When it comes to hosting your website, there are literally hundreds of options from well-known companies such as GoDaddy, Wix & SiteGround to name a few. But what does this mean, and how do I choose?
Well, first of all, do not underestimate the importance of your website hosting, it is the location that your website will reside and determines how it will run (performance).
Does the server location impact my website speed?
In short – Yes. Many of the cheaper hosting options are located in North America, but, when we, and more importantly, our customers, live in Western Australia, there is something called server response time, server lag or latency. This is the time delay between every tiny packet of information that is bounced back and forth from your browser to the server and back.
A big factor of latency is distance, but other factors such as server load, bandwidth and capacity should also be considered.
A shared server in Canada which hosts hundreds, maybe thousands of websites is going to distribute its data to a user in Australia much slower than a dedicated server based here in Australia, or better still, in you and your customers home city.
What is the difference between a shared server and a dedicated server?
A shared server is a server that may host many hundreds of different peoples websites, from all over the world. All of the server resources, memory and bandwidth are shared meaning only a small percentage is for your use at any given time. Another issue is that you have no control or knowledge of what other websites are on the same server and ip address as your website. This could mean that a scam or phishing website could be placed on your server which could lead to a blacklisting of the whole server, including your website.
A dedicated server means that you get your own server (hardware) with a specified amount of memory (RAM) and bandwidth either for sole use by your website, or for a select few websites by the same company. The major benefit to this is that all of the server resources are available at all times to serve your website.
Your choice of server can make the difference to a website load time of 1-2 seconds for a good host, or 7-12 seconds for a not so good.
Does website load time affect my Google rankings?
Yes – More than ever now does Google, and other search engines, penalise or drop the rankings of slow to load websites. This means that you may have a great website and do everything that you can to optimise for SEO, but if the server is letting you down, your search engine rankings are sure to take a hit.
BluSquare web hosting
BluSquare Design is a Perth based website design, digital and social marketing agency predominantly serving local WA based businesses.
We want only the best for our clients, and for this reason alone, we only host our websites on our own dedicated servers that are located right here in Perth.
Our servers are located within the NexDC data centre in Malaga, WA. This means that our websites server response times and latency are absolutely minimal, thus gaining the tactical advantage from the start.
If you would like to talk to us at BluSquare about your website, design, seo, marketing or hosting, call 0466 441128 or email hello@blusquare.com.au.
