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
-
What are the most effective SEO methods for online communities and forums?
My company has a global online community of over 350,000+ members. We allow users to submit articles revolving around the scrum and agile framework. Sometimes the submissions become overwhelming and I am curious if there is anyone out there who may have experience with this same scenario. I don't want to place meta data on every single article that comes in, because I don't have the resources nor time to optimize each and every article. Does anyone have techniques or suggestions in regards to either leaving the meta data untouched or customizing each individual piece? Any thoughts or ideas will be extremely helpful. Thanks
SEO Learn Center | | ScrumAlliance0 -
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 -
How can get inffo on all in one SEO plugin
I have the plugin All In One SEO. I do not know how to use it. How can I get instructions telling me how to use it. I have gone to the website but there does not seem to be a way to contact anyone.
SEO Learn Center | | RQB0 -
Listing multiple locations on Facebook for local business and top platforms for local SEO
What is the easiest way to register multiple locations for a business to Facebook local? I'm sure we've all had the challenge of multiple local business listings for a client. The set up is just busy work, but the verification can be an issue with some busier or less organized locations. I'm interested to see if anyone has a more eloquent solution to achieve this. I also have a second question as far as local listings go - how would you rank the most influential local listing platforms? Thanks, Bill
SEO Learn Center | | wpsoule0 -
Local SEO Practice: Creating a Fictitious Business?
Has anyone tried fabricating a fake, brick-and-mortar store as an SEO experiment? Sort of along the lines of what Starwood is doing (check out this Wikipedia experiment with the Test Galaxy Sheraton), but with a legitimate physical address and all? Was it useful? And are there any potential legal troubles that could arise from borrowing a vacant address? I'm thinking this could be helpful for my Intern to gain practical experience in local SEO, without the politics of working for a client But I wouldn't want to blight that address for future occupants if the experiment went horribly awry. We could instead offer pro bono services to a small business with a limited web presence – that would be useful to her, and constructive. But I'd like to have a better understanding of what signals Google looks for when deciding whether to index a website in local search, and see whether possible to dupe those algos. What are your thoughts, Mozzers? .
SEO Learn Center | | sweetfancymoses0 -
Suggestions For Our New Weekly SEO Podcast
We are getting ready to launch our new SEO weekly podcast in the next few weeks and thought I would get your opinion and suggestions on what you would want to hear. This is going to be a free weekly podcast all about the SEO news of the week, tips, what's working and what's not, and things like that.We will mainly be talking about the latest news in the SEO space on a weekly basis. Might even need a co-host from time to time. I thought I would check and see if you guys have any suggestions or recommendations based on what YOU would like to hear in an SEO podcast? I want this to be something valuable that people will enjoy and benefit from so let me know if you have any suggestions for topics we should cover, show format, etc. Thanks in advance!
SEO Learn Center | | N5c0 -
Missing SEO Moz Blog Post
I cannot find the blog post that I read earlier this month. I thought I had bookmark it, have checked my browser history and the link seems to be broken. The blog was 'Search Engine Marketing Tactics and Strategies'. Can anybody please provide the link? Thank you.
SEO Learn Center | | angie_corel0 -
.ca and international SEO
So we are building out on some of our Ecommerce sites, and expanding and adding .ca domains to our already established .com. What techniques have you used to generate success in similar launches to this one. I will reply to each response with thoughts and questions 🙂 Enjoy the discussion 🙂
SEO Learn Center | | Blargh1230