Web Hosting Impact on Site Rankings

It isn’t a secret that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is undoubtedly one of the most valuable marketing tools of our generation. After all, nowadays, it’s mostly about boosting your website’s ranking, making a statement, and leaving your mark. Here’s how your web hosting plan affects your site’s ranking:

Security

What kind of hosting plan do you have? Do you have your own Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) from a reliable and trustworthy web hosting service? Regardless of the security goals you have for your website, one thing’s for certain: you’ll want to keep it as low-risk as possible. 

However, remember that the impact your security has on your site ranking is relative. While small sites with less traffic may not necessarily have rankings that are high risk, the same can’t be said for bigger sites. For this reason, it’s worth noting that shared web hosting plans aren’t usually recommended for most websites that deal with heavy traffic. This is because being unable to have full control over your resources may increase your chances of being compromised.

Nevertheless, make sure you regularly monitor your site’s security. It won’t hurt to reevaluate the security measures you have in place from time to time either. Moreover, as a general precautionary measure, regardless of your site’s rank, make sure you have backups available at all times. This can save you lots of time and money when you do experience any problems down the road.

Source: pixabay.com

Website Uptime & Downtime

Your website uptime (how often and how long your site is available to the public) speaks volumes to your users. This is why having a high website uptime is often one of the most obvious priorities to have. However, remember that having a 100% uptime just isn’t realistic. 

Always remember that users will almost certainly choose to work with sites that are most convenient and efficient for them. This is why search engines have a strong preference for sites with little to no downtime. Still, since having downtime is unavoidable, a 99% uptime guarantee would be the best way to go. This is true regardless of whether your downtime is unintended or caused by scheduled maintenance. 

However, it’s critical to note that downtime is inherently costly. Moreover, how your uptime and downtime affect your site’s rankings boils down to each page’s purpose. Take note that this doesn’t mean that you can leave pages that you deem less important down for no reason. Rather, it’s a call to make it a point to actively monitor how often you should perform site maintenance. For example, e-commerce platforms with lots of inconsistent downtimes may find their ratings dropping when users continuously bounce from the site. Eventually, your clients will conclude that more than being unreliable, you’re also always unavailable, consequently avoiding you altogether.

Think about it. Your visitors won’t be pleased when they encounter error messages that instruct them to come back at a later time. Furthermore, it may just leave sour first impressions on other potential clients. Therefore, it’s safe to say that when your pages are frequently offline, you’re not generating as many leads. This could affect the rest of your operations—and search engines and analytics tools easily track all these issues. Strive for the opposite to guarantee better website rankings.

Server Location & Speed 

For most users, high page load speed is a much-coveted trait for any web page. Google and other search engines acknowledge this and therefore, greatly reward sites who can deliver this benefit. On the contrary, to prevent users from encountering sites with unsatisfactory loading speeds, Google simply drops their websites’ rankings.

This is why ideally when you’re looking for a web hosting provider, it’s more favorable to choose one that’s near your target market. With this said, websites made for small, local businesses can easily cater to an audience from one specific location. With their smaller geographic scope, it becomes much more apparent where their hosting provider should be based. Unfortunately, the selection process won’t be as simple for businesses that cater to an international audience. Furthermore, keep in mind that the right web hosting service and internet provider combination can significantly speed up your page load time. And since you don’t control which provider your clients use, choosing the right hosting provider becomes a much more crucial decision.

How Do You Optimize For Your Website’s Ranking?

Consult your web hosting provider in the Philippines to assess your site’s overall security. Watch out for unexpected site downtimes. After all, this could mean that you’re experiencing Content Management System (CMS) issues, Domain Name System (DNS) problems, or hardware malfunctions. More unfortunate scenarios may be that you’re at risk for Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attacks and other web threats. And most of all, work with a web hosting provider that’s nearest to your clients to guarantee the fastest services you can provide. 

About Adam Tan

Adam is a charming geek who loves his family's Siberian Husky, enjoys the occasional night out with friends and, most of all, lives and breathes new trends and updates about the web and its technicalities. If you want to stay updated with changes or new trends on the web or learn about the technicalities that are involved, he's your guy. He's capable of writing cheesy stuff as well, but he'd rather stick with the manly stuff.

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