Choosing The Right Web host For The Best User Experience and SEO

Why does it matter?

As a business owner, we’re very conscious with our website and we perform a myriad of things, for instance, we continue our best endeavors to make sure we keep optimising our website. Like:

• Providing informative and relevant information on their products and services
• Post engaging photos and videos
• Maintain customer service by engaging all communications such as online messaging and emails are answered

Customers will visit your website at any time of the day so if your website does not work correctly or it doesn’t load instantaneously, customers will then visit another website (your competitor).  This is undoubtedly what we want to avoid.

The importance of user experience and SEO

User experience (UX) refers to how users interact with your website. A good UX means that your website is easy to navigate, loads quickly, and provides relevant and engaging content. On the other hand, a bad UX can lead to a high bounce rate, which means that users leave your website without taking any action. This can have a negative impact on your business, as it reduces the chances of converting visitors into customers.

SEO, on the other hand, refers to the process of optimizing your website to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). A higher ranking means that your website is more visible to users who are searching for keywords relevant to your business. This, in turn, increases the chances of driving organic traffic to your website, which can lead to more conversions.

Both UX and SEO are critical for the success of any website. A good UX ensures that users stay on your website and engage with your content, while SEO ensures that your website is visible to potential customers. Therefore, it’s important to choose a web host that can help you achieve both goals.

What is Web Hosting?

Before we dive into the factors to consider when choosing a web host, let’s first understand what web hosting is.

Web hosting refers to the process of storing your website files on a server that is connected to the internet. When a user types in your website address, the server sends the website files to the user’s browser, which then displays the website on the user’s screen.

There are different types of web hosting available, and each has its own set of advantages and disadvantages. Let’s take a look at them.

Factors to consider when choosing a web host

Shared hosting is the most common type of web hosting and will be the focus. In shared hosting, your website shares server resources with other websites. This means that the server’s resources are divided between multiple websites.

There are other types of hosting such as VPS (Virtual Private Hosting) and dedicated hosting, but shared hosting is the cheapest option and the most common.  It is best suited for small to medium-sized websites.

Up time and Reliability

Uptime determines the quality of your Web Host. Up time is the measurement that refers to the reliability of a server and how long it can stay online before failing (downtime). A good web host should have an uptime of at least 99.9%. This ensures that your website is available to users at all times.

No Web Host can guarantee 100% up time due to external factors.  So, if you notice that a hosting provider has a top-notch up time percentage, you can be certain that your website will remain online for longer.

Reliability refers to the web host’s ability to maintain uptime and resolve any issues quickly.

Why Web Host location is important

Web host location is also important for speed and user experience.  As we provide Web Design in Perth we recommend a locally based web host (Dream IT Host) located in Australia.  By having a server located locally, customers can connect faster to your website.  So, consider your customers’ location and choose a Web Host that best serves your target market.

Another key factor that business doesn’t realise is its SEO factor.  Local searches are an important part of local SEO.  Search engines consider the location of your website thus affects your SEO rankings.  Your website will have a higher rank signal if it’s in the same country/city than overseas.

Speed and Performance

A fast-loading website is critical for a good user experience. Even a few seconds of delay can deter and frustrate a customer. Think of your website responsiveness as ‘customer service’. A slow website equals bad customer, and a fast website equals good customer service. An enjoyable experience means your customers will keep on coming back.

SSD (Solid State Hard Drive) is the latest and fastest web host storage which will better serve your website to your users instantaneously. The difference is massive compared to a traditional mechanical hard drive that other web hosts use to offer cheaper hosting plans.

Other than hard drive technology and location, a good web host should have fast servers, provide caching, and content delivery network (CDN) services to improve website loading times.

Bandwidth

Bandwidth is another factor which dictates how much you can access your website at the same time. More clearly, bandwidth defines the extent of traffic and volume of data that can be transmitted between your website, users, and the internet. As your website gets busy (something we all aim for), we want to make sure there’s enough bandwidth to serve everyone.

As web hosts don’t always offer unlimited bandwidth, check the user stats to ensure you are on the right plan because if your bandwidth allocation runs out, your website becomes inaccessible.

Security / Backups

Security is a critical factor in today’s digital landscape.  A good web host should provide security features such as SSL certificates, firewalls, and malware scanning to protect your website from cyber threats.

Poor Web Hosting/Website security can pull down your SEO rankings as hackers can use your website to create spam and negative back links. Even worse, they can bring down your entire website so it’s important to have daily backups, so you can restore your website. Make sure your Webhost provides backup services as part of your hosting plan.

Search Engines are now encouraging all website owners to move onto HTTPS or SSL (Secure Socket Layer) to protect data. Search engines have even gone to the extent to reward websites with a slight SEO ranking boost to adopt the security protocol. Be sure to check if the web host offers this as part of the plan and if not, obtain an SSL certificate from a third-party provider.

Technical Support

When your website has issues or its down, it can be incredibly stressful, leading you to start to panic. Therefore having 24/7 tech support is critical as you don’t know when your website can be affected. Prompt service and their technical ability plays a role with your choice of Web hosts.

How to test your website's speed and performance

Before choosing a web host, it’s important to test your website’s speed and performance. This can help you identify any issues and determine the type of web hosting that is best suited for your website’s needs.

There are several online tools that you can use to test your website’s speed and performance. Some popular ones include Google PageSpeed Insights, GTmetrix, and Pingdom. These tools provide a detailed analysis of your website’s loading times, page size, and other performance metrics.

Further optimisation can be done through On-Page SEO to improve the website itself as part of our SEO services in Perth.

Conclusion

Choosing the right web host is critical for the success of your website. A good web host can help you achieve your digital goals by providing a fast and reliable website that offers a good user experience and is optimized for SEO.

Consider the factors we’ve discussed, such as uptime, speed, customer support, security features, and SEO-friendly features, and take the time to research and evaluate your options.

Remember, you can’t compromise on user experience and SEO, so choose a web host that can help you achieve both goals.