Search Engine Optimization(SEO) is a marketing platform that allows you to attract visitors to your website organically. SEO activities influence your search engine ranking by making it easier for users to find it.
Hosting-based factors affecting SEO ranking:
- Uptime/Downtime
Search engines use automated software called bots or spiders to follow links on websites, and index them. While nobody knows how frequently the bot visits a website, it can be understood that if your website is not accessible when a spider visits it, it will not be indexed and you can lose a chance to improve the ranking of your website.
- Speed
Websites that load faster are listed higher in the search engine results page than those that take more time to load. In VPS and dedicated hosting, you get the speed you pay for, but while using shared hosting; your speed is based on usage of other websites on the server and may cost you in terms of SEO ranking.
- Location
Server location is one of the factors that search engines use while delivering the most relevant results. If your website has content relevant to Canada but the hosting server is located in Turkey, your website will rank lower as it takes comparatively longer to retrieve data from a far off location server.
Types of hosting and their features:
| Shared Server | Virtual Private Server | Dedicated Server | |
| Structure | 1 Server, multiple websites | Multiple virtual servers, multiple websites | 1 Server, 1 website |
| Cost | Low | Moderate | Very High |
| Security | Low | Moderate | High |
| Speed, storage and bandwidth | Low | Moderate | High |
| Root Access | None | Partial | Absolute |
| IP | Shared/Dedicated (at extra cost) | Shared/Dedicated (at extra cost) | Dedicated |
Before you purchase a hosting service, it is suggested to read customer reviews about the hosting company. You don’t want to end up in a position where your business is suffering as your website is not accessible due to issues pertaining to hosting. Match your requirements with the types of hosting options available and make an informed choice.
