Many think web hosting and it ends at a place where their website can stand up and be counted. Hosting gives websites a platform to come into being, so to speak, but there’s more than meets the eye which unfortunately escapes many. Have you ever thought about SEO when choosing a hosting service? Or maybe they just didn’t seem to cross each other’s paths so it wouldn’t make a difference?
Well it turns out that it just might affect your website’s SEO ranking. Yes, SEO ranking is majorly tied to keywords and proper keyword use at that as well as great analytics. It however starts from the web hosting company you choose. Today, WordPress is used by 27.7 percent of websites. A wordpress hosting company with a good reputation will not automatically raise your rankings but a bad host can ruin your website’s chances of getting up there. Read on for ways in which your host affects your SEO.
Speed
Websites should generally be fast because users have a wide number to choose from and search engines acknowledge speed. When visitors find a slow website they are very likely to move on to the next one that loads faster. It is normal to have issues every so often because servers do get busy. The problem comes in when it happens too often. Visitors are less likely to come again and search engines will look at your website as unreliable and take it lower on the ranks.
A shared server may cost less but is more likely to have such problems. You may need to consider a dedicated server even though it will cost more. The long term benefits will literally push your website higher. Make sure that your website is also optimized because this affects page-loading speed too. Your coding and configuration should be seamless.
You can ask your host to move your website to a less busy site if available. This may be a little cheaper than a dedicated server. Either way, you should see a difference with the page load speeds instantly when you make these changes.
Accessibility
Downtime is common and normal once in a while. Websites are inaccessible sometimes and it is all a part of the process, including those on expensive plans. Whenever search engine spiders find a website down they record this downtime and move forward. Regular records of downtime give a picture of unreliability and that definitely pushes it lower. Who wants an unreliable resource taking first place anyway?
Search engines need to give reliable results because that is their core mandate. They need to maintain their own reputation and so you really can’t blame them for wanting the best and most accessible sites at the top. The responsibility falls on you to find a solution to minimize downtime.
Choosing a server with minimal downtime reduces the chances of your website getting a lower rank. Your host definitely affects how often downtimes occur and that’s why you should choose wisely from the beginning. It isn’t asking for too much to have 100% uptime because even 99% uptime means that your site can be inaccessible for a whole seven hours in a single month. That is a lot of daylight lost.
Location, location, location!
Many people look for location-specific goods or services. Your website’s location will influence your rankings for similar services or products on search engines. It keeps you as a relevant option in that particular area. This is therefore very useful if you are looking to reach a particular location with your products. You may however rank lower for other locations even with the same keywords.
The location is determined by the IP address which is in turn determined by the location of the host’s server. Find out the location beforehand so that you sign up with a server that will help you propel your website even further. This doesn’t mean you should ignore keywords, link building and relevant content among other relevant SEO influences though. Choose the right location to better improve your chances and not as a replacement for other SEO strategies.
A long list but hosting plays a big part
There are about 200 considerations that Google mentions as affecting search engine ranking so you can never really be sure why search engines put your website where they did. It however pays to work on those that are sure to affect the user directly. The user affects a lot of these choices and that is why speed and location are important.
Now you know that hosting plays a big role in SEO ranking. Take time to choose your hosting service wisely and watch your website move higher. For those who already made hosting choices that have negatively affected their site’s ranking, it is never too late. Start looking around for good hosting companies; find all the relevant information about them and read reviews about their services. Make sure you are choosing well before you move to another hosting service.
