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
-
Combine Knowledge in SEO with JS
Hi all, I'd like to ask you what's your opinion about combine the knowledge in SEO with JS. I'm already working in agency as Technical SEO Exec and I'd like to study a part-time JS developer course because I like coding too. In a future, I'd like to combine my knowledge in SEO and the skills I could get in mentioned course because I like both of them. Please, let me know your thoughts about it because your opinion would help me a lot. Thanks a lot guys! Ignacio
SEO Learn Center | | Builtvisible0 -
Backlink From Different Language Sites Will Spoil My Ranking?
Hi there! Excited to joining this community. The main question is that if I get backlinks from different language sites then that backlink will be worthy or non-worthy in the eye of search engine? I know if I target international market by presenting my content in different languages then of course it will be worthwhile for me. But what will be happened if I do not represent content in different languages on my site but get the backlines from other language sites such as: Chinese, Russian or any other? Also I have seen many sites which are getting backlinks from different language sites and they are just getting high authority. Is there any expert?
SEO Learn Center | | mianarfan3331 -
Analytics for SEO
Can someone recommend a good (advance) online or offline (Europe) training course for Google Analytics?
SEO Learn Center | | Tormar0 -
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 -
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 -
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 -
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 -
Machine Learning - Randomness in Search Engine Ranking Algorithms
I believe, sometimes you may 'deserve' the first position, but get #3. And of course, sometimes you may deserve #3 and instead be #1. All due to a 'randomness factor' in search engine algorithms. I've been holding this hypothesis for quite sometime. Really, it started when I learned about SEOmoz using machine learning to better investigate SEO best practices. I suddenly found myself wanting to learn more about machine learning, and the implications of using it for SEO. I'm by no means able to utilize machine learning myself, but I it appears unsupervised learning would have a real chance of cracking search engine algorithms. Hey, even Stuxnet was cracked! Surely Google/ Bing would know (and account for) this, right? We can agree they'd obviously prefer a highly skilled mathematician not be able to crack the code. Therefore, I'm led to believe that search engines use some sort of randomness in their rankings. Maybe not much. Perhaps not all the time. But if a random percentage of search results, had a random variable of sorts included in their calculations... wouldn't that be enough to prevent the vast majority of cracking attempts? Thoughts, opinions, criticism? Thanks.
SEO Learn Center | | DonnieCooper0