more tech-savvy and manage your own server, check out this article on Brotli compression for details. For SiteGround users, it is enabled by default. 🎉

12. Remove unnecessary redirects

💡 WHY: Redirects are used for forwarding visitors (or search engines) of a specific URL to another URL (for example, when redirecting from a deleted page to an existing one). Having too many unnecessary redirects is considered a bad practice and can slow down your website. The reason is that each redirect adds extra HTTP requests and delays the loading time.

❓HOW: To avoid that, there are several steps that you can follow such as using direct links, minimizing redirect chains, and more. Go to our article on how to avoid unnecessary redirects for more details.

13. Monitor website performance regularly

💡WHY: Improving your website’s speed and performance is an ongoing process as you constantly upload new content to it. To ensure your website is always well-optimized, you need to regularly monitor its performance.

❓HOW: As we mentioned in the beginning, you can easily do so, using tools like Google PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix, which can also hint at specific recommendations for improvement. On our side, to make performance monitoring easier for SiteGround customers, we send monthly performance reports. These reports provide valuable insights into your total website performance score, web traffic cache utilization, CDN usage, data center and network speed, and more. 

By regularly reviewing this information, you can identify performance bottlenecks and take steps to resolve them, enhancing your site’s performance. To ensure that you are subscribed to them, go to your Client Area > Notification Preferences > Monthly Performance Reports. Don’t forget to pay attention to the recommendations we provide there for improving your site’s performance and use this info to pinpoint areas that need improvement.

Summary

All these steps are quick and easy. They will enhance your website’s speed, ensuring a more enjoyable experience for your visitors. Apply them now to make your site lighter yet stronger, preparing to attract and engage visitors as the busy period approaches.

Quick Cheat Sheet

If you’ve found this checklist helpful, share the blog post or the infographic link with your friends to help them improve their websites too!

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MySQL 8: Successful upgrade of millions of databases, and unmatched customer experience

laptop with MySQL 8 logo and number of successfully upgraded websites

We are happy to announce that we’ve successfully upgraded our servers to MySQL 8, and that roughly 3 million databases are now using it at full steam. More importantly, this massive transition required zero effort on the behalf of webmasters and site owners! Our unique approach to this task allowed us to provide customers with all the benefits of the newest MySQL version, and at the same time mitigate the high risk of updating such a vital underlying website technology.

While many web hosts would change their MySQL version and let customers deal with the consequences, that just doesn’t align with our values. We took it upon ourselves to bring the benefits of MySQL 8 to all our clients, and prepared extensively in order to make the adoption painless and risk-free for them. That meant testing and evaluating seemingly countless application configurations (Joomla, Drupal, WordPress and other CMSs, and all their extensions and themes that come in different setups) to foresee the tons of possible post-upgrade problems – and then eliminate them proactively and swiftly without any work or hassle for the clients. 

Let’s dive into how we made that happen.

The Challenge: MySQL8 upgrade is risky and creates heavy workload for the website owners and webmasters

Upgrading a website’s MySQL is always risky: these big version updates bring with them truly innovative features, but it also means that existing applications and web setups may not be compatible.  Because of that, it usually takes years until they get largely adopted. For example, the first version of MySQL 8 premiered in 2018 and a year after its release it only had a 17% global adoption rate. 

The decision about if and when to switch to a newer MySQL version requires the webmaster to weigh potential problems that might occur against the benefits it brings, and invest time and money in fixing post-upgrade problems. This creates a huge burden for website owners and webmasters.

That’s where web hosting companies might be of huge help – or not – depending on how they manage their servers and the level of service they provide to their customers. Among our competitors there are two popular approaches to such large-scale upgrades: either enable the new MySQL version on only the new servers you launch, and if current clients want the new version they need to relocate to the new servers; or put both the old and new MySQL’s on one server, which would increase the resource usage of the server and might ultimately deteriorate the performance of the sites hosted on it. 

Neither of these options is ideal though. In both cases, the burden of risk still falls on the website owner or webmaster, as they would need to do the work to make their sites compatible with the new MySQL. The likely outcome is that many would just not upgrade, thus missing out on performance, security and other benefits. What’s worse, many clients would continue using an older version of MySQL for so long that it would become vulnerable and unsupported by the official developers. This would put their websites at serious risk. Not a great plan. 

SiteGround’s unique approach: millions of databases automatically updated to MySQL8 without hassle for the clients

At SiteGround our philosophy is to ensure that all our customers can benefit from the latest technologies, and with the least possible hassle: no work, no risk, no extra investment, just take it out of the box and use it. When we offer a new software like MySQL 8 that comes with multiple benefits, we make sure all clients can safely and easily enjoy it. 

This is why our approach to this upgrade was different. We didn’t leave it to our clients to figure out how to upgrade to MySQL8; we did it for them and took on all the work to eliminate incompatibilities and resolve post-upgrade problems. That upgrade process included evaluating the level of risk, researching all possible incompatibilities and upgrade errors, automatically fixing problems, and manually verifying the results. As a result, millions of sites are now using MySQL 8 without any extra headaches.

Extensive research and multiple dry runs to reduce upgrade fail rate 

We began by extensively researching the incompatibilities of MySQL 5.7 (the previously used version of MySQL). The goal was to discover which issues could act as potential blockers to updating a database to MySQL 8. 

Next, we copied and isolated hundreds of servers and started dry-run upgrades. The objective was to identify problematic software and setups that break after the transition, find solutions for them in advance, and document all results carefully. We used all that data to minimize the upgrade fail rate and to automate the aftermath problem resolution.

Automated and quick fixes of broken sites

Building on the extensive research and testing, our engineers developed a smart system that essentially served as a skilled mechanic for your website. It would run a compatibility check with MySQL 8 based on your specific application configuration and database structure. If it detected incompatibilities, it would patch them on the spot.

As a result, after the upgrade this automatic system helped us to immediately remove errors and broken queries for thousands of websites, and it spared us tons of manual work, in addition to resolution wait time for the clients.

Manual fix of 7518 websites by our experts (free of charge for the clients)

The automated checks did a tremendous job, but we went even further. After a server was upgraded, our technicians would open pretty much all websites hosted on it to make sure they were fully functional. Of those, they identified 7518 websites with issues, which they then fixed manually after the migration in due time. 

804 sites provided with a time extension (at our expense)

All our automated and manual checks left us with an impressively low number of sites that remained incompatible with the new MySQL version — below 0.001% of all. For these clients we provided a custom server setup where they would be able to use MySQL 5.7 for two additional months allowing them enough time to address significant query incompatibilities and to get ready for the new version. We believe each of our users should be given the option to receive the best service, so at this time we’ve absorbed the cost of maintaining the old version on additional servers. 

Efficient server upgrade schedule paid off in fast problem resolution

One of the internal challenges during the process was to schedule the servers for upgrade so that we would have had enough people to not only address potential issues, but also complete the upgrade successfully in the shortest possible time frame. Based on our statistics from the dry runs, we could predict how many websites would have had issues per server, and therefore knew how many servers to schedule and how many technicians to staff so that we could address problems quickly. At some point, our process was so efficient that it allowed us to successfully upgrade as many as 180,000 websites in 24 hours! 

Timely and honest communication with customers

Those of you who’ve been customers for a while surely already know how much we value transparent and clear communication when it comes to events that impact your websites. This upgrade to MySQL8 was no exception. We notified each client at least seven days prior to the transition, informing them of the day and hours we would upgrade their websites (always non-business hours for their respective region). 

The Summary 

Our top priority in this upgrade process was that all sites would be fully functional as usual after the upgrade – no problems, just benefits from the newer MySQL. The outcome? We had a 99.99%+ success rate of the migration process! 

  • With solid planning, preparation and precise execution, we successfully upgraded roughly 3 million databases and made them fully compatible with MySQL 8 without any work for our clients. 
  • It took us only 63 migration days to achieve this for all websites hosted on our platform, totally free of charge, all while making sure that every single client website had been thoroughly taken care of. Well, let’s not forget the month or two we invested in preparation work,including research, dry runs, and automations.
  • A special team of 34 people worked for a total of 1228 hours on the actual upgrade, completing the process with utmost efficiency and professionalism – it took them an average of seven minutes per server to switch and resolve issues. 

It was an enormous task on a staggering scale, especially considering the high bar we set for ourselves. But in the end all the hard work on our part paid off in absolutely no work for our clients. And that in itself, for us, is the end goal that justifies all the effort. 

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Create Stunning Emails Fast with Our Free Email Templates (+ More Updates)

SiteGround Email Marketing Templates

Every business, whether it’s a physical store or an online shop, needs to use every tool available to grab and keep (potential) customer attention. Our latest release of free email templates is designed to do just that: make your email creation process smoother, more effective, and enjoyable. We’ve also introduced other exciting improvements including new integrations with popular WordPress lead generation forms, new email builder shortcuts, and more.

Read on to explore all these features and more in our latest update.

Effortless Email Creation with Templates

Email creation should be as easy as possible. To make this process easier, we’ve introduced ready-to-use templates on top of our intuitive no-code email builder, letting you create professional-looking emails with minimal effort. Imagine creating eye-catching emails in no time, impressing your clients, and freeing up valuable hours in your day.

These templates act as a starting point, allowing you to customize and tweak them to fit your business’s unique needs. Here’s how these templates can benefit you:

  • Simplify Your Workflow and Save Time: With our ready-to-use templates, you can streamline your email creation process, freeing up time to focus on other crucial business tasks.
  • Leverage Expert Best Practices – Benefit from the expertise of email marketing professionals. Our templates are designed following proven best practices to ensure your emails look professional and perform effectively, even if you’re just starting out. 
  • Drive Sales with Engaging Emails: Boost engagement and click-through rates with visually appealing templates designed to capture your readers’ attention and encourage them to take action.

Each template is designed and tested by our skilled email marketing team, ensuring quality and effectiveness.

There’s a Template for Every Need

Our first set of templates includes a wide range of designs perfect for different types of businesses and needs, from eCommerce and services to education and real estate. But don’t feel limited by these categories – get creative and customize them to fit your brand’s unique style. Ready to explore some of them?

Promotional Templates

Driving sales and showcasing your offerings is essential. Our promotional templates are crafted to help you present new products, special offers, and exclusive deals effectively.

Ecommerce Email Templates for Promotions

Perfect for showcasing new promotions and products to boost immediate sales. Whether you’re launching a new collection or running a special offer, these templates will grab your customers’ attention and encourage quick action.

Education Email Templates for Courses and Webinars

Ideal for promoting educational courses and upcoming webinars. These templates help you highlight key information about your courses and webinars, making it easy for potential students to enroll and stay informed.

Fitness and Sports Email Templates

Designed for gyms, trainers, and sports facilities to promote classes and services. Showcase your latest fitness programs and schedule classes to inspire and engage your clients.

Real Estate Email Templates for Property Listings

Tailored for real estate professionals looking to showcase properties and open houses. Use these templates to create stunning property listings, highlight open house events, and attract potential buyers or renters.

Restaurant Email Templates for Promotions

Perfect for promoting new menus, food delivery, and reservations. Keep your customers updated with the latest offerings, special promotions, and events to drive more foot traffic and reservations.

Service Industry Email Templates

Versatile templates for various service-oriented businesses to highlight offers and promotions. Whether you’re in website design, home repair, or any other service industry, these templates will help you communicate your value and attract new clients.

Newsletter Templates

Keeping your audience informed and engaged is crucial for building strong relationships and maintaining customer loyalty. Our newsletter templates are tailored to help you effortlessly share valuable content, ensuring your communications are always polished and professional.

Email Templates to Highlight Your Latest Content

Our templates are perfect for presenting new blog posts, articles, or updates, helping you engage your audience and drive traffic to your website.

Email Templates to Promote Products with Tips and Tricks

Enhance your product promotions by sharing useful tips and tricks. These templates allow you to provide practical advice and how-tos related to your products, demonstrating their value and encouraging purchases.

Email Templates to Share Expertise on Key Topics

Position yourself as an expert by sharing handy insights on relevant topics. Our templates help you present engaging content that educates your audience and builds your credibility in the industry.

Travel Email Templates to Showcase Your Journeys

Take your audience along on your journeys by sharing travel experiences and stories. These templates are ideal for creating captivating travel logs, highlighting destinations, and inspiring your audience with your adventures.

New Email Marketing Features and Updates

We’re excited to share some new enhancements alongside our latest email templates, designed to streamline your email creation process and help you grow your email list more efficiently. Here’s what we’ve added:

Customization is key, and now you can change the color of your email footer just like any other element in your email. This update allows you to maintain brand consistency and create visually appealing emails. If you missed our update, check out this video tutorial on how to fully customize your email campaign colors.

Added Shortcuts for Efficiency

To boost your speed and efficiency, we’ve introduced new keyboard shortcuts. These shortcuts streamline your email creation process, saving you time and making it easier to format and link content quickly, thereby enhancing your overall productivity.

Seamless Integrations for Lead Generation

Our email marketing platform now integrates seamlessly with top WordPress lead generation plugins, making it easier than ever to capture and nurture leads. Plus, we’re continuously expanding this list. Currently, the compatible plugins include:

Jumpstart Your New Email Campaign

There’s never been a better time to enhance your email marketing strategy. Our free promotional and newsletter templates are your gateway to crafting compelling, effective, and visually stunning emails that resonate with your audience in no time. Whether you’re aiming to drive sales, inform your readers, or build a community, our templates are designed to deliver results.

Special Offer: Get 80% Off SiteGround Email Marketing

Sign up today and enjoy our limited-time offer, giving you everything you need to craft engaging emails that drive results.

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New: Premium Backup for Ultimate Peace of Mind

premium backups

Your website is the backbone of your online presence, representing countless hours of hard work, financial and marketing investment. At SiteGround, we understand the paramount importance of protecting this valuable asset. Knowing from experience that every website should have backups to restore from, over a decade ago, we introduced automated daily backups for every site hosted at SiteGround. Building on this foundation, later on we launched geographically distributed ones at no extra cost for our clients.

And now, we’re happy to introduce our newest Premium Backup solution designed to ensure that you can quickly create, restore and download from multiple backups of your website in any situation.

What is the new Premium Backup service?

Our Premium Backup service is a comprehensive solution that provides up to 60 additional backup copies of your site and allows downloading all your backups to your local machine. And that’s on top of the daily backups every SiteGround site comes with! 

Read more about the new Premium Backup:

Automatic Backups Made Every Hour

SiteGround’s Premium Backup includes hourly backups strategically created in the last 48 hours. This way you can easily restore a recent, up-to-date version of your website and  prevent data loss.

Hourly backups are a must-have for most websites, but especially for those whose content or backend are often updated, receive online orders or are using a lot of plugins for different functionalities. In case of an accident, an update gone wrong or anything that results in your website not looking or performing as expected, having a recent backup to restore from is absolutely crucial. Having multiple hourly backups enables you to easily locate the one you need to restore from and in just a few clicks specify whether you need a specific file, email or your whole website restored in an instant. 

On-demand Backups at Your Convenience

With our Premium Backup service, you get 5 on-demand backup slots for a full backup of your site, whenever you need it. If your plan already has on-demand backups included, those 5 will be added as additional slots you can use to create even more backups at different times. 

Introducing a big change? Testing a new design? Want to capture a version of your website that you may want to return to later? You can do all of this safely with an on-demand backup. Just log in to your Site Tools, name your new backup and once created, you can easily download and restore from later. 

Extra Daily Automatic Backups for Extended Coverage

When it comes to backups, the more the merrier. With our Premium Backup Service you get 7 additional automated daily backups on top of the ones included in your plan. This makes a total of up to 37 backup copies on shared hosting plans and 14 backup copies on Cloud. With an extended backup coverage you have more options to restore from and a larger period covered so you can rest assured that even older versions are safely stored and available for download. 

Convenient Restores and Backup Downloads

Our new premium backups also allow you to easily restore files, emails, databases, or your whole website. What is more, you can even download any backup to your local computer, where each downloaded backup contains the website’s files, emails and databases.

The download option adds one more layer of security allowing you to keep a backup of your site on your local machine, too. We highly recommend that such copies are created and kept by each site owner, as this increases the redundancy and minimizes further the risk of data loss.  

You can learn more on how to use our backup service in our detailed Backup Service Tutorial.

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How to Make Your Website More Environmentally Friendly

co2 emissions and speed server website icons

Reducing our carbon footprint is an enormous endeavor on a global scale – countries and individuals unite together to decrease carbon emissions. Given the fact how difficult it is to minimize carbon emissions, you might feel that your every day efforts are a drop in the ocean. On the contrary, every effort counts – each recycled plastic item, every website made greener, contributes to this worldwide struggle.

You read that one correctly – a website should be eco-friendly, too. One would think that since websites are digital assets, they don’t leave a carbon footprint. However, websites consume large amounts of energy to load for users and appear in search results.

Here’s how your website impacts the environment and how to reduce its carbon footprint.

What Impact Does a Website Have on the Environment

According to statistics, an average website produces 211 kg CO2 emissions annually. This is the equivalent of 1055 km of driving a car. And that is for just 1 website.

There are nearly 2 billion websites in the world, according to Statista. These make the Internet the sixth largest consumer of electricity on the planet. As a result, on a global scale, it produces around 2% of global CO2 emissions annually, equivalent to the aviation industry.

To calculate your website’s carbon footprint, you can use one of the carbon footprint calculators, available online for free.

4 Ways To Make Your Website Greener

Once you’ve calculated your website’s carbon footprint, there are steps that you can take to reduce this number even further. Have a look at the actions below and think if you can implement the ones you haven’t already taken.

Choose a Green Hosting Provider

Having a green hosting partner for your website is the first step to an eco-friendly website. If you’re still deciding on your hosting provider, or want to check whether yours offers green hosting services, you can simply visit their website and look for green practices and initiatives, such as using renewable energy sources (e.g. wind and solar power) to power their servers, recycling or reducing waste, and similar commitments to the environment.

Why is that so important? Here are some statistics that show how important is the role of your hosting provider in creating and maintaining an environmentally friendly website.

An average website produces 4.61 grams of CO2 for every page view. However, at SiteGround, we dedicate much time and effort to host greener websites. As a result, for websites hosted with us, each site visit amounts to approximately 1.7 grams of CO2 emissions – nearly three times more carbon-efficient than the industry average. Here’s a glimpse of some of the things we do to achieve that:

  • 100% energy match

Our data center infrastructure is powered by the Google Cloud platform which matches 100% of the electricity consumed by the servers with energy from renewable sources. This strategy ensures high redundancy, optimal site speed and sustainability.

  • Data centers close to end users

SiteGround uses more than 10 data centers around the globe for hosting our clients’ websites. The closer that server is to the majority of their website visitors, the faster their website loads for users, and the less energy it consumes.

  • Servers run on the latest tech stack

We constantly optimize our server software and develop powerful tools to maximize efficiency and minimize resource usage. Some of these tools are our in-house built CDN that caches site content on multiple servers on different continents, custom PHP setup that improves page load by up to 30%, SuperCacher that enables full-page caching to make websites up to 5x faster.

Optimize Your Website Performance

If you’ve already using a green hosting provider for your website, that’s a solid foundation for having an environmentally friendly website. The next thing you need to think about is your website loading speed.

A slow website consumes more energy to load. If your website is slow, it will require a lot of processing power from the server, for every visitor that comes and tries to load it. Thus, your site produces more carbon emissions.

Improving your site’s loading times will result in less energy consumption, it will undeniably improve the user experience of your website visitors, and at the end of the day, you’ll have a more eco-friendly website. Here are some practical tips on how to increase your website loading speed:

  • Optimize your use of images

To improve your website’s loading speed, you need to optimize the way you use images on your site. First and foremost, consider what images you use and reduce them by removing the unnecessary ones and/or concentrating them into single files. Second, prioritize and load critical images first – those above-the-fold should load first, while non-critical images could use lazy-loading only after critical images or when they are needed. Next, compress images in size as much as possible, without compromising on their quality. Last, but not least, leverage caching for static images, in order to minimize redundant user requests.

  • Leverage website caching

To speed up your website even further, leverage one of the most powerful technologies – caching. What’s more, it can be applied on different levels of your website – on server and on browser level. Server-side caching reduces the website’s loading times by keeping a copy of the web page on the server. SiteGround clients take advantage of three levels of server-side caching – Nginx Direct Delivery for static content, Dynamic caching for dynamic content, and Memcached (for object caching). Browser-caching, on the other hand, can also significantly reduce your site loading times – when a user visits a website for more than once, their browser will load the cached version of the page, stored on their device.

  • Use a CDN

To speed up your website even more, use a content delivery network (CDN). A CDN distributes copies of your website to users in different geographical locations by loading your website from servers that are located closer to the end user. SiteGround clients leverage our free in-house built CDN which provides their websites with blazingly-fast loading speed, requires no configuration on their side, and is easy-to-manage. But, surely, there are multiple paid CDN products and options out there.

  • Clean up your website from unnecessary weight

Decluttering your website should be just as common as spring cleaning your home. There are some pages, plugins, themes, redirects, files, content and more that slow down your website and increase its carbon footprint. Here are a few things to keep in mind when cleaning up your website:

First, get rid of unused plugins and themes, because of the straight-forward rule: “the less code, the faster your site”. Next, remove outdated content and files from your site. These also take space on your site and further slow it down. Last, but not least, reduce unnecessary redirects that affect website speed by adding extra steps to the page load process – keep your pages and content a click away. To clean up your site even further, explore more techniques in our blog post.

Improve SEO Visibility

Even if your website is hosted with a green host and is optimized for performance, there are still other steps that you can take to make it even more environmentally friendly.

When people search for your website on search engines, that requires a lot of energy. In terms of greenhouse gases, one Google search is equivalent to about 0.2 grams of CO2. To put that into perspective, an average car driven for 0.6 miles (1 km) produces as many greenhouse gases as a thousand Google searches.

That’s why if you optimize your website for search engines, the end users will spend less time searching for it, which in turn will result in less energy spent on server requests, and ultimately a more environmentally friendly website.

Let’s explore the top three SEO practices you can try in order to improve your website’s visibility:

  • Optimize your site structure and navigation

Your website structure is how you organize your pages and content into (sub)categories. Navigation, on the other hand, is how you guide your users to these pages and content. To optimize website structure and navigation, you need to have descriptive URLs with relevant keywords, logically structured and easy-to-follow navigation menu, and use internal links that lead to your own content and pages. All these will help you create a user-friendly site hierarchy, which in turn improves the way search engines crawl your site and its visibility in search engines results pages.

  • Target relevant keywords 

Keywords are what users put in search engines to find what they’re looking for, and at the same time keywords tell search engines what your website is all about. That’s why it’s important to use words wisely. Create clear and concise content that corresponds to what users search for and expect to see on your site. Research and use keywords that your audience looks for in order to match their search intent. Use synonyms and variations as well, in order to cover a wider range of their searches.

  • Audit your website regularly

Analyze the performance of your site regularly to make sure that your website is ranking well and is providing good user experience. For this purpose, you can use different tools, such as Google Analytics, or various SEO tools, that will help you monitor and identify areas for improvement. Common issues include duplicate content, broken links, or slow loading speed.

Strive for User-Friendly Design

Last, but not least, your website design should also be user-friendly in order to make your website more environmentally friendly. Why is design so important? When users land on your site and it provides them with an optimal user experience, this mitigates energy usage and thus, carbon footprint. Let’s explore some effective design strategies:

  • Minimalistic design

When it comes to website design – less is more. Make sure you provide your users with what they are looking for in a user-friendly manner. Avoid unnecessary assets and too many visuals that will distract the users from what they’re looking for. Include only visuals that will somehow benefit your users in their end goal on your site. Keep your design clean in order to reduce page size, your website’s rendering and thus, carbon emissions. 

  • Easy navigation

Ensure your website navigation and finding what users are looking for is easy and can be done in a few steps (clicks). Help your users way-find your content easily by structuring your navigation menus with their user experience in mind. Including internal links to your products and services will also allow users and search engines alike to identify key information easily. Intuitive navigation makes visitors spend less time and energy finding what they require, accomplish tasks with reduced steps and thereby lowers carbon emissions.

  • Mobile and desktop friendly

Another aspect of the user experience is to ensure your visitors can do all of the above just as easily and quickly as on any device they use. Whether they visit your website from a mobile or a desktop device, there shouldn’t be an issue for them to navigate or reach what they’re looking for. What’s more, mobile devices use less processing power than larger devices. Making your website fully responsive helps reduce energy consumption, improve performance and create a seamless user experience.

Wrap Up

Having an environmentally friendly website is just as important as your other sustainable daily practices, such as reducing plastic usage, using public transportation, recycling waste, and others.

However, creating and maintaining a green website takes time and effort. That’s why it’s important to have a reliable green hosting partner like SiteGround on your side, in order to not be alone in the journey to an eco-friendly website.

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PHP 8.2 Becomes the Default PHP Version on All SiteGround Servers

php elephant and a laptop

As of today, PHP 8.2 is the default PHP version on the SiteGround hosting servers. PHP 8.2 has been available on our servers for quite some time, right after its release, and since then anyone was able to use it for their site through our PHP management tool. We are now making it the default PHP since it is already considered fully compatible with all applications on our infrastructure and is the version actively supported by the official PHP developers. Our clients will start enjoying the improved performance and security, as well as the new functionalities included in PHP 8.2 out of the box.

PHP 8.4: Stay Updated! 🚀 Check out our latest blog post to explore the newest features and enhancements in PHP 8.4.

New sites are now created on PHP 8.2 

All newly created sites are automatically configured to use PHP 8.2. This ensures that your new projects will take advantage of this PHP version right from their start.

Existing sites WITH Managed PHP service will be gradually updated by us

We are beginning to update all sites using our Managed PHP service to PHP 8.2. We are committed to ensure that this process goes as smoothly as possible and we will provide all the necessary information and support during the transition. 

  • You will be notified via email when your site(s) are scheduled for upgrade, giving you enough time to check and test them thoroughly, ensuring they are compatible with PHP 8.2. 
  • As part of our Expert Care services you will also be able to request a PHP compatibility check by our experts. 
  • Your current PHP version will remain available after the update, so you will be able to revert to it with a click through our PHP management tool if you need more time to work on your site’s compatibility.

Existing sites WITHOUT Managed PHP service should also consider updating  

We strongly recommend clients who are not using our Managed PHP service to upgrade to PHP 8.2 manually. PHP versions lower than 8.2 are no longer supported by the official developers and come with a security risk, and/or have reached end of life, which is when we have to remove them from our servers. The oldest PHP version now available on our servers – PHP 7.3 – will be removed in 2025.

Why Upgrade to PHP 8.2?

PHP 8.2 offers a number benefits, that would positively affect your site: 

  • PHP 8.2 guarantees faster execution time and reduced resource usage. Compared to PHP 7.4, which was the last default version before 8.2, PHP 8.2 has significantly better performance based on all the benchmark tests we have seen.
  • It offers access to the latest PHP functionalities and improvements, which you may check out in our previous article on the topic written by the PHP Evangelist Cal Evans.
  • Some of the new functionalities, such as the Read-Only properties and Deprecation of Dynamic properties end up generating a more secure code out of the box, which ultimately means a more secure website.
  • It is fully compatible with other software hosted on our platform. All major applications such as WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, etc. have already added support for PHP 8.2. 
  • It is considered mature and is the main version actively supported by the PHP core developers, which guarantees it is kept well patched and secure.
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Upgrading to MySQL 8 on All SiteGround Servers

laptop with MySQL version 8 logo

A few weeks ago we initiated an upgrade to MySQL 8 across our servers. That came as a result of a long process of monitoring and testing the compatibility of this version with our clients’ websites, until we concluded that MySQL 8 is highly compatible with major applications hosted on our platform and safe to switch to.

MySQL is a fundamental piece of software in our stack, used by the great majority of our clients to power up their databases. Its optimal functioning has a great impact on the overall website performance and availability. That is why the SiteGround team dedicates a lot of resources to optimize and customize our MySQL, always aiming to squeeze out better and better performance. To achieve this goal over the years, we introduced various customizations such as our unique MySQL setup, and we carefully plan and test any new MySQL version upgrades, making sure the benefits outweigh the potential damages such an upgrade could bring. We are now confident that MySQL version 8 is largely compatible and our clients can safely take advantage of the enhanced database performance, scalability, and coding optimizations it brings along.

What is the plan for the MySQL update?

First, we would like to announce that all new websites created on our shared servers and all newly created cloud accounts now come with MySQL 8 by default.


Second, the migration process to MySQL 8 of existing shared sites is now in progress. Once our shared servers are updated, we will start updating the Cloud instances too. The process will continue in the next few months. According to our schedule, we plan to have migrated all our customers to MySQL 8 by the end of June this year.

To make the transition as easy and smooth for you as possible, we are sending you emails at least one week in advance to inform you on what dates exactly we are going to upgrade your website to MySQL 8. The upgrade procedure is performed late at night when the traffic to the server is minimal. A brief service interruption may occur while updating the software. No action is required on your side in relation to the migration.

What is new in MySQL 8?

MySQL 8 introduces a variety of new features and improvements of old functionalities all aiming to improve the overall performance and scalability as well as developer experience. Here are some of the most notable ones.

Better performance and scalability

MySQL 8 offers better performance and scalability. Benchmark tests show better results in terms of both performance and scalability for MySQL 8 compared to MySQL 5.7. The tests show that MySQL 8 is handling read/write operations much better and the number of processed transactions is much higher.

Furthermore, the tests show that MySQL 8 utilizes the hardware much better compared to 5.7.

Here are some of the improvements that make this possible:

  • Scaling Read/Write Workloads

MySQL 8 shows better performance on intensive read/write and more than 2 times better performance on high loads is observed compared to MySQL 5.7.

  • Better Performance upon High Contention Loads

Performance for high contention workloads has been significantly improved in MySQL 8. A high contention workload occurs when multiple transactions are waiting for a lock on the same row in a table, causing queues of waiting transactions.

In MySQL 8, such bursts are dealt with much better in terms of transactions per second and latency. That leads to better hardware utilization (efficiency), as the system needs less spare resources and can thus run with a higher average load.

  • Native partitioning/InnoDB Pool Enhancement

MySQL 8 supports native partitioning for the InnoDB engine. That allows you to split large tables into smaller partitions. This can improve query performance and reduce storage requirements, especially for large tables. The new MySQL version also introduces enhancements of the InnoDB pool. The pool is responsible for caching the data and reducing I/O operations.

Common table expressions (CTEs)

With the latest MySQL 8 version, you can now take advantage of common table expressions as well. A common table expression is a result set which exists only temporarily while executing a statement that can later be used in the same statement.

These CTEs allow for creating more complex queries by using simpler blocks, based on temporary tables. In other words, common table expressions allow the usage of named temporary result sets.

Default character change

The default character in MySQL 8 is changed to utf8mb4.

One of the most notable differences between utf8, utf8mb3, and utf8mb4 is the maximum number of bytes per character. While utf8 and utf8mb3 can only store characters in the BMP (Basic Multilingual Plane) of Unicode, utf8mb4 can store characters in the Supplementary Plane. utf8mb4 supports a wide range of characters, including emojis and other special characters.

Invisible indexes

Another new feature in MySQL 8 are the invisible indexes. Generally, indexes are used by the MySQL query optimizer to improve the speed with which data is retrieved, while invisible indexes are the ones that are hidden from the MySQL query optimizer and make it possible to test removing an index on query performance, without making a destructive change.

For example, if you are working with a very large table with a few indexes, and you want to optimize it further by removing certain indexes and adding new ones. Imagine that you know that you will need these indexes in the future. Removing them in the first place might be dangerous, because building them again later on takes lots of resources. To avoid this, you can now simply use invisible indexes – make some existing ones into invisible ones, test whatever you need with the new ones, and then bring them back, when needed, by making them visible again.

Why is now the right time to migrate?

As MySQL is such a fundamental technology, major updates happen rarely and take a long time to be universally adopted. MySQL 8 was first released in 2018, but it took several years for the majority of the websites and their underlying applications to become compatible with it. We were constantly monitoring the level of compatibility and have chosen the current update time, as we have seen that now the risk of negatively impacting a website with the upgrade has greatly diminished. Since the update started a few weeks ago, we have already seamlessly moved hundreds of thousands of sites to MySQL 8.

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Introducing Google Workspace – The Ultimate Collaboration and Productivity Toolkit, Now at SiteGround

Introducing Google Workspace at SiteGround

In today’s digital world, the way we work has evolved significantly. Businesses and individuals alike need tools that enable them to collaborate efficiently, communicate effectively, and maximize productivity – regardless of location or device. That’s why we are thrilled to announce that SiteGround is now offering Google Workspace, the leading suite of collaboration and productivity tools trusted by millions of people and businesses worldwide.

What sets our Google Workspace offering apart is the seamless integration with our hosting services. As a SiteGround customer, you can now order and manage your Google Workspace plan directly from the same Client Area where you manage your hosting account. This means you have a single, centralized hub for all your digital services, making administration and management a breeze. And the best part – you’ll benefit from the same exceptional support you’ve come to expect from SiteGround, now extended to your Google Workspace.

Why Google Workspace?

Google Workspace brings together a powerful set of tools, including high-quota professional Gmail, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Meet, and more – all designed to help you work smarter and achieve more. Whether you’re a freelancer, small business owner, or part of a growing team, Google Workspace provides everything you need to streamline your workflow and take your productivity to new heights.

Professional Gmail with High Storage

First impressions matter, and having a professional email address that uses your own domain name can significantly boost your credibility and brand image. With Google Workspace, you get an ad-free Gmail account that offers ample storage space (up to 5TB per user), advanced spam protection, and a host of email management features. Say goodbye to generic email addresses and hello to a polished, professional online presence.

Supercharged Productivity

Google Workspace equips you with a suite of intuitive, cloud-based tools that make creating, storing, and managing documents and files effortless. With Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides, you can easily create and edit documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, while Google Drive provides secure cloud storage for all your important files. These tools are designed to work seamlessly together, allowing you to access, edit and manage your work from any device, anytime – even offline. 

By simplifying your workflow and enabling you to get more done in less time, Google Workspace helps you focus on what matters most – growing your business.

Seamless Collaboration

Effective communication and collaboration make all the difference when working in teams or doing business online. Google Workspace offers a range of powerful tools to help you stay connected and work together efficiently, no matter where you are. 

Google Meet allows you to host high-quality video conferences with team members, clients, or anyone else, while Google Chat provides instant messaging capabilities for quick, informal conversations. 

With Google Calendar, you can easily schedule meetings, manage your time, and stay on top of deadlines. These tools work together seamlessly, making collaboration feel effortless and natural.

Superb Support & Management by SiteGround

By getting your Google Workspace with SiteGround, you not only benefit from the convenience of unified billing but also gain access to our top-rated 24/7 support. With SiteGround’s commitment to exceptional customer service, you can rest assured that any questions or concerns will be addressed promptly and professionally. Plus, you can easily manage your Google Workspace subscription directly from your SiteGround Client Area for a seamless, all-in-one management.

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20 Years SiteGround: 20 Lessons from Two Decades in Business

20 years SiteGround

In 2024, we celebrate a huge milestone – 20 years in the web hosting business. In our dynamic sector, such milestones are not only markers of time, they are indicators of hard work, adaptability, striving for excellence, and staying true to your values. Our journey was filled with all of that and a lot more!

For two decades, SiteGround has been at the forefront of the web hosting industry, helping millions of creative and ambitious individuals start their online presence. Our journey has been nothing short of inspiring, filled with challenges, growth, learning, and most importantly, the loyalty and support of our clients and partners.

A Look Back

The story of SiteGround began in 2004 with a dream: we wanted to create a hosting service that redefines the standards in this field. We weren’t happy with the level of service offered at the time, so we rolled up our sleeves to build the service we would like to use ourselves. In the beginning, our team was very small and everyone was doing everything, wearing multiple hats. At the end of the first intense year, we got a few hundred clients.

Today, SiteGround is a family of over 500 smart, enthusiastic, and hardworking people. Our hosting platform is home to more than 3 Million domains, and our data centers are spread over 6 continents. All these achievements are the result of our commitment to excellence, innovation, and customer satisfaction.

20 Valuable Lessons from 20 Years in Business

Through the past 20 years, we’ve witnessed many changes and developments – in technology, in our industry, in consumer behavior, and in the way people work. We’ve also learned invaluable lessons along the way.

We feel these extend beyond the web hosting field and apply to any online venture or business. From adapting to technological changes to creating strong client relationships, each experience has helped us grow. For our 20th anniversary, we want to share the lessons we learned, hoping to help you on your way to success.

EXPLORE OUR 20TH ANNIVERSARY LESSONS

And that’s not all – on our 20th-anniversary website, you will also find links to our special giveaway featuring exclusive 20th-anniversary merch. Join us in celebrating this milestone and stand a chance to win limited edition SiteGround swag.

A Big Thank You

As we celebrate our 20th-anniversary milestone, we do so with gratitude to our clients who have entrusted us with their websites and businesses, to our team members for their dedication and passion, and to our partners for their loyalty and cooperation. We begin our next chapter with even more enthusiasm for the opportunities ahead, and commitment to keep our top-notch hosting service. Here’s to the next 20 years of success together!

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How Oasis Real Estate Boosted Email Performance by 30% with SiteGround Email Marketing

How Oasis Real Estate Boosted Email Performance by 30% with SiteGround Email Marketing

Meet Guillermo from Oasis Real Estate, a real estate agency based in California. Guillermo’s journey with email marketing began much like any other – searching for the right tool to connect with customers, promote events, and grow his contact list. For Oasis Real Estate, the search for an effective communication strategy led them to SiteGround’s Email Marketing Tool – a decision that not only streamlined their email marketing processes but also boosted their email performance by an impressive 30%.

The Challenge of Complex Email Marketing Platforms

Before discovering SiteGround, Oasis Real Estate, like many other small businesses, navigated through a labyrinth of email marketing platforms. Each promised results but often at the cost of complexity and hidden headaches. That’s when SiteGround’s email marketing tool came into play, a breath of fresh air in a market cluttered with over-complicated platforms. It promised ease of use without compromising on the powerful features necessary for running successful email marketing campaigns. What he appreciates most about our tool is the straightforward, no-extra features approach that can disrupt the workflow, stating, “SiteGround Email Marketing has been the best so far,” valuing our tool’s focus on what’s essential for his business.

Why Email Marketing? 

For Guillermo, email marketing is the lifeline for nurturing client loyalty and generating new leads. He and his team found that emails with promotions and events are particularly effective for growing their customer base. It’s their way of delivering value that keeps clients coming back for more. 

Key Features That Deliver Results 

Since adopting the SiteGround Email Marketing tool, Oasis Real Estate has enjoyed a suite of features that have made all the difference:

  • Templates: The option to save your emails as templates allowed for quick and easy campaign creation, saving precious time and resources.
  • At-a-Glance Analytics: The current analytics provide essential insights that inform better decision-making.
  • Effortless Scheduling: The ability to schedule campaigns in advance ensured that messages reached clients at the optimal time.

Easy Lead Generation 

Oasis Real Estate were able to easily grow their contact list with the help of SiteGround’s Lead Generation plugin. Guillermo expressed his satisfaction with the sign-up forms, stating that they are now present on all of their pages. This means that they no longer have to spend extra time synchronizing leads manually, as the plugin handles it automatically. This simple process has saved them valuable time and made lead generation a lot easier.

Real Results 

How real? A 30% increase in open and click-through rates, translating to better engagement and more successful campaigns – since switching to SiteGround Email Marketing. That’s the kind of improvement that turns email marketing from a chore into a winning strategy.

Guillermo found that the SiteGround Email Marketing tool’s streamlined approach saved time across the board. From creating campaigns to managing contacts, every aspect of email marketing became more efficient, freeing up the team to focus on other critical areas of their business.

So, if you’re looking for a hassle-free email marketing solution you might want to give SiteGround Email Marketing a chance – it’s free for the first 30 days! Who knows? You might just be the next success story! 

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