The method you adopt for hosting your website is a very important aspect to Search Engine Optimisation and you should do your research before signing up to any plans. Search Engines such as Google will actually look at the location to were your website is hosted as a factor in determining the country your website is targeting. If a webmaster chooses the wrong hosting plan for their website it can cause unnecessary problems as it can tell the Search Engines you are targeting a country which will have no value to you. If you have a UK based business and you are looking to market to the UK alone, a vital segment of hosting is to choose a web hosting provider who is based within the UK. Most web hosting providers will show on their website where they are located if not, ask.
More and more webmasters are now making a choice regarding hosting based around cost alone without taking into consideration any other factors which may cause problems in the long run. Free SEO Training has put together a list of the main aspects of website hosting you may need to address before making your decision;
- Cost
- Bandwidth
- Web space
- Up time of hosting
- Contractual agreements with the provider
- Technology supported by the hosting provider and their servers
- Hosting Platform (Windows or Linux)
Most hosting providers are ethical and as the competition is so fierce within website hosting, most vendors offer guarantees. Free SEO Training has put together a list of additional bonuses which are normally provided by hosting providers.
- Guaranteed up-time
- Proven disaster recovery plan with timings
- 24/7 support by phone
- Good reviews online
- Supported server side software and upgrades
There are several hosting packages you can choose from but the two below are the most common. Different types of hosting has different types of benefits, Shared hosting is normally preferred by webmasters as it’s the cheapest method but it can damage your website when you do not research the shared server.
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Shared Hosting
Shared hosting is using a server which houses other websites and you pay for a small proportion of that server in regards to band width and storage. Shared hosting is a cheaper alternative to buying dedicated servers but there are some issues in doing this especially in regards to SEO. You need to know the ethical scale of the website hosted on your server because if your website is 1 of 80 of the spammiest websites you can find then the likelihood is that Search Engines will tar you with the same brush. You also need to know the security of the server as a breach of one of the other website may expose vulnerabilities to your own website (always make a backup)
Dedicated Server
A dedicated server is one of the best ways to host your website as you control the full server, you know exactly what is on there. The bad news to buying a dedicated server is it’s rather expensive and if you are new to setting up a server it can be difficult, this may allow hackers to find vulnerabilities much quicker as opposed to shared hosting which is managed by the hosting provider.
