When you set out to build a website and - in the bigger picture of things - an online identity you are probably going to focus most on layout, graphics, content, SEO, marketing, and advertising. These are all vital components of a good website, but it turns out that where you choose to host your website also factors in as well.
Here at 4GoodHosting, so much has gone into making us a top Canadian web hosting provider, but without a doubt seeing to it that our clients and their websites are optimally located and enabled has always been a priority. We definitely understand that before you choose your website’s design or content, you need to choose a good web host who’s got the infrastructure in place to protect your rankings.
One of the factors Google and other search engines look for when indexing web pages is how fast they load. Now while it’s true that a good Canadian web host won’t necessarily get your website listed on Google’s first page, it is true that a lesser host will ruin your credit with Google and other search engines. Between a provider’s server type, location, speed, and uptime there can be an affect on your website’s relevance with search engines. It’s definitely something to consider.
Here are five web host traits that search engines that Google will see unfavourably for search engine rankings.
-
Slow Speeds
This one’s probably fairly obvious. A website that is clocked to load slowly will be disadvantaged. Search engines aren’t going to rank your website high in the search results when it’s too slow, and that’s in the interest of keeping visitors on a page. Most site visitors will click off a website if the page is too slow to load. Between 7 and 10 milliseconds is considered to be the optimal speed, but anything over 100 milliseconds isn’t good. Your homepage should load in under 1 second, and there are many ways to test this. Google ‘free website speed checker’ and you should be able to find them easily.
-
Excess Downtime
Even the fastest loading website is going to be disadvantageous if it’s down too often. When a user clicks on a link to your website, it should be readily available. Make sure you have uptime that is at 99.9% as a minimum. This is very much directly related to the quality of your web host’s servers and networks, and nearly all of them are able to guarantee 99.99% uptime. The closer to 100% the uptime is, the more time your website spends live.
-
Server Locations
Occasionally the cause of a slow loading website is that the server is far away from you. If the website’s server is in Asia, and you’re in North America, there’s often delays and especially so at certain times of the day. It’s advisable to choose website hosting servers that are close to where your visitors are located, whether they’re your neighbours or far overseas. Doing this will inherently help your boost your search engine rankings and SEO.
-
Shared Hostin
Shared hosting is an affordable way to get your website online fast, but it’s typically only suited for very small basic websites. Ones with added functionality and dynamic media are often starved for bandwidth on shared hosting. VPS web hosting is an affordable alternative to give your website all the breathing room it needs.
-
Connection Errors
Now here’s the one that you just can’t tolerate. Most web hosting providers are air tight in this regard, but there’s a few who aren’t and it’s important that you do your homework. Read customer reviews and dig for reviews on the company as a whole.
Common messages are ‘internal server error’ and ‘database connection failure.’ If your website’s getting more traffic (which IS a good thing) and this is occurring, then like above it’s time to get a VPS hosting account OR move to a provider who has what you need with shared web hosting.
Now not to toot our horn a little too much, but we’ve had a AAA rating with Better Business Bureau all across Canada and we are one of the providers who CAN guarantee 99.9% uptime and we’ve got exceptional customer service and support to go along with it.
