Hosting and SEO
*UPDATED March 2019*
Google has released 9 major algorithm updates since this article was written. Each one has addressed different ranking signals. Over the span of these updates, the quality of a website’s hosting has become even more detrimental factor to SEO rankings.
Now, additional ranking signals correlated to hosting service (other than load speed) are as follows:
- Website Uptime – Most hosting companies tout their server uptime high and for everyone to see. This has always been important because it shows how reliable the service is, but is even more important now that Google uses this as an immediate factor regarding your organic rankings.
- IP location – The location (IP address) of your hosting server. A server with an IP address located in the same country you do business in is rewarded over a server located out of the country.
- Security – Naturally, security has become more important as we rely more and more on the web to send and receive information. Without proper security in place, Google will penalize your website for being risky for users.
MAIN ARTICLE:
In April 2010, Google announced page load speeds are now a factor in search engine ranking. (source – http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2010/04/using-site-speed-in-web-search-ranking.html)
Many low cost hosting providers offer their service at a valuable SEO cost – slower page load speeds.
If we consider this in broader terms, it makes sense that search engines would penalize sites with pages that load more slowly, as a speedier experience is more pleasing to a user.
At Design SEO Hosting we offer solid hosting solutions without cutting corners or sacrificing page load times, all without breaking your budget.
