Developing effective SEO strategies is essential for digital marketing. By ensuring your website gets recommended to as many people as possible, you increase your online visibility.
Strategies often include using keywords and building backlinks. But these would not matter if your website loads slowly or lacks security features. That is why you should choose your web hosting service wisely. Your website’s performance highly depends on the performance of the server it is on.
In this article, we will discuss how your web hosting choice impacts SEO. You will gain valuable insights and will learn the do’s and don’ts. Continue reading to learn more.
SEO-Relevant Factors that Depend on the Website Host
Search engines use different performance metrics to rank a website. It includes the value your content contains, the website’s mobile-friendliness, and more. The web hosting service that you choose affects some of these factors. For example, it affects your website speed, uptime/downtime, and security.
Below, we will explore how the web host impacts these factors in more detail.
Website Speed
Your website’s speed and responsiveness are extremely important. According to Google, 40% of website visitors will only wait for 3 seconds for a website to load. If it fails to do so, they are likely to leave.
Unfortunately, that increases your bounce rate. If your website has a high bounce rate, search engines will not recommend it to people.
Responsiveness could also make people leave your website. Suppose they clicked on a button or link. If the connected action does not start within milliseconds or if the user has to spam clicks for it to work, it could cause frustration.
That said, you want to make your website as fast as possible. You can achieve that in various ways. You can start by fixing your code and optimizing your images. Enabling browser caching and lazy loading also helps.
But your website could remain slow after all of these. In that case, it is probably a hosting service problem. A website that is hosted on an outdated server is difficult for a search engine crawler to crawl. Furthermore, it could cause errors and glitches. Crawlers may not index your website if they find these errors.
Security
Cybersecurity is a huge concern, especially in recent years. Malicious actors are now better equipped with tools that can intercept transactions and hack into people’s devices. Expectedly, people are more careful when interacting with websites.
If they see that your website is not secure, they will be inclined to leave. No smart person will continue to make a purchase, knowing full well that cybercriminals may steal their data.
This highlights the importance of security features in websites. You should keep that in mind when selecting a website host. Some offer free SSL certificates and additional security features. They also use powerful antivirus programs and have ways to prevent DDOS attacks. These are the ones that you should choose as your host.
IP Address Reputation
Shared web hosting seems like a great choice since it offers affordability. However, the cheap price comes with a cost. There’s a chance for your IP address reputation to be damaged. If another website on the server is involved in malicious or spammy activities, it could cause your website to be flagged too.
That said, choosing dedicated web servers is wise. It ensures that not only your IP address is safe, but also your business assets and data. However, dedicated web servers are more expensive, and that may push you away.
The good news is that some dedicated servers are not as costly as others. You can find lists of the best cheap dedicated server hosting on some websites. These guides will help you make informed decisions.
Location
The location of the server also affects your website speed and performance. The nearer the user is to the server, the faster it will load. Also, note that Google recommendations consider geolocation. The SERPs for a person in Asia will be different from the SERPs for a person in North America. The location of the host server influences that.
How can you ensure your website will reach a global audience? Additionally, how to ensure it loads fast for all of them? You can use Content Delivery Networks or CDNs. These store your website on different servers scattered throughout the world. Some hosting services offer that as a built-in feature.
Uptime and Downtime
What is uptime? It is the amount of time that your website is accessible to users. What you want is a website that has a good uptime, meaning it should be available 24/7.
If the website host is not good, you will have terrible uptime. Every now and then, your website will be down. That’s a huge problem. Web crawlers do not crawl websites that are down. As such, they are also not indexed and will not appear in the SERPs.
Since it is not recommended, it will not be a good tool for attracting new customers. Visitors who already know about your website will not be able to open it. Therefore, you could lose potential sales.
So, what causes downtime? If your website is popular, the server may not be able to handle the traffic. Servers with weak cybersecurity may also make your website vulnerable to cyberattacks. That could cause downtimes.
Conclusion
Does your web hosting choice impact SEO? Yes, it does. Its purpose is not only to keep your website online. It also has to protect with cybersecurity measures and ensure it performs well. That said, you should choose a website host wisely. For the best results, opt for dedicated servers. They are usually on the pricey side, but you can find some solid, affordable ones.
Please note that while the website hosts affect SEO, it does not end there. To handle these tasks, you can hire SEO agencies like Snap SEO. Their mastery of the ranking algorithms will put your website at the top of the SERPs.
