Web Hosting Impacts Your SEO, and Which Hosting is Best?
Web Hosting allows people and businesses to publish and display files through their website on the internet. The person providing the web hosting service is the web host. Servers store your files on different computers. When someone types a website in the browser, his computer connects with the server to access the files he wants.
Hosting a web server on your own is expensive, as you need a continuous electric supply, a high-speed internet connection, and uninterrupted tech support.
So, that is when you go for a web host. Your web host provides you with tech support and takes care of hosting your website in exchange for a small fee.
Types of Hosting
There are different types of web hosting. Co-location Hosting allows you to host your servers in data centers for a small fee. The service provider will provide equipment, support, security, and bandwidth.
Cloud hosting lets you host your data on several interconnected servers operating in different places.
Shared Hosting is when you share a server with several other users who host their websites. Dedicated Hosting is when you have a separate server to host your website.
Shared Hosting and Dedicated Hosting – Impact on SEO
The obvious benefit of a shared server is its affordability. With the cost spread across different people, it is low. It also saves time, as your host will manage your website and provide technical support. However, a shared server’s cost-effectiveness comes with a price.
Since you share a server, what your neighbors do will affect your site. Perhaps spammers and gamblers run their sites on the server you use. If Google penalizes some websites on your server, it will also affect your search rankings.
Also, if other websites that use your server get a lot of traffic, the entire server slows down. It affects your page load speed and impacts your SEO efforts negatively. Therefore, it is necessary to choose a reputed server, even if it is expensive. You can consult your SEO agency with website designing and page optimization services to suggest a good host.
Choosing a dedicated server guarantees that your SEO efforts give you returns. A dedicated server protects you from viruses, hackers, and spammers. Since you are the only one using the server, you can get a lot of traffic without the server slowing down. The price you pay for a dedicated server is worth it is easy to monitor results and make necessary changes to overcome site issues.
Factors to Consider when Choosing a Host
Server Location
Your server location affects your site’s loading speed. The closer your server is to your target audience, the faster the site’s loading speed. You might also have to consider the laws and regulations of a particular country.
What is legal in some countries might be banned in others. So, hosting a server from the country where your target audience lives is better for better SEO results.
You can also use CDN (Content Delivery Network), which caches your website information on different servers. CDN considers the user’s location and connects it with the nearest CDN server. CDN reduces the server load, helping you increase your site speed.
Tech Support
You must choose a host that provides 24/7 tech support. When your site goes down, you need to speak to your service provider. Customer service is critically important, as you will have to talk directly to support persons several times. You should know about the operating hours of your tech support team.
You should also look at the various mediums through which you can contact them. Support teams should have live chats, phone numbers, and email addresses.
A good host also provides tech support on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. You also need to ensure your host does not outsource support services.
You can speak to an SEO agency that offers website design, social media marketing, and other services to help you choose the right host.
Automatic Backup and Other Options
Websites constantly face cyber attacks. In the worst-case scenario, you could lose all your content, photos, and web design. You would be forced to redo all your work, which might require rebranding yourself. You could lose data about the transactions that you made.
You also will lose your loyal customers, as they won’t like the new look of your site if you start from scratch. So, you have to make sure that your host provides automatic backups. You also should see whether your host has multiple hosting plans.
Beginning with a shared server is fine. But when you get a lot of traffic, you would require a dedicated server. You don’t have to choose a different provider at that time if your host provides multiple hosting options.
Similarly, your site might need several domains and sub-domains. Before hiring a web host, check whether your host allows multiple websites on a single server.
