Can Your Hosting Affect Your SEO Efforts?

Writing by Nick Stamoulis Tweet

In today’s SEO world there are some definite best practices and some things you want to steer clear from. You might think that one hosting company is as good as another, but that’s not the case. Your choice of hosting company can make or break your search engine optimization and Internet marketing initiatives. I am not talking about whether your should choose a company such as Go Daddy or Network Solutions. Your just as likely to get good service from one as you are from another. What I am talking about is your server configuration choices.

We know that hosting your website on a server full of spam sites is bad. It’s like living in a predominantly drug-infested neighborhood and expecting that your children won’t be exposed to drug usage. If your site sites on the same server with spam sites then you will, by association, be considered a spammer. Your site’s SEO will be sub-par. That’s putting it mildly.

But that’s not the only issue your should concern yourself with in terms of your hosting company. Obviously, a shared hosting plan can be a bad deal for your website, but not all shared hosting plans are risky. Still, you are much better off with a dedicated server. No risk of bad neighborhood there.

When it comes to selecting a hosting company for your website, you are much better off with a hosting company that at least offers dedicated servers. Your website may not use the dedicated server option, but if your host offers it then you know they do take proper server configuration somewhat seriously.

Other issues you’ll need to consider for proper server configuration are:

• Apache-based - Apache seems to offer the best configuration for most small business website needs
• JavaScript – Does your host support JavaScript and, if so, which version?
• Page load time – Some servers will slow down your page load time. See if you can find a server that isn’t overloaded or that doesn’t load too slowly.
• Compression – Does your server use gzip compression? It should.
• Redirects – How many redirects are you allowed? Is your site redirected through two or more websites? The fewer the better.

This isn’t all that you should concern yourself with regarding server consideration and choice of hosting companies, but it does give you a basic list of questions to ask of your host before you select one. Most hosting companies will answer these questions either on their sales page or FAQ page. If you don’t get the answers there then talk to a rep on the phone or in chat. If a sales pitch is evasive and doesn’t provide you with firm answers to your questions the hosting company probably is not trustworthy. Find another one.