With the exponential rise of digitalization, websites have become a key aspect of every business. Irrespective of the industry or the size of the company, everyone wants their website to be ranked on the first page of search engines. It is highly understandable as websites listed on the second pages of Google or any search engine are unlikely to receive any traffic. So, in order to be listed higher on the search results, companies spend considerable resources both in terms of time and money in improving the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) of their website.
There are numerous factors that impact the SEO of your website and addressing each of them will certainly take time. Importantly, for your SEO efforts to yield noticeable results, it will take you even longer. However, one of the factors that may immediately help your SEO is a fast and smooth operating website. Users today want websites to be fast and reliable, so search engines are obviously not going to show sites that aren’t.
So, what will impact the speed, reliability, security, and other key elements of your website? You guessed it right, your web hosting provider. Let us look at some of the positive effects your web hosting can have on your website’s SEO.
Website Loading Speed
The loading time of your website will severely influence the user experience on your website. If your website does not load within 2 seconds, your users are likely to bounce off your website hampering your SEO. You could improve the speed of your website by reducing the number of media files or by compressing the images on your website, but nothing can impact the speed of your website as your web hosting.
Unfortunately, it is very difficult to reach the 2-seconds goal with standard Shared Hosting. You should consider Virtual Private Servers or Cloud Hosting to improve the loading speed of your website significantly. A faster loading website will not only delight the users but will also have a significant impact on SEO.
Server Downtime
This is an equally important factor that can significantly impact the SEO of your website. If your site suffers from frequent downtime, it is the first and a crucial sign that your web hosting provider is unreliable. Downtime will not only impact the performance of your website, but it will also gravely hamper your SEO. For example, a potential customer enters a search query that is ideally suited for the services or products you offer, but search engine crawlers won’t find your website because it is down. This will lead to the loss of the said customer and more importantly, will degrade your website’s SEO.
Frequent downtimes flag your website as unreliable and lead to your website’s ranking being downgraded. So, it is imperative for you to opt for a web hosting provider that is reliable and can ensure 99.9% uptime.
Location
While not crucial a decade ago, today the location of your web hosting server may have a significant impact on your SEO. With so many websites offering the same services, search engines have begun giving priority to a website based on the location of the search query. E.g., if a search query were to be made in the US for a particular product, a site which is located in the US is more likely to be shown in the results than the one located in the UK. Such a mechanism does have a downside since, for the same keywords, users from other countries may not be able to find your website.
However, these also open new avenues for your business as you could focus on a particular location and ensure that you are getting ranked higher. Besides, the location of your server may also have an impact on the website loading speed. More the distance between the users and the server, comparatively higher the time for the website to load. Some hosting providers do offer Content Delivery Networks (CDN), which ensures that the speed of your website is not hampered, irrespective of the location of the user.
Security
Apart from the speed and reliability of your website, security is also a crucial factor that will impact the SEO of your website. Google and other search engines have increasingly begun giving preference to sites which are more secure. Google giving an edge to websites with SSL certificates is an example of the extent to which your website security is crucial for your SEO. The security features offered by your hosting service provider will be critical in the overall security of your website. You should always opt for hosting service providers with a good track record and offering the latest security features. If your website were to get hacked, it might have long-term repercussions on your search engine rankings.
Tech Support
Irrespective of whether you have an in-house IT support or not, a 24*7 available tech support offered by your web hosting provider is an absolute necessity. If your domain were to be hijacked or your website was to be down due to some issues in your account, you will need readily available and helpful support. A dedicated and capable team will offer all the help and ensure that your website is up and running. A well-functioning website with no glitches will undoubtedly have a positive impact on your SEO.
Conclusion
With the fierce competition that every business faces today across industries, ranking higher on search engines must be your priority. There are multiple methods to boost your SEO, most of which take time before having any real impact. Yet, every business needs to do whatever they can to have a positive effect on their overall SEO to ensure better rankings and web authority. A better hosting provider can certainly be the first step in the right direction for getting SEO friendly web hosting.
To know more about the other web hosting categories and to choose the right option for your business, visit our Hosting Blogs Category.
