How Hosting Choice Impacts SEO
Is your web hosting affecting your Google rankings?
This question might be alarming if you are unaware of the impacts of your web hosting providers on your Google rankings.
In today’s digital landscape, establishing a strong online presence is important for any business, regardless of its size. One key aspect that significantly impacts the success of a website is its hosting choice.
A lot of businesses skip over hosting as part of their ranking strategy, even though it can have a major effect on their search engine results.
Choosing the right hosting provider and plan can have a profound impact on your website’s speed, reliability, security, and uptime. It can raise your website’s search engine rankings, lower bounce rates, and increase conversions.
For example, to experience this better performance you can buy Linux VPS for your site. If you’re unsure about what is Linux VPS hosting and what advantages it entails, MilesWeb’s blogs can provide you with the clarity you need.
Today in this blog, we will explore how different hosting features, such as loading speed, server location, server’s uptime/downtime, and security, influence your website’s SEO performance and how to pick the best hosting provider for your website.
Let’s learn this deeper insight.
Table of Contents
Role of SEO in Website Ranking
If you are with an online business, SEO is the core of your website’s success. Today, 55% of customers turn to the Internet to meet their needs, be it shopping, education, or entertainment.
In such a scenario, the content you provide on your web page must need to rank at the top of the search engine’s result page so that customers can click on it.
If everything is done correctly, SEO may push your website to the top of search results. The visibility and reliability of your business are enhanced if your pages appear top in relevant search results.
How Hosting Impacts SEO?
Websites that function well with standard uptime, speed, security, etc., have high Google rankings.
Suppose your web hosting provider has only provided you with a limited set of the necessary resources.
In that case, it becomes crucial to change your hosting provider since inadequate resources can result in visitors leaving your website, ultimately impacting your conversion rates negatively.
Thus, your hosting choice impacts search rankings.
The key factors that are related to web hosting and influence your search engine rankings are described below.
Website loading speed
Website load speed refers to the time it takes for a web page to fully load and display its content in a user’s browser.
Reports state website visitors only last 3 to 4 seconds before jumping to another site. The faster a website loads, the greater the potential for converting visitors into customers.
Google, considers page loading speed as a ranking factor, meaning that faster-loading websites tend to rank higher in search results.
A fast-loading website provides a better user experience, encourages longer visit durations, and increases the likelihood of conversions.
On the other hand, a slow-loading website can negatively affect user experience, leading to higher bounce rates and lower engagement.
So, choosing a hosting provider that guarantees the fastest website loading experience and smooth functioning is the best. Though a web host isn’t solely responsible for your website’s speed, it surely is one of the reasons for the website’s speed.
While there are multiple factors that influence the speed and load time of your website, the choice of web host holds the utmost importance as it has the greatest impact.
Server’s Uptime/Downtime
Server uptime is the uninterrupted period during which a server is operational and accessible to users.
On the other hand, server downtime refers to the duration when the server is unavailable or experiencing issues, resulting in the website or service being inaccessible to users.
The server’s uptime/downtime is a critical factor for both website owners and users.
From an SEO perspective, search engines prefer websites that have high uptime and minimal downtime, as it indicates reliability and availability to users.
A website that frequently experiences downtime may receive lower rankings in search results,
Imagine you launch a sale and gain heavy traffic, but your website fails to handle the traffic due to server downtime. It will be the most horrible nightmare for any website owner.
If Google visits your site during Downtime, your website’s performance will be marked as low, and there’s a rare chance that Google will visit your site again.
Though no web hosting provider guarantees 100% uptime, but choosing a host with the least downtime will be the most appropriate choice.
How Hosting Choice Impacts SEO
Server Location
The location of your host has two important roles. First, if you have a US-based audience and your web host server is in Europe, you’ll face low speed in the website loading, as all your data must be collected from a remote server, leading to an extended period.
The second factor is your domain. The domain with .uk works perfectly if your audience is from the UK. Google identifies your domain via location and easily updates your ranking positions. Although you can use any domain, it is a fact that location-based domains perform better.
Thus, your hosting provider must have a data center close to your audience to give visitors a fast-loading experience.
Hosting plans
A hosting plan refers to the specific package or service offered by a web hosting provider to host a website.
It includes features such as server resources, storage space, bandwidth, and additional functionalities that determine the performance and capabilities of a website.
You’ll see various hosting types and plans when you enter hosting options. Most people start with shared hosting and upgrade it as per their needs.
An ideal web host suggests a suitable method to accommodate your website’s requirements and boosts the plan as per your requirements.
If your business has reached a moderate stage and your customers have increased, you need to upgrade your hosting type to handle the upcoming traffic easily, with good speed and uptime.
Thus, your host plays an important role in maintaining the speed and uptime of your website, indirectly improving your rankings.
Website’s security
Will you visit a website marked by Google as “HTTP Not Secure”? Surely not. Google mentioned that the website’s security is a ranking factor. So, if Google does not give your website a security check, it will not allow the users to visit your website leading to low-ranking positions.
Providing a security certificate to your website is your web host’s job. (Most of web hosts give SSL/TLS certificates, but some don’t)
Choosing a web hosting provider that gives you security certificates becomes important. By attaining a security certificate, your website can qualify for search rankings.
Conclusion
There are various factors like content quality, backlinks, keyword relevancy, and much more for Google rankings. But, ensuring the factors mentioned above are the responsibilities of your web hosting provider. It is not the responsibility of the website owner.
Only, by choosing the right hosting provider and plan can you ensure the website’s speed, reliability, security, and uptime.
With the help of this information, you’ll be able to choose a perfect host for your website.
How Hosting Choice Impacts SEO