Hosting & SEO in 2013

[Simsi]

A question inspired by the conversation in Goodroi's excellent Launching A New Site thread [webmasterworld.com].

Hosting: down the years there have been several theories on hosting and how it affects SEO, so which, if any, of the following still have an impact and if so, to what extent?

- Hosting on a shared hosting plan
- Hosting on a dedicated IP address
- Hosting in the country you are targetting
- Hosting in the same country as the domain extension (ie: .com / USA, .de / Germany)
- Linking between sites on the same server
- Effect of mega-cheap hosting (GoDaddy etc)

Anyone care to venture any experiences in 2012/13 relating to these?


Simsi.

[netmeg]

I have (or control) a lot of sites between my own and my clients; many on shared hosting, some on dedicated IPs (usually because of SSL), a few on dedicated servers. All in the US. Some interlinked, some not. I haven't seen negative or positive effects that I could pin on hosting.

HOWEVER I have used (and rejected) maybe six or seven hosting companies in the past four years; things that matter most to me are security (the mega-cheap shared hosting plans are very prone to issues) performance (some hosts just cannot deal with platforms such as WordPress or Magento efficiently) and customer service - which may not directly affect SEO, but it sure makes a difference when something goes wrong.

I think the main things you need to worry about nowadays are security and performance; the items you listed are probably of minimal importance to a healthy site/business. Of course, if you are straddling a line because of other issues, maybe hosting issues could push you over, I dunno.

[Leosghost]

- Hosting on a dedicated IP address

Yes! I posted last year about what happened ( de -indexing by G for 24-48hrs ) for a gropu of sites that I had on shared hosting which shared the same IP as a site belonging to someone else, that G really took a dislike to..all sites on that IP were de-indexed..nowhere for their own names..
The shared hosting element wasn't the problem ..the shared IP was ..I moved them to their own IP ( but still on the same cheap shared hosting..think "croc" ;) and they came right back to their previous #1 spots within another 24-48 hrs..

What other people get "up to" with their sites on a shared IP can bite you..
Dedicated IPs are dirt cheap..and you only have to worry about what you do..

- Hosting in the country you are targeting

*Definitely..both G and bing favour sites hosted in their target countries..their search interfaces offer "sites only in "national" language"..and also "sites only from ( country ) ..even choosing search results from whole world..local language and local hosted still shows up higher in SERPS of all major search engines..

- Hosting in the same country as the domain extension (ie: .com / USA, .de / Germany)

*Same as above applies to TLD hosting..with the proviso that .com .net .org can be hosted anywhere ..and get good results..

You can host a French language .com in France..it will out rank a French language .com hosted in the USA..you don't always need to bother with the .fr..But I usually do so to prevent squatting and or "passing off"..and because some French people prefer to visit .fr..and some prefer .com or .net..most French feel that .org is for non profits..so I only use .orgs for non-profits that I help out / host..