Do web hosting choices affect SEO?
For most of us, Search Engine Optimization’ (SEO) is all about identifying and using the right keywords, producing world class content and gaining those elusive backlinks that the whole world is seemingly crazed about. The entire thing can become obsessive, as bloggers try to gain a favorable rating on Search Engine Result Pages. The truth, however, is that SEO strategies are not just limited to the above factors. What most people tend to forget is that there is an inexorable link between web hosting and SEO.
Web Hosting is where SEO begins
In fact, one can safely say that web hosting is really where Search Engine Optimization begins.This is a fact that, unfortunately, most beginners are unaware of. The choices that you make in this regard tend to have an oversized impact on the success or failure of your online venture. The quality of web hosting matters if one hopes to improve not just one’s Google rank, but also the user-experience for one’s website.
So, why is there such a strong link between web hosting and SEO? And why is it important for bloggers and website owners to make sure that they get all the basics right in this regard? Well, web hosting and SEO are tied together for the following reasons;
- Speed and Reliability
Using a top quality web hosting service will almost always guarantee fast loading time for your website. This is where the importance of the link between Web Hosting and SEO really becomes obvious. The one thing that you need to know is that page load speed is an important Search Engine Optimization factor. We have previously written an article in which we show you how to use Google’s Page Speed Insights to gauge your website’s speed. Doing so allows you to analyze and monitor your website’s performance, in terms of speed.
Differences in infrastructure between web hosts
Different web hosts use different kinds of servers that have different ranges of speeds. In fact, a number of web hosts, including A2 Hosting, have now transitioned to Solid State Drive (SSD) servers, which can translate into an improvement of up to 20% percent in terms of speed when compared to regular servers.
Differences in speed may also be due to differences in the coding structure of your own website. It is sometimes the case that the technical configurations between your website and your chosen host are not compatible. The result is usually a slower-than-usual loading time for your site. The obvious remedy here is to try and change your site’s coding, but if that still does not work out, it may be time for you to move to another web host.
Web Hosting and SEO: Reliability Matters
Your web host’s reliability is also an important factor that contributes to the success of your SEO strategy. If your host is constantly affected by maintenance problems that result in a lot of downtime, you may find your site being penalized with a low rank by Search Engines.
Crawlers constantly check your website for indexing purposes, and if they realize that your site is repeatedly experiencing downtime and inaccessibility, they will eventually mark it as being unreliable. You can read this article to find out more on how you can monitor you website’s uptime using a wide range of free tools.
Page load speed matters to Google because it affects user experience. Clicking on a web page that is slow or unavailable reflects badly on Search Engines, which is why sites that are plagued with problems are often given low ranks.
-
The geographical location of your web host affects SEO
Another reason why there is such an important link between web hosting and SEO is the fact that Search Engines now, more than ever, use location settings to display the most relevant web pages to their users. They do this by checking out the IP addresses on which websites are based.
What you need to do is, therefore, choose a host that has servers in the countries where you offer your services. It would not make sense, as an example, to have your website hosted in Uganda when all of your services are offered to people in the United States.
Doing this tends to slow down your website, which attracts penalties from Search Engines. If, as an example, you have and eCommerce business that only serves people in Canada, choosing a web host that has servers in that country could vastly improve your local ranking because Google will prioritize you in search results over other similar websites that are hosted in other countries.
- Shared Hosting vs. Dedicated Hosting
The differences between Shared, Dedicated and VPS hosting are something that we have dwelt on extensively on this blog. Many SEO practitioners are hesitant about going the shared hosting way, largely because this option tends to be the slowest. With Shared Hosting, you are essentially sharing a limited amount of resources with hundreds of other people. Should there be a traffic spike on one or all of the sites that are shared on the same server, you could end up having a severely slowed down website.
Problems with one website can also take down the entire server, thus negatively impacting on your SEO strategy. A dedicated web hosting server shields you from these problems, although the option tends to be costly for small to medium-sized entrepreneurs. With dedicated hosting, you are pretty much in control of most of the parameters that affect SEO, including website speed and configuration.
If you have already chosen a web hosting company, it may be time to recheck if the company is up to speed, and able to complement your SEO efforts. You also need to choose a host whose servers are located in your target country. Getting the best web host is important, not only for SEO purposes, but also because it ensures that you turn your prospects into leads and conversions. Why is that the case? Well, for the simple reason that site speed affects conversion, and people are likely to turn away from a site that takes ages to load.
Author Bio:
Joanne Davidson is a seasoned writer who enjoys creating helpful articles and interesting stories. She has worked with several clients across different industries such as advertising, online marketing, technology, healthcare, family matters, and more. She is also an aspiring entrepreneur who is engaged in assisting other aspiring entrepreneurs and helping property owners who encounter problems with the vacancy of their buildings.
Check out her company here: http://loweguardians.com/
