How do you know when to upgrade hosting to VPS or Dedicated Server from an SEO perspective?
-
From an SEO perspective, how do you know when to upgrade web hosting to VPS or Dedicated Server?
Added:
We have a Dedicated IP Address and plenty of bandwidth and disk space. We've done a lot of work on page speed.
What we don't need is slow-downs due to the sharing space. Our business is seasonal with much higher traffic for three months of the year.
I'm leaning towards moving it up a notch. What is the next level after this?
And yes, our web host just confirmed that some of the things I want to implement can't be done because we are on a shared server. He recommended going to Dedicated Hosting.
And finally:
If we want to be absolutely positive that shared hosting problems won't affect us, and to customize, and also to increase speed, dedicated server seems to be the way to go?
-
Before adding new expenses purely for a speed boost, I would suggest looking at your site with PageSpeed. It is a free add-on in FireFox and is also available for Chrome. The results will let you know what opportunities you have to improve your page load optimization. Some changes offer a noticeable and immediate difference.
Don't try to get a perfect score. Generally speaking, anything 90+ is fine.
If you are purely looking at speed, VPS + Cloud would probably be the ideal solution. I would specifically use Amazon's cloud service to start, as they charge you on your exact usage with no minimum. If you ever get up to $100/month in usage, you can then began to examine other services to compare pricing.
If you use a cloud, I recommend not only offering your images and video files, but all your CSS and Javascript files. Your users will notice the speed difference.
I also want to be clear you may be able to keep your existing shared server and make other adjustments, or change hosts, and be absolutely fine. A shared server often costs less then $100/yr, where a dedicated server or VPS + Cloud will probably be $150+ per month. It's a big difference.
-
Thank you. I have something to compare now and more choices.
-
For all of the issues you mention, I am leaning towards the dedicated server. I think the level of business that we do on the web justifies the expense, even if it may be "overkill" on our actual needs. But with Google looking at speed (which is in their best interest...), it could only help.
Customization and not having to share problems other websites may be having on the server are also in the mix.
Thanks!
-
-
Would you share your really good host's name? Ours got back with a quote and I think it is high, but his expertise is probably worth the extra.
-
-
OMFG I did not know this tool existed!!!! i have been hosting on shared accounts for years, and always wondered, but never knew. now i do. WOW!
I wish i could give you 2 thumbs up.
-
You are right zharriet, time to give your host a call
-
I did look it up and though I have a "Dedicated IP Address", I saw another domain hosted on the server with that same IP Address. It's not a bad site in red, but I thought a dedicated IP address was for one website only.
I also checked it at http://www.domaintools.com and we show up as the only one.
And our host did check it out, too.
-
All great responses Here is a neat tool to see who is sharing space on your present server (it will also indicate potential 'bad' sites in red) http://www.yougetsignal.com/tools/web-sites-on-web-server/
Andy
-
I concur with the following advice given.
Nothing short of the cloud beats having 100/mbs download speeds.
On a side note, VPS cloud nodes have become the new rage. While cheaper than a dedicated server, here has been but one experience:
I went from a 8.4ghz 5.14gb cloud setup (14 nodes at VPS.net) to a local (to Seattle) dedicated quad proc with only 6gb ram. The second server is well over 40% faster than the VPS cloud.
-
Ryan has given a great answer. I have left hosting services because of speed issues. They had way to many sites on the server.
Then I found a really good host and never had a speed issue running lots of sites on several of their servers. My movement through their various plan levels and on to dedicated hosting was mainly the need for bandwidth. Speed was not an issue when I moved to dedicated but that gave me the ability to select processors and add memory which got my site really fast.
-
For the most part, SEO does not care whether you are hosted in a shared environment, VPS or dedicated server.
There are a few issues that can arise from a shared environment.
Issue 1 - shared IP. Many shared hosting environments have 200+ sites on a server. Often there are porn sites and other sites which may get blocked by various filters. The problem this causes for you is the blocking is often IP based. If you get a VPS or dedicated server, you will usually have a unique IP. You can also obtain a unique IP in a shared hosting environment.
Issue 2 - speed. In a shared environment any one site owner can perform an action which causes issues for the server. The server can become very slow, and stay that way until you contact your host and they investigate the problem, then stop the task which is causing the issue. Some shared environments work out well. They hosting companies have alarms and processes to prevent or quickly identify issues. In my experience, most hosts do not take enough preventative measures and sites suffer.
Issue 3 - customization. When you first create a site, your needs are often small and generic. Over time your site grows and you desire to add additional software. The latest and greatest software packages for a CMS, for example, may require more updated versions of the supporting software. You may also require a server setting to be changed. Shared hosts are almost never willing to make these changes as they affect all users on the server. In a VPS or dedicated hosting environment, you can make these changes any time you want.
In summary, if you don't have any significant issues, you can stay with your shared environment.
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
-
SEO Elements for Canonicalized URLs?
I am helping a client with SEO for their ecommerce store. They have around 65 products, but close to 500 URLs all for those same products. Basically they have a bit of an index bloat problem but long story short restructuring was too much of a lift for them, so I got them set up with a canonical URL strategy to ensure all duplicate pages point to one "main" product page. Getting to the point: They also need an on-page overhaul. I've created keyword optimized titles, metas, H1s, etc. for each product. Do these elements need to be added to every single one of the 450+ product pages OR do I only need to add them to the 65 "main" product pages that everything else is pointing to, since that will ultimately be the page that gets crawled?
Technical SEO | | AJTSEO0 -
Youtube SEO Best Practices
Does anyone know where to find a list of SEO best practices for Youtube? Specifically...does anyone have thoughts on the SEO benefits of an @domain.com login vs @gmail.com login? Or is adding my url to the "Associated website" channel setting sufficient for SEO purposes?
Technical SEO | | brianvest0 -
SSl and SEO
Does the type of SSL used on a site have any significance to trust and seo ranking?
Technical SEO | | unikey0 -
Is it better to have hosting that specializes in performance or have the host closer to you physically?
I am looking to change to a new hosting company. I am debating between taking a company that specializes in Wordpress and performance but is situated far from my users or a local company that might not be as good from a performance/speed point of view. Which do you think I should go with? My users are near Europe and the Wordpress hosting that I am considering is in the US.
Technical SEO | | JillB20130 -
Does anyone use paid seo tools
Hi, i see a lot of people claiming that paid seo tools work, i would like to know if anyone uses them. I have a new site that i am building and i am wondering if there are any good paid tools out there that could help me gain exposure quicker. I get a lot of emails from well known companies promoting their paid tools but have never bought any as i believe you should hear from people who have tried them first. If you feel there are any good paid seo tools out there for help with rankings and link building then i would love to hear about them
Technical SEO | | ClaireH-1848860 -
How to know which pages are indexed by Google?
So apparently we have some sites that are just duplicates of our original main site but aiming at different markets/cities. They have completely different urls but are the same content as our main site with different market/city changed. How do I know for sure which ones are indexed. I enter the url into Google and its not there. Even if I put in " around " it. Is there another way to query google for my site? Is there a website that will tell you which ones are indexed? This is probably a dumb question.
Technical SEO | | greenhornet770 -
Parallax Scrolling & SEO
Does anyone know the impact of Parallax scrolling from a SEO prospective?
Technical SEO | | AlgoFreaks0 -
Pintrest SEO
Has any testing been done to determine if Pintrest helps a website ranking?
Technical SEO | | StreetwiseReports0