If you need a website, you also need web hosting — it’s as simple as that. The term ‘web hosting’ refers to a service where webmasters are provided with access to the physical servers that they need in order to make their websites available — and keep them that way — for web users to visit and peruse.
There is a large variety in not only web hosts but also the web hosting plans they offer. However, neither the hosts nor plans will quite be equal in what they offer. This all leaves the question: do you need to be picky about what kind of web hosting you opt for if you don’t want your SEO to suffer?
Who would be the best person to answer this question?
One real possibility would be John Mueller — who, as Google’s Search Advocate, has become renowned for the abundance of advice he has publicly given on a range of matters related to SEO. In June 2022, he touched upon the subject of how web hosting can potentially affect a website’s SEO profile.
The word ‘potentially’ would bear emphasis here, as Mueller implied that the connection between a site’s web hosting and its online prominence can be somewhat fuzzy. The Search Engine Roundtable website has posted an enlightening transcript on Mueller’s thoughts concerning whether faster hosting would enhance SEO rankings.
As quoted in the transcript, he admitted that “I don’t think it would have a big effect on Google at all in regards to SEO”, adding: “The only effect that I can imagine that something might happen is what users end up seeing.”
Why you still shouldn’t rest on your site’s web-hosted laurels
Mueller acknowledged that, if most of a website’s users are already encountering “very fast” speeds when on that site, this would bode well for it.
However, he warned that “if your website is really slow for other users, then it is going to be rare for them to go to your website more often, because it is really annoying to get there.” This, in turn, could lead many of these stricken users to look elsewhere for the information, products or services they need.
Mueller continues: “Whereas if your website is pretty fast for other users, then at least they have an opportunity to see a reasonably fast website, which can be your website.” In other words, fast loading times in a website can actually serve as a powerful marketing tool.
How to check if your website could do with a speed boost
Mueller further cautioned that “if Google’s crawling is really, really slow, then of course that can affect how much we can crawl and index the site.” He noted that “you can double-check how fast Google is crawling in Search Console, in crawl stats”.
If those are looking disconcerting in your case, you could consider arranging for us to implement the high-speed web hosting that would elevate your website in both practicality and presence. Our web-hosting provision is built to be SEO-friendly and accommodate websites’ capacity requirements.
