What is Web Hosting?
If you run your own website, you will need somewhere to store all the information that is held on it. This means everything from images and videos to text and code, as well as your corporate email accounts, and more. This location is a powerful computer server, owned and operated by a web hosting company.
Every time someone accesses your website, their internet browser connects to this server, from where it pulls the relevant content to recreate your website on their computer, phone, or tablet. Without managed web hosting, you would need a server of your own allowing permanent remote access on a 24/7 basis to allow people to view your site. Needless to say, this would be both expensive and impractical to operate.
Why is Web Hosting So Important to SEO?
Aside from the technical practicalities of running a website, there is another reason to choose your web host wisely.
Speed.
In today’s digital age, speed is everything. Evidence has shown that even the smallest lag in a website’s loading time can result in lost traffic. It is generally considered that 2 seconds is the optimal loading time. Almost a third of potential visitors give up waiting after 3 seconds, while 90% give up after a 5-second wait.
In terms of ranking on search engines, fast, reliable web hosting is essential to the success of any SEO campaign. Google’s algorithms are all geared towards providing the optimum user experience to their users, so fast websites are rewarded with improved Google rankings.
This applies as much to mobile load speeds as it does to desktop load speeds. Indeed, 53% of mobile clients will abandon a website if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load. What’s more, with almost 60% of online searching being performing through mobile devices, Google are moving to mobile first indexing, which will prioritise those sites best-optimised for mobile devices.
If a website is slow for a visitor, it will also be slow for a Google crawler, whose job it is to gather relevant website data for their search index. The longer it takes for your site to be indexed, the longer it takes to show up in search engine results.
What should I expect from a web hosting service?
While web hosting dedicates server space to your online content, the best hosting companies will offer much more than that. Some of the services you can expect with our unlimited web hosting include:
Unlimited disk space & bandwidth: Unlimited disk space and bandwidth ensure your website is available to visitors when they need it. Metered usage can be sufficient when your site is first starting out but as traffic grows, your website will require more resources and a sudden influx to your website could result in exceeded bandwidth notifications and lost traffic.
Email accounts: many web hosting services provide you with email capabilities, allowing you to create numerous email addresses that utilise your domain name – for example: yourname@yourwebsite.com. This helps to give communications from your website a more professional appearance.
FTP access: FTP (or File Transfer Protocol) is a standard network protocol that allows a client (you) to transfer files to a server (your web hosting provider). This means you can upload files direct from your personal or works computer to your web hosting server for inclusion in your website.
WordPress support: WordPress is a popular Content Management System (CMS) and a powerful website creation tool. Whether you run an online store, a commercial website, or a personal blog, WordPress is a convenient way to manage your website, with more than a quarter of websites worldwide using some variation. This is why cheap WordPress hosting packages are so popular both in the UK and across the world.
Local servers: if you’re a UK company dealing primarily with UK-based customers, you need a web hosting provider with dedicated UK servers. While data exchange worldwide is getting faster and faster, UK servers can significantly reduce lag for your local clients.
If you require fast, reliable web hosting, NetNerd offer a variety of low-cost hosting packages so suit all requirements. Visit https://netnerd.com/ to view the options and purchase online. Alternatively, call 0333 222 4080 and a member of our team will help you find the right option for you.
