Discover how your web hosting provider can affect SEO and search engine visibility depending on many factors, from site speed to site security and location.
As soon as one hears the words SEO, keywords, content, and backlinks pop into their minds, most think that this is what should be done. The structure of a website and mobile responsiveness may be something you are familiar with technically.
Despite the fact that hosting plays an important role in SEO, many businesses ignore hosting when it comes to their SEO strategy. Your website’s search engine rankings can be improved, bounce rates can be lowered, and conversions can be increased by selecting the right hosting provider.
In this article, we explain how web hosting and SEO are related, as well as how to pick the right host for your website.
SEO – Why is it so important?
Let’s first examine why you should care about search engine optimization before we talk about how web hosting affects SEO. Do you really have the time and money to devote to SEO when you already have so many things on your plate?
Simply said, absolutely. Using SEO is one of the most important things you can do to sell your business.
Even being halfway down the first page or on the second page of results is not sufficient. Scrolling to the bottom is not common among users. Clicks on the top Google result are made by 28.5% of people. Second-place traffic is 15.6%, while third-place traffic is 11%. Almost none of the searchers scroll past the first page and only 2.5% click on the tenth result.
Web Hosting – How is it affecting your SEO?
The importance of hosting cannot be overstated, even though it may not be well known. You can get help from your hosting provider to ensure your site runs properly so that Google will favor it.
The effectiveness of your search engine may be affected by your host.
Loading times and speed of the site
A potential consumer clicks the link after finding you on Google. Will they leave before the page loads and select a different search result if the page does not load quickly?
Putting more than a few seconds into their hands might overestimate their patience.
It is more likely that visitors will make purchases on a website with a quick load time. Websites that load in one second convert three times better than those that take five seconds. Additionally, a study of data from mobile sites revealed that an increase in site speed of 0.1 seconds resulted in almost a 10% increase in retail customer spending.
Server Downtime
It is never a good thing to have an unavailable website. You are probably aware that losing a server will cost you money. Your prospects will be lost during the downtime of your website. As well as your reputation should take care of it. It is possible for your customers to view you as unreliable if you have downtime on your website.
The situation worsens. Server outages also affect SEO. When a search engine crawls your website while it is unavailable, it may briefly de-index you. In addition, it has been noted that Google crawls less frequently a website that is down, which is not good for search engine optimization.
Location
Select a host that is located near the company’s servers.
Servers close to your target audience will provide you with better site speeds, which are crucial for SEO. There are several regulations governing data storage, depending on where you live. The non-compliance of this may result in forced downtime, which impacts search engine optimization.
It is also important to consider your host company’s domain name, which is usually provided by them. In terms of SEO, Google has verified that all generic domain extensions are equivalent, so if. pizza makes more sense for your company, go with it rather than.com.
Knowing the types of hosting
While researching hosting businesses, you’ll encounter several unfamiliar terms and costs, including shared hosting, dedicated hosting, and managed-to-host. Owning a website for the first time can be confusing.
Your search engine optimization will be affected by the hosting option you choose. Taking a look at the different website hosting options and their impact on SEO is the next step.
Free
You can host your website for free using a number of methods. One option is to utilize a website builder like WordPress.com or Wix.com.
You may find these alternatives suitable for personal websites, but they are bad for search engine optimization and for your brand. Your website won’t be able to withstand heavy traffic if you don’t have a domain name.
A shared package can be found for as low as a few bucks per month, and SEO will be worth the price.
Shared
Shared hosting is a common starting point for small websites. Beginners can afford these ideas.
Shared hosting maintains affordability by dividing resources. Although shared hosting is a great place to start for beginners, it does have some drawbacks when it comes to search engine optimization. A significant traffic increase on one of your websites can cause your website to load slowly, which can negatively impact search engine optimization.
VPS (Virtual Private Server)
You will still share a physical server with other websites even if you choose a VPS hosting – (Virtual Private Server). Nevertheless, you have a virtual partition of your own. In this way, your website’s performance is enhanced and traffic from other websites is less likely to negatively impact your search engine optimization and loading time.
Ways to Choose the best host for SEO
With a better understanding of how hosting affects SEO, you will appreciate the importance of choosing the right server. In order to boost your conversion rate, ranking, and traffic, how can you choose a host that will do that?
Whenever you are looking for web host services, you should take these factors into consideration in order to make the right choice
Choose the types of host
VPS providers offer enhanced performance, but do you prefer shared hosts to keep expenses low? Before enrolling in a hosting plan, make sure you understand what it offers.
Structure of pricing
Obviously, your hosting package price does not affect your SEO, but it is worth considering. If you choose the least expensive SEO strategy, or if you invest in another SEO strategy, is it worth investing in a solution to help you move up Google’s results page?
Shared hosting is relatively affordable, like $2.75 a month with some popular options. What bandwidth and traffic limits are associated with a basic package, for example? Are there any additional features you receive that can affect your SEO, such as security features? Does the company’s lowest tier plan allow consumers to access all of the company’s support channels?
Furthermore, don’t forget to keep an eye on the pricing after your first year of service, since it frequently changes after that.
Providing accessible support
The website for your company is unavailable around 2:00 AM. As you worry about your SEO, foreign markets are stealing your business every minute. Has your hosting company a hotline for clients at this time?
Would it be better if you had a team monitoring your website 24 hours a day?
In order to boost SEO, it’s critical to quickly fix technical problems. Know what support options the host company has, when it is available, and the level of assistance they offer.
CDN
Look into whether your hosting solution includes a CDN. While your hosting company may offer CDNs, they are separate services that are meant to speed up your website.
CDNs cache static assets such as photos, CSS, JavaScript, web fonts, and more in data centers worldwide. Your website can be loaded faster by creating this cache. The distance that must be traveled is reduced, since data can be moved over a shorter distance. Furthermore, a CDN increases uptime because it distributes content across multiple servers located throughout the world. In the event that a server fails, traffic is diverted to another one. Another advantage SEO has is that most CDNs offer additional security measures.
