This article is going to tell you about the benefits of a professional web hosting service. But, before jumping to the main subject, let us know what exactly web hosting is and how does it work.
What is web hosting?
Web hosting is important for every website. It is the physical address of any website which works as an online storage center that contains information, images, video and other data that makes your website.
Website hosting is generally calculated in the amount of disk space you are assigned on the server and the amount of data transfer you require accessing your website.
Features:
The basic features of web hosting include:
Disk Space – All web hosting services offer a certain amount of disk space that the user can use to store their web files. If you breakdown all your data, it will give you an idea of how space you need to store all your files.
Email Accounts – Email accounts are the most common feature of hosting, particularly if you are hosting a domain. There are three key email accounts: POP3, forwarding, and aliases.
- POP3 accounts are conventional inboxes. You have space to store your emails, and simultaneously you can download your mails
- Forwarding mail accounts are used if you are outsourcing the services of other company to sort out your emails for you. Instead of storing your emails on your mail server, they are redirected to another email address.
- Aliases accounts are pretty much like forwarding mail accounts. Some hosts allow you to set up a catch-all alias, which is often used to collect emails sent to addresses unfamiliar to your mail server.
What does SEO have to do with web hosting?
According to Google, page speed is a factor in its search rankings algorithms. This means that the loading speed of your website is directly proportional to better ranking of Google. This infers that it is wise to choose a reliable web hosting service providers for SEO purposes.
A good web host will provide higher uptime to your website which will ensure better rankings in SEO and keep it accessible most of the time. The higher your uptime, the better accessibility your website has and vice versa.
Adding up to the variety of factors to show the most relevant search results, search engines also review the location of your website when deciding your website’s ranking. For example, if your searching is based in USA, then search engines will generally display sites based in the USA higher up in their search results. To determine the location of your website, the search engines use a number of indicators, one of which is your IP address which is assigned to your site based on the location of the server that it is hosted on. So, hosting your website based on servers located locally will result in higher ranking for your site.
How will a web hosting service benefit my business?
Whether you are an expert businessman or an entrepreneur, you need to take your business online to make the most out it. At some point, the temptation of a cheap web hosting service is inevitable, but it is not recommended if you have never been an IT student. Managing your own domain, keeping your website up to speed, upgrading the software, controlling your data, and creating backups is no joke. You will need an expert for all these and 24/7 tech support.
Web hosting enables visitors to view your site’s content when they type your domain name in the URL box. But a web hosting service is much more than that; it keeps your site running smoothly 24/7. This is very important when the marketplace is highly competitive. If your site is incompetent, your business will lose customers. If your availability is often interrupted then you will not be able to make your visitors stay on your site.
Using professional web hosting services may seem expensive at first but they save a lot of money and time in the long run. They provide with services in a package that sounds pricey but if you calculate your expenses over a period of time, you can see a significant difference.
Here are some key benefits of using professional web hosting services for good SEO.
- Reliability – Reliability is one of the most important features that managed hosting can provide you. They give you 24/7 tech support and help keep your website running and working smoothly thus attracting more traffic and making them stay. They will look after your site to ensure that it is safe, fast and there are no security breaches. In case something happens, it is their responsibility to take care of it.
- Customer support – Customer support is very important when you are using a professional web hosting service. The internet can be very unpredictable sometimes, and that is why you need customer support. If something goes wrong you do not need to panic, just call or email and your issue will be fixed.
- More control over your content – Free hosting services do not let you manage certain aspects of your website and they make sharing contents very difficult. If you use professional hosting service you acquire full control over the content that is shared and you can do regular website upgrades or blog shares yourself.
- It is good for SEO – Your website should be able to provide all the potential users with a smooth tour of your website, irrespective of the device they are using. Such optimization is necessary if you want an even course of your commerce. Professional web hosting can cover for this type of optimization. It can increase your ranking among other websites.
- High Uptime guarantee – Host’s uptime guarantee is one of the most important factors in determining whether they are SEO-friendly or not. Uptime and user accessibility are directly proportional to each other.
- It is convenient – Professional web hosting services do not get over with just one service. They offer you a variety of services including content creation, website designing, and many more. Since they provide all these services inside one package, it becomes very convenient. You do not need to specially hire independent staff to maintain your website. It saves your time and money and also, your energy.
- It is highly targeted – The main job of hosting services is to ensure top-notch visibility of your website. So whatever they do, will be to ensure the maximum visibility of your site. These services are therefore targeted and include minimizing loading time as per Google standards and many more.
- Website speed – Site’s SEO performance is determined by a number of factors, one of which is speed. High loading speed can massively increase your ranking organically. The speed may heavily depend of the quality of web host’s server. Slow loading can fend off your users and can hurt your SEO.
- Website Design – Many services offer to design your website for free or for very little amount. What they do not tell you is that these designs are incredibly limited, you leave out many aspects because many available design have very little to offer. Professional hosting services design your website according to you and make it unique.
- High Security and Backups– Professional hosting services offer you great options in terms of security. Even in terms of backups, you can rely on your host, not blindly though. There is always a possibility of your data being wiped out of your server. Lost data, lost SEO ranking, you’ll need to start from scratch. This could have an adverse impact on your business. To protect yourself from these situations, it is important to have your backup of your site.
Many hosting providers offer back up services. They update on a regular service and keep you online for as long as possible.
Space and Speed – Pages with a longer load time have more repulsion rate than others. Page speed does affect SEO and your rankings in the Google search list. Professional web hosting servers provide the users with a bigger space where they can keep their website data. Bigger space ensures your website is running without lag.
Now you are mostly familiar with the benefits of a professional web hosting. Next is what type of hosting is suited for different types of businesses.
In the world of web hosting, there are many available options you can choose from to get your site on the internet. Nevertheless, they all have different purposes and are suited for different businesses. There are several types of web hosting you will most often come across:
Shared Hosting – It is the best option for newbie web hosting. This will act as the physical location of your website. Your website will be stored here along with many other websites. In a shared hosting plan, all domains share the same server resources such as RAM and CPU. However, due to the shared services, the cost of shared hosting is relatively low.
In most cases, shared hosting is most suitable for entry-level businesses. Whether you are a small business owner or a stay at home parent with a love for blogging, your website can be accessed on the web. Shared hosting plans are available with many tools, such as website builders, WordPress hosting, and the ability to email clients.
Even though shared hosting gives the website owners a very simple approach to the internet, the main drawback is that it is to be shared with multiple users. This means high usage of the server can affect your website.
Managed Hosting – Most hosting packages available online are most likely to be managed. With managed hosting, the host is responsible for day-to-day management of the hardware, operating systems and uniform applications. Hosting companies provide technical support such as hardware and software set up and configuration, hardware replacement, maintenance, and tech support.
There are many available options to choose from when it comes to web hosting, but it is a matter of choice. You can choose from a number of options to suit your needs.
Cloud Hosting – Cloud hosting is the current hot topic of the technology industry. It allows users to utilize as many resources as they require without build or maintain their own computing infrastructure. Cloud based hosting is expandable; it can grow over time while using as many resources as it requires. The website owners only pay for what they need.
Colocation – It allows your business to rent space for servers and other computing hardware. The required power, bandwidth, and IP address and cooling system is provided by the center. If you want access to a higher level of bandwidth than a normal office server at a lower cost, then you should opt for Colocation.
Dedicated Server Hosting – The website owners get most of the control over the server on which their data is stored. The server is exclusively rented by the user, and there is no third user involved in it. It is also a good option from a security point of view. However, all of this comes with a price.
Dedicated servers are one of the priciest hosting options. But, this is also a fantastic choice for SEO because on shared hosting plans you may be sharing a server with a “bad neighbor” that running an adult or gambling website and search engines frown upon that.
Generally, this type of hosting is purchased by website owners who get very high traffic or those who need complete control over their servers. Also, if you opt for dedicated server hosting you will need to have a high level of technical expertise to install and ongoing management of the server.
Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting – VPS is somewhere between shared server and dedicated server. It is mostly used by users who need more control over their servers but don’t necessarily need a dedicated server. It is used by owners who want a dedicated server but lack the technical knowledge needed to maintain it.
VPS hosting provides more customization and storage space, but they cannot handle extremely high traffic. Even while using this hosting, your website performance can be affected.
So, now you have the complete idea of what is a web hosting and how is it good for the SEO ranking of your website. Although there are various options to choose from when it comes to web hosting, it completely depends on users’ discretion what they want to choose depending on their needs. Each plan serves different specifications of different hosts. Knowing what you need and doing your research before committing to any web hosting can prove to be very beneficial for you. Therefore, we advise you to choose wisely.
AUTHOR BIO
Easy.gr is a top web hosting and domain registration agency in Greece, which delivers high-quality network and hardware resources. They help their customers in starting their online businesses with free web hosting on domain name registration. They also offer 24/7 technical support with an efficient and immediate solution for your problems.
