Your website should be hosted somewhere reliable, secure, and ideally managed by whoever built or maintains the site — so if something breaks, one place is responsible for fixing it. Cheap, unmanaged hosting can leave a business vulnerable to downtime, slow speeds and security issues with no one keeping an eye on it.
What does web hosting actually do?
Hosting is the service that stores a website's files and makes them available to visitors' browsers whenever someone types in the domain. Without hosting, a website doesn't exist online — it's the infrastructure everything else runs on.
What's the difference between managed and unmanaged hosting?
Unmanaged hosting gives you server space and leaves the setup, security, updates and troubleshooting entirely to you. Managed hosting includes ongoing monitoring, security patches, backups and support — someone is actively responsible for keeping the site running.
Does hosting affect my website's speed or SEO?
Yes. Slow or unreliable hosting directly affects page load times, which impacts both visitor experience and search rankings — Google factors site speed into how it ranks pages. Frequent downtime can also hurt trust and rankings over time.
Should hosting and website design come from the same provider?
It's not required, but it removes a common failure point. When the same provider builds and hosts the site, there's no finger-pointing between separate companies if something goes wrong — one point of contact is responsible end-to-end.
Learn more
See Walker Internet Services' full Website Hosting service page for what's included in every monthly plan.