Does Server Speed Effect SEO Rankings?
-
I was told by a website developer that Google ranks sites higher if they are hosted on faster servers. Is this true? For example my site is currently limited because it is a Quick Shopping Cart site hosted by Godaddy. He said that if I hosted my research chemical site with a different company with faster servers I could get better ranking immediately. I linked to my site. I think it loads ok. However Godaddy probably isn't the fastest service around.
-
Godaddy is touting their new 4gh servers and also a premium dns that guarantees 99.9 percent up time. Have you tested these?
-
Thanks for that site link... It says I have a B for page load speed but a D for Yslow grade? I am not sure what the difference between Yslow and page load are?
-
is this thread spam?
-
slow websites are rubbish.. even if it's not a ranking factor its pretty boring waiting for stuff to load!
without moving server you can still improve the code to make it faster:
http://gtmetrix.com/reports/www.buy-research-chemicals.com/sOqqeQx0
-
Thank you for the smushit site... I am using it right now...
-
Hi Chronicle,
You might also investigate other ways to speed up your site, such as making sure your images are optimized. Your home page images are all identical, and the file size could easily be cut in half with http://www.smushit.com/ysmush.it/.
Honestly, I would worry less about your server at this point, and more about other things that might send off some spammy signals to Google. The text of your website claims that it is just for research purposes, but the links coming to the site that show in Open Site Explorer have a lot of "buy viagra" anchor text coming from .edu pages that have been heavily spammed. The image that's often repeated on the home page has the filename of buy-sildenafil-citrate_00.jpg. The alt text for the free shipping image is "buy research chemicals", etc.
-
I think the key with having a quick running site is more a usability one, if the site runs slow especially e-commerce users will bounce to other websites and competitors.
Site speed has been noted as a small factor to ranking yet their are 100s of ranking factors.
Godaddy servers are not the best at all from my experience, I have tested a few servers their a while ago, depends on what type of server you are after too - dedicated server, shared host ect.
Also up time of the server is another important factor, geo location of the sever i.e is it close to your main user base is also important with e-commerce.
-
Hi Chronicle,
I would say your first statement is false to some extent. Although website and hosting speeds play a role in ranking as stated in a blog post by Google, it is very minor... less then 1%, so I highly doubt that moving to a "faster" server will yield "higher rankings immediately".
As long as your code is written correctly, images are optimized for web and you maybe even have compression on the server side for your site, you should be in pretty good condition.
Hope this helps!
Here is another Google Post on this topic.
-
See this article:
http://searchengineland.com/google-now-counts-site-speed-as-ranking-factor-39708
Key takeaway: speed is a ranking factor, but it's a very, very minor one. Definitely does not carry enough weight to justify moving servers.
Hope this helps!
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Is The Moz Community Rankings broken?
Not as active as I would have liked recently but still visit and login, answering a question now and again, yet I can see my profile is still listed as unranked. until recently I was somewhere around 45-49 and have been for many years - the criteria appears to be what it has for the last ten years or so. I see people with lower moz points outranking members with far more points. I can even see one with 0 points now appearing in the top 50 so my question is - is the moz community rankings broken or have I missed something? I know once before I pointed it out and it had to be fixed...input from all welcome 🙂
SEO Learn Center | | Matt-Williamson2 -
SEO as part of University Curricula - real examples
Does anyone know of any universities that offer SEO as part of the curricula? I am currently working on getting SEO into an Argentine University and it would be nice to have precedents. There appears to be demand as you can see here http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=seo%20university yet when you search "SEO university course" or something similar, no name brand universities show up. https://www.google.com/#q=seo%20university%20course. Distilled does. I am interested in hearing people’s opinions on having SEO be taught at universities. Thanks Carla
SEO Learn Center | | Carla_Dawson0 -
Off Page SEO Topic
Hi, I want to know a list of off page SEO topics (panda and penguin friendly) what will drive traffic. Can you help me? Al
SEO Learn Center | | bayezid0 -
SEO Stratergy for new ecom site
Hello Experts, I need expert advice for my ecom site. My site is www nsale dot in , domain is 2 years old, we just revamped the site. Its currently under testing. Dev activity will be complete in another 2-3 day and product addition will start in a week. we are targeting all major categories of product. I am not sure about how to start the SEO and social media marketing. Can someone help on how to plan and execute inorder to get targeted traffic and also steady increase in traffic ? Targetted traffic is India. PR is currently 0. Thanks in advance.
SEO Learn Center | | nsale0 -
Difficult Boss: Does anyone know of a SEO quick reference?
I am dealing with a boss who does not understand all the aspects of SEO and its value. He thinks if I just plaster keywords on a page, we'll rank. He thinks I'm wasting my time blogging, link-building, ect. I'm wondering if anyone knows of an article or blog post that has been published that BRIEFLY explains the value of these things. What I am looking for is NOT an article about the basics of SEO. I don't need something that is written for a beginner SEO just starting out who wants to learn how to do it. I need something that is written for a business owner who isn't technically-minded, so he can understand why and how each aspects helps rankings. Does any such reference exist?
SEO Learn Center | | UnderRugSwept0 -
What are the things I should tell my website developer to keep in mind for on-page SEO wise while outsourcing it?
I have done the keyword research for my target and will do the copy writing in-house suited for both visitors and bots.Like suitable headers and mention of keyword in the content,mention of keyword in link,having video in the page if possible etc. I need some help for a proper interlinking strategy and main question is, what are the things to be taken care of in coding/development SEO wise,which should be told to developer. I am going for custom development in .NET platform( if it matters anyway ) My site will have 3 products/services page and rest are resources and Q&A community. I am targeting the keywords for 3 products. Q&A community and resources should help me in long tail keywords. Any kind of advice,suggestion is welcome. Thanks
SEO Learn Center | | RyanSat0 -
What should we include in the updated developers SEO cheat sheet?
Hey folks, Do you all remember the developer's SEO cheat sheet? It's super awesome. But it's also a little old. What super awesome ideas do you have for the updated version? What should we include? What should we take out? Any developers around - what SEO knowledge would you most like to see in a cheat sheet? Thanks!
SEO Learn Center | | TomCritchlow3 -
Seo book(s) recommend or advise me
Hi i would like to buy book about seo but i dont know which is good or not maybe you may recommend me some seo book special about google caffeine i found this to books on amazon, http://www.amazon.com/Search-Engine-Optimization-Secrets-2011/dp/1452885443/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1299373573&sr=8-1 http://www.amazon.com/SEO-2011-Search-Optimization-Secrets/dp/1450727972/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1299373627&sr=8-3 Thank you Kerem
SEO Learn Center | | pentimento0