Your choice in hosting matters. Web hosting is more than simply a place to store files that display your website when people visit the URL. That part is true, but the degree of speed and security a hosting solution offers can make the difference between a site that thrives and a site that staggers.

Speed Matters in SEO

It's not to say that your site will never rank if you have slow hosting, but you will have put an additional hurdle in your way. Sites with slow hosting tend to rank more poorly than faster sites, and there are two main reasons for that.

1. Google's direct impact. Google itself looks for quality sites with good information. As a search engine, Google is always looking for ways to deliver quality search results to users. The exact algorithms they use to determine rankings are always changing, but everything from site content to number of views per month and even how many other sites link to your site matter. When Google "crawls" your site (examines its contents) and notices pages load slowly, it's a mark against your site. No matter how good the information is on your site, Google is less inclined to favor a site that loads slowly as a top search result because users don't want to wait. Because there is such a plethora of information out there, Google can often opt for a similar but faster-loading site.

2. The user impact. People are impatient, especially while searching for information. For years studies have shown that most people will wait less than 7 seconds to determine if they're going to stay on a site. That includes load time. What happens if your site hasn't fully loaded by that point? They usually click the 'back' button and head to one of the other search results. When this happens, you've lost out on a potential customer by not even being able to show them your message or the site you worked hard to create. It won't even matter if you provide a better service than your competitor — that prospect will never know. There's a second degree of loss that comes when too many users click their back buttons and leave your site. That's called a bounce in the SEO world. A bounce occurs any time someone is visiting your site and leaves without clicking anything or interacting with your content. Google tracks this, too, and sites with high bounce rates can rank lower than sites with lower ones. This means not only did you lose that prospect, but you may become less likely to acquire new ones.

Contact us today to discuss supercharging your hosting and exploring site maintenance options to keep the online face of your business at its best!