WordPress is the world‘s most popular content management system, powering over 40% of all websites. As your WordPress site grows, you need a hosting platform that can scale with your traffic while still delivering lightning fast speeds.
This is where Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and Cloudways come in. By combining the power of GCP‘s infrastructure with the ease of use of Cloudways managed hosting, you get the best of both worlds – high performance and simplicity.
In this comprehensive guide, you‘ll learn:
- The benefits of using GCP and Cloudways for WordPress hosting
- A step-by-step tutorial on deploying WordPress to GCP via Cloudways
- Tips for optimizing and securing your WordPress site
- How to manage your site through Cloudways‘ intuitive interface
- Troubleshooting advice for running WordPress seamlessly on GCP
Let‘s get started!
Why Choose Google Cloud Platform and Cloudways for WordPress?
Google Cloud Platform is one of the top infrastructure providers thanks to its blazing fast speeds, high availability, and ability to scale infinitely. Major sites like Spotify use GCP to serve millions of users without downtime.
Some key advantages of GCP for WordPress hosting include:
Blazing Fast Performance
GCP delivers best-in-class page load speeds thanks to its global private fiber network and cutting edge data centers powered by custom servers packed with SSD storage. Your WordPress site will load lighting fast for users no matter where they are.
Unmatched Scalability
As your traffic grows into the millions, GCP allows you to scale up with no interruptions. Just choose a bigger machine type or enable autoscaling to handle spikes seamlessly.
99.95% Uptime SLA
With multi-region deployment configurations, load balancing, and transparent maintenance features, GCP guarantees 99.95% uptime – essential for mission critical sites.
The one downside of GCP is that it can be complex to setup and manage, especially for non-technical users. This is where Cloudways comes into play.
Cloudways is a managed hosting provider focused specifically on cloud platforms like GCP, AWS, and DigitalOcean. Their intuitive dashboard lets you deploy and manage WordPress sites on these platforms with zero technical expertise required.
Key features Cloudways provides include:
One-click WordPress Installation
No need to mess around with configuring servers and databases. Simply choose your GCP location and instance size, and Cloudways will handle installing the latest WordPress for you.
Worry-free Maintenance & Updates
Cloudways proactively monitors your server and applies security patches, PHP updates, backups, and more without any effort on your end. You get complete peace of mind.
Built-in Caching & CDN
Optimized Nginx web server configs, Redis caching, and integration with fast CDNs like Cloudflare are enabled by default to maximize WordPress performance.
Intuitive Management Portal
From managing SSL certificates to monitoring resource usage to staging environments for testing, Cloudways puts everything you need in an easy-to-use dashboard accessible 24/7.
In short, you get the performance and reliability of Google Cloud combined with a simplified management platform purpose built for WordPress. It‘s the best combination available today.
Now let‘s go through exactly how to launch WordPress on GCP via Cloudways!
Deploying WordPress on Google Cloud with Cloudways
Getting your site live takes just minutes with Cloudways‘ guided launch process. Here are the steps:
1. Sign Up for Cloudways
First, sign up for a Cloudways account here. They offer a free trial to test out the platform.
Once signed up, you‘ll arrive on the main Cloudways dashboard page:
[Screenshot of Cloudways dashboard]2. Launch a New GCP Server
Click the "+" icon to add a new server, choose Google Cloud Platform, then select WordPress as the application you want to deploy:
[Screenshot of new server creation]Next, you need to configure your new GCP virtual machine by setting:
- Server Name: Choose a label for your site
- Location: Pick the nearest region like Central US or Europe West
- Machine Type: Balance memory, vCPUs and storage based on expected traffic
- Bandwidth: Set or leave unlimited
- Storage: Minimum 20 GB for WordPress
Click launch server once finished.
3. Wait for Automatic WordPress Installation
In approximately 5 minutes, Cloudways will complete provisioning your GCP instance and installing the latest WordPress version on it automatically with optimal settings.
You‘ll receive an email when it‘s ready. Simply click on your new site from the servers dashboard page to access it!
And just like that, your WordPress platform is all set up and working beautifully on Google‘s infrastructure.
Now for some best practices in configuring it further.
Optimizing Your GCP WordPress Performance
The great thing about Cloudways is that it preconfigures platforms like GCP for ideal WordPress performance right off the bat. But here are some extra optimizations you can manually enable to make your site even faster.
1. Enable Redis Caching
Redis is an in-memory cache that delivers microsecond response times for repeated database queries. Simply toggle on Redis from your Cloudways app management page to see 50%+ faster WordPress performance.
2. Configure a CDN
A content delivery network serves your static assets like images, CSS and JS from data centers around the globe so visitors get the fastest load times no matter their physical location.
Cloudways has preconfigured integration with Cloudflare, a free CDN, which you can activate in a few clicks.
3. Setup Elasticsearch
Elasticsearch speeds up search functionality on your site significantly. Cloudways offers managed Elasticsearch configurations to enable this with a single toggle.
4. Add Caching Plugins
Plugins like WP Rocket and W3 Total Cache add additional caching capabilities like minifying code, gzipping assets, and caching pages for visitors. Use these alongside the other optimizations mentioned.
5. Monitor Performance
Take advantage of the detailed metrics Cloudways surfaces for your server like load, response time, access logs, and uptime monitors. Configure alerts as needed.
With these best practices implemented, your GCP WordPress site will scream past your visitors‘ expectations!
Some other ways to enhance and extend your WordPress workflow through Cloudways:
Integrations & Addons to Customize Workflows
A huge benefit of managed platforms like Cloudways is how they allow you to integrate other services for seamless site management workflows with your hosting.
Email Services
Easily setup SMTP email sending through Gmail, Sendgrid, Mailgun and more without needing server access. Useful for sending password resets, notifications, newsletters from your WordPress site.
Monitoring
Add advanced server monitoring via services like New Relic APM. Get alerts for crashes, slow page loads, memory leaks, excessive CPU and more.
Backups
Schedule automated daily cloud backups of your WordPress site to external services like Google Drive in case you ever need to restore.
DNS Management
Cloudways integrates with DNSimple for simplified domain configuration like A records, CNAMEs, MX records from directly within your WordPress dashboard.
Team Collaboration with Multiple Users
Cloudways makes it simple to add clients, team members and external developers into your WordPress site dashboard.
You maintain complete control and visibility as the account admin while collaborators get selective access for things like:
- Support & Troubleshooting
- Managing domains, SSL certificates
- Git deployments through SSH & SFTP
- Logging into the backend via SSO
Grant only the privileges required instead of exposing your full hosting account. Much more secure!
So whether it‘s removing server access from a developer once a project finishes or allowing a client limited ability to update content, Cloudways‘ team management gets the job done.
Troubleshooting Issues
While Cloudways massively simplifies WordPress hosting on infrastructure platforms like GCP with automatic maintenance, updates, monitoring and backups, issues may still occasionally arise.
Here is how to troubleshoot some common problems:
Site Down or Unresponsive?
First step is checking the server status in your Cloudways dashboard. Look for any notifications or access the live chat support technicians if you need immediate assistance.
Some common quick fixes include:
- Restarting PHP and other services
- Checking for server capacity issues like out of disk space or bandwidth
- Testing a different browser or device on your end
Site Slow or Timing Out?
If your GCP WordPress site was running fast originally but suddenly slows down, potential fixes are:
- Enabling Redis caching if disabled
- Tracing issues via New Relic or on-server debugging
- Scaling your GCP machine type to add more computing resources
Also confirm Internet connectivity issues on your local ISP are not at play.
Error Establishing Database Connection
This is one of the most common WordPress errors you may face. Beyond the usual database restarts, ensure your SQL server is sized appropriately storage and memory wise for your site traffic.
Cloudways support can help troubleshoot and scale up your database backend if needed.
Login Not Working?
Simple password resets generally fix login issues quickly. Cloudways can reset access externally or manually update the WordPress user tables in emergencies.
Enable two factor authentication via plugins for added security against unauthorized logins going forward.
While Google Cloud delivers excellent reliability, it‘s reassuring to know Cloudways has your back for any hiccups 24/7.
Is Cloudways + GCP Right for You?
In closing, utilizing Cloudways managed hosting on top of Google Cloud Platform gives you the best foundation possible for hosting WordPress sites.
You get blazing fast performance, infinite scalability to grow in the future, and someone handling all server admin tasks for you seamlessly.
The superior speed, uptime and security gains are absolutely worth the premium monthly charges in my experience. You get what you pay for!
While excellent alternatives like Kinsta, WP Engine and Pagely do exist for managed WordPress hosting, none integrate the raw power of GCP into their platform like Cloudways.
So if you anticipate high traffic volumes, want ultimate site speeds for a great visitor experience, or simply value convenience over complexity in managing infrastructure, Cloudways and GCP is likely the ultimate hosting combo for your needs.
