When you are setting up a company website, one of the first decisions you have to make is where to host the site. A web host is a company that allows you to rent space on their server to keep your website. All website traffic is directed to that space on the host’s server; similar to if you were renting a storefront.
Many business owners look for the cheapest web hosting package that provides large amounts of data space and bandwidth. They are savvy enough to know that you cannot take on free web hosting with the forced advertising, but they want to save as much of their money as possible for building their business through SEO and marketing. Unfortunately this is a mistake. Choosing the right web host should be considered part of your SEO strategy. There are several ways in which your web host plays into your SEO results.
Reliability:
This is the first thing to consider when looking for a web host. You want to find a host that has a guarantee of 99.9% uptime. Also, contact customer support and find out what their backup plan consists of if they have a server problem. Make sure the host has some kind of refund guarantee if the uptime falls below the promised number. There are web applications that will allow you to monitor uptime and make sure they are keeping their word.
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The reason reliability is so key has to do with the way search engines get information from websites for their SEO ranking. They send a crawler to visit webpages and check for various pieces of information on them. If your site is down when the crawler comes through, your site will not be indexed that time. This means that any SEO improvements or updates to your site will not be noted. If this happens often, it can have a serious impact on your SEO standings.
Webpage Load Time:
The load time of your site is based on your host’s server and your customer’s internet speed. Given that most customers have high-speed internet, the main concern is going to be your host. There are ways to test the speed of the connection between you and a given host, such as pinging. If a host doesn’t have a fast enough speed, you will want to consider finding another provider.
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The reason the webpage load time matters so much is that customers are not usually willing to wait more than a few seconds for a page load. After that, they will click off your site and return to the search results. If a search engine notices that your visitors aren’t spending much time on your page, they will factor that into your SEO score, assuming your content isn’t relevant to the customer. This can have a major impact on your SEO ranking.
IP Address:
The IP address supplied by your web host can also impact your SEO ranking. If other sites share the IP address (shared hosting) and one of the sites sharing your IP address does something the engine doesn’t approve of, the entire IP address will be docked on rankings, impacting your site. You will likely want to invest in dedicated web hosting if you are concerned about SEO and your page ranking.
Finding the right web host can be difficult, but as you can see it is extremely important. Be sure to read reviews, ask questions on web hosting forums, and consider the choice of a web hosting company to be an integral part of your SEO and marketing plans.
