If you are wondering why, even after all the work you’re putting in to SEO strategies and techniques, your site doesn’t seem to be moving up in the search engine results at all, it could have something to do with the web hosting provider which you are using. For many website owners, the idea of web hosting doesn’t cross their mind when it comes to improving SEO. But, choosing the right web host can actually have a significant effect on search engine optimisation, with the right choice giving your SEO a boost and the wrong one doing the exact opposite. Here’s why cheap or free web hosting is bad for SEO.
Web Server Downtime
When you opt for free hosting or choose a web host which literally costs you pennies per month to host your site, you might think that you’re getting a great deal and keeping your business (or personal, depending on the type of website you run) costs down as low as possible. However, this isn’t always the case. Not only can free or extremely cheap hosting actually end up costing you more in the long run, there is also a much bigger chance of web server downtime, since you will be sharing server space with an indefinite number of other website owners. Opting for cloud hosting from Smart Hosting is a far better decision.
Page Load Time
A slow loading page won’t just have your site visitors wanting to shut their browser down and never come back to your page again, it can also wreak havoc with SEO. Since Google have made their algorithms more user-friendly, page load time and page speed have become much more important to SEO, so the last thing that you want is a website which takes ages to load. Many cheap or free web hosting companies will lure you in with promises of unlimited bandwidth, yet they fail to mention exactly how slow it’s going to be. Since a slow-loading page can directly impact your bounce and conversion rates and negatively impact SEO in the process, it’s a much wiser decision to pay a little bit more for hosting if you want that coveted top spot.
Bad Neighbours
When you opt for cheap or free web hosting, you can pretty much guarantee that you’ll be sharing a server with a host of other websites – not all of which are good, and some may even practice black-hat SEO and be on Google’s watch list for playing dirty. With shared hosting, your files will be stored on the same server and IP address of other websites, which can have a negative effect on your website’s SEO if the other sites are spammy or if any of them have been penalised by Google for practicing unfair or dishonest SEO techniques. When you’re trying your hardest to improve your SEO and going nowhere near the grey or black hat areas, being grouped with bad sites is the last thing that you need!
Your web hosting provider could be holding you back from being number one. Make sure that good value for money, rather than saving money, is your main focus when picking a new web host!
