Forum Moderators: Robert Charlton & goodroi
I found a hosting company that offers a lot of server software options I would like for the good price. But I'm wondering what adverse affects I may run into hosting abroad.
Please help on this,
Louis
I won't skimp on hosting
I won't skimp on hosting
I won't skimp on hosting
Reasoning:
How much effort do you put into your sites? What $value do you think your time is worth? How much non-financial 'investment' do you put into your sites? I'm guessing it's worth way more than the few bucks you will save on hosting in Panama (even if it's the perfect feature set, I'm sure a US supplier can supply the same features).
Why prejudice yourself, host in the country where most of your visitors are from (less possible search engine 'penalties' to worry about).
I know that people run site on free hosting, that's fine for them but there's no reason not to pay for peace of mind. We advise clients to host with RackSpace - they are very good (but quite expensive) and we have never had an issue, ever. I'm not saying that everyone should be spending hundreds of dollars a month but good hosting is like your first dishwasher, you'll never go back to washing dishes by hand (and poor hosting is like washing dishes in cold water with no detergent or cloth!).
Living in New Zealand, I've found it far more convenient to host my sites here, although they are indeed aimed at a US audience.
There's always that niggling question in the back of my mind though... what might I be missing.
Don't skimp on hosting.
Your website is your store. You can only sell stuff if your store is open.
if your store is closed, who are you going to call to get it back open?
Just to clarify, what's attractive about the host in Panama to me is NOT the price. It's the feature set.
Specifically, the databases offered, the development languages offered, shell access on a FreeBSD virtual machine, and their security setup (i.e. virtual machine for each hosting account), which should help keep others on the same server from viewing (or copying) my scripts or database contents. For instance:
----------------------------------------
Databases:
PostgreSQL Databases
- phpPgAdmin
- PostGIS
- pl/pgsql
- pl/perl
- jdbc
FireBird Databases
MySQL Databases
- phpMyAdmin
-------------------------------------
Languages:
PHP 4.3.x / 5.x
- pear modules
gcc / g++
mico 2.3.11
JDK 1.3 / 1.4
python 2.1.x / 2.3.x
Perl 5.6.1 / 5.8.2
- perl modules
TCL 8.4
-------------------------------
On Security:
"each domain is run in a Virtual Machine.
Most hosting companies out there today provide their clients with a Virtual Host ... they have several domains hosted on one machine, where security between domains is regulated by setting access permissions onto the directory structure, preventing other users from looking at your files. If someone happens to erroneously change those permissions, all their other clients can see all of your data.
At ###.###, we run software built into our operating system that allows us to run each domain as if it was running on its own machine, protecting your data from other clients"
(and)
Increased Security
* The files within your Virtual Machine are not viewable by other clients
* We can enable (or disable) services on a per domain basis, without opening all clients up to potential security holes
Increased Flexibility
* Your Virtual Machine is tailored to your specific requirements.
* Each machine is setup standard with Apache, Postfix , PHP4, etc ... but if you have a requirement to use AOLServer instead of Apache, or mod_perl instead of PHP4, we can tailor your environment without affecting other clients.
Less Limitations
* Since your Virtual Machine is distinct from everyone elses, your users are distinct as well.
* You have the ability to add unlimited mailboxes, as required
* You have the ability to add unlimited shell accounts, as required
* You have the ability to add unlimited domains, as required
* We have the ability to provide you with full root access, so that you can modify and restart servers when you need to
----------------------------------------------
The above sounds very good to me. Again, I'm NOT looking to get by on the cheap. I wouldn't even blink at any price with less than three digits/month in it.
Again, the above feature set sounds EXCELLENT to me....but I do worry about how the search engines might diminish rankings of my .com content they serve to USA IP addresses that their bots find at a Panama IP address.
So....how much of an issue is it to rank content on servers from one country being served up to residents of another contry on a .com domain? Anybody have a good handle on this?
Never been accused of being a cheapskate,
Louis
There are at least five ways that Google can determine the country a website targets: TLD, address in the whois, incoming links, language on the site and IP address of the server.
IP address isn't the only factor. I have one site which is hosted in the US, but TLD, whois registration and 50% of the language is in Dutch, so this site shows up in local searches in www.google.nl. Yet my main source of incomming links is the US.
Your situation is different. The language is probably English. This is a neutral language so is probably skipped in the country detection. The same for the TLD. It is probably a .COM, .NET or .ORG. Those TLDs are used by websites around the world and are also not a good way to determine the targeted country.
I have no idea where your incoming links are from. If they are mainly from US sources, that might help.
That leaves the IP and whois information. I am not sure how Google weighs these factors, I am not even 100% sure that whois information is actually used. Furthermore, foreign websites hosting in the US are common practice, but US websites hosted outside of the US are not so common. So my guess is that after you transferred to Panama Google will soon decide that the site is targeting Panama and rankings in Google US will fall.
Why take this risk? My experience is that hosting is just a few percent of the total cost of a site. Count all the hours you spend updating the site, reading WebmasterWorld etc. The few dollars you might save on the costs is no justification for the IMO large risk for falling Google positions.
Added: I can't say anything about SEO issues though.
So my guess is that after you transferred to Panama Google will soon decide that the site is targeting Panama and rankings in Google US will fall
I disagree. I think he will gain rankings in local Panama searches (for what they're worth), and maintain rankings in the US SERPs.
I have a .com site in Spanish, hosted in Spain and with links from Spanish sites (Whois also mentions a Spanish address). This site ranks exactly the same in the US as it does in Spain (except of course for the "sites from Spain" option in google.es).
Ghostbusters! dee dee diddidy dee dee
Sorry Tx could not resist
Bek.
;)
