Can Different Types of Web Hosting Affect Your SEO?

types of web hosting

Google is the king of search. If you are a webmaster, you may think you know all the things that will make them frown on your website. However, there is one essential thing that you may not have thought could devalue your site in the eyes of Google and other search engines.

That one thing is your web host. You may not think much about hosting except to make sure that you choose the most affordable option.

The fact is, your web host can impact your bottom-line. It is estimated that second of delay in the loading of your website can cause a 7 percent reduction in conversion rates.

This is astonishing!

If you haven’t thought seriously about your web hosting, it’s time to start! Here is a rundown of how the types of web hosting can impact your SEO.

1. Speed Is Everything

If you think that you can somehow optimize your site speed yourself, then you should know that this won’t be easy. Yes, you can remove bulky plugins, optimize your images and remove 301 redirects if there are any, but many times it won’t make a difference.

This is because speed is directly related to the efficiency of the web servers used by your web host and there is very little you can do about that. The fact is, that the faster your site loads, the greater your chances of getting ranked high on Google. If you are not getting good site speed from your web host, then it’s time to leave because being loyal will cost you.

2. Downtime Is Deadly

Downtime inefficiency is just as deadly to SEO as lousy site speed. While no web host can guarantee uptime 100 percent of the time, your web host should have five nines when it comes to uptime. This simply means they should have 99.999 percent uptime.

High uptimes mean that your site will be available for Google’s spiders to crawl. It will also reduce the bounce rate on your site which will directly affect your ability to rank in search engines.

However, it may be that you are not even sure of your uptime because you don’t know how to check it. Fortunately, there are several programs you can use that will send you notifications whenever your site is down. Monitor your downtimes for a while to see how well your web host is doing.

If downtime is high then upgrade your plan, you get what you pay for regarding specs at most web hosts. However, if after upgrading you still have long downtimes then it’s time to switch your provider.

3. Avoiding A Wipe Out

Your web host needs to offer you a way to back up your website. It’s a fact that disaster can strike at any time on the web. Hackers can attack your site and wipe out everything. Your web host can go out of business, or their physical location can be affected by the disaster.

If any of these things happen, then you should be able to access your data from a backup file. Always choose a web host with a solid backup plan, such as JaguarPC. Lost data can cause you to lose your rankings in the search engines. If you are a small business, then this can be catastrophic because recovery is almost impossible.

4. How Trustworthy Is Your Site

Your web host should offer SSL certificates. The importance of SSL certificates is such that the Google Chrome browser which has grown in popularity will warn users when it does not detect one. Google Chrome must be satisfied that the information passed between the browser and your web server is encrypted.

If your site does not use encrypted data, it will be labeled a security risk. If the type of hosting, you currently have does not secure your site with an SSL certificate or doesn’t offer you the option, then you are in trouble. Google is all about giving its users the optimal experience when they browse the web, and if your site does not support this, their algorithm will flag it.

5. Shared vs. Dedicated Types Of Web hosting

It’s a fact that shared hosting is the cheapest option, especially when you are just starting out. However, it does have some serious drawbacks for SEO. To begin with, the sites that you share hosting with can be a problem. If these sites are spammy or of low quality, then it may affect how Google sees your site, and this can affect your SEO efforts.

You may also witness slow indexing times because Google has too much “crowd” to get through to reach your site on the shared hosting. You may run into problems with your web host as well because they may dedicate more server resources to the sites that are more popular than yours. This is another factor that will slow down your site and as previously mentioned this is never good for SEO.

The good news is that there is a solution to this vexing issue. All you have to do is use dedicated hosting. It might be a little more expensive, but with all the problems you can encounter with a shared plan it is usually well worth it.

Final Thoughts

The best types of web hosting are the ones that provide you with good site speeds, great uptimes, backup plans and give your website a high degree of trustworthiness. If you are not getting this type of service from your web host, then you are going to have problems with search engine optimization.

Search engine optimization is difficult enough, the last thing you need is a bad web host that will further hamper your efforts. Your web host should support the growth of your site, not diminish it. The key take away from all you have read is that you must apply due diligence when selecting a web host. It is not a decision that should be taken for granted.

If you would like more advice about site development, then please visit our website. We have lots of information that will help you with your efforts to make your site search engine friendly.