How Does Search Engine Optimization Relate to Your Web Host?

Search engine optimization is perhaps the most important marketing aspect in online business. If you want a successful website, then you need to be at the top of the search engines. There is simply no other way to get tons of targeted traffic on autopilot. The problem that most people have regarding search engine optimization is the sheer density of it. There is just so much to know and it seems as if there is not enough time in the day to devote to it. As soon as you think you know it all, you find out you’ve been doing something wrong all along. Search engines have been developed over time to index and catalog every aspect of your website, both internally and externally. Therefore the factors that affect your search engine ranking are innumerable. One factor that most people overlook is the relationship between their hosting company and their search engine optimization effort.

Server Reliability

Perhaps one of the most fundamental aspects of your web host that will affect your search engine ranking is the reliability of your web server. The main problem that you need to be aware of is server downtime. Search engines crawl the web at various points throughout the day. No one can know for sure when the search engine spider will visit your site. This means you need to make sure your site is up at all times. If the search engine spider attempts to crawl your site while it is down, then all of the recent changes you have made to your website will not be indexed., This can greatly hinder your search engine optimization progression.

Robot Text

Another important factor of search engine optimization that closely relates to your web hosting account is your robot text. The robot text is a document that tells your server how it should deal with outside influences such as website visitors and search engine crawlers. This document will differ depending on the hosting company that you’re with. Some web hosts will have the document set to allow search engine crawlers while others will not. It is extremely important to make sure your robot.txt files allows crawlers to index your site, otherwise the site will not even be indexed at all!

IP Address Reputability

The final SEO factor that is directly related to your web host is your IP address. Every website online has an IP address that it is associated with. With some hosting plans you share an IP address with others, and some hosting accounts give you your own dedicated IP address. If you decide to share an IP address with others then you need to understand that you are taking a substantial risk to your search engine optimization efforts. Since you are sharing an IP address with other sites, if these sites are penalized by the search engines your site could lose some of its value within the search engine as well, especially if your site is in anyway linked to the non-reputable site on your IP address. For more information on this make sure you talk to your hosting company about dedicated IP addresses and how they can help you.

Source: http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2010/03/18/how-does-search-engine-optimization-relate-to-your-web-host/