How Hosting Affects Your SEO and Online Web Presence

When I was small, one of the songs we sung at school described how the foolish man built his house upon the sand, and the wise man built his house upon the rocks (insert accompanying hand gestures for people who remember this one!). Believe it or not, the same is true when it comes to your hosting. Search engines are designed to deliver useful results in a timely fashion. If they find themselves recommending broken links or offline websites, then – in many ways – they have failed in their duty.

 

Hosting that Meets the Needs of Your Business

So how does all this affect your hosting and SEO? Well, to help cope with the ever-shifting sea of search results, search engines will rapidly move an unavailable website down the rankings until it comes back online. This often causes downed websites to disappear in a matter of days, rather than weeks. Doing this allows the search engines to preserve their quality of search for users and ensure they rarely recommend a link that is broken. If people begin clicking your broken link, If you have a problem with hosting that is addressed quickly, you can expect your site to reappear back up to where you were fairly rapidly. However, if the problem persists for any length of time – say, a week or more – it will have far-reaching consequences for your search position which may take months to claw back.

I like to compare it to your shop or business premises – you wouldn’t dream of tolerating a building with major structural problems, where the electricity cuts out periodically or the water stops running now and again. Having a server that occasionally experiences problems is just like politely asking all your customers to leave until the issues with the shop are resolved. Do this regularly enough and some of the customers will stop coming back entirely!

The Importance of Getting Your Hosting Right

Getting your hosting right will provide a solid foundation upon which to build a successful online presence. But speed and reliability are just two ongoing factors. Before you begin building, it is important to consider the technical needs of your website are met in the same way your premises must meet the needs of your business. Do you need database support for an online shop, blog or content management system? Will there be sufficient file and SQL space for your website to grow? Do you have special requirements such as HTTPS and SSL which will allow you to take payments online?

As always, all of these questions can be easily answered by thinking about your target audience, and their needs. Doing this before you start building will help ensure you minimise any potential future headaches and avoid most major obstacles when promoting your site.