Should I Use A Local Hosting Center?

[KempRugeLawGroup]

This question spawns from a comment I read in another post, but has anyone seen success switching from a hosting provider like bluehost, hostgator, etc to a local one in their area? Right now, we use Bluehost, but if there is a benefit to using one in Tampa, I'm all for it....before I do, I just want to see what the consensus is.

Thanks,

Ruben

[FCBM]

Hosting is an interesting thing. Most local hosting services are better because they provide some "service" but the reality is they usually cost more just because they don't have economies of scale. From a localized standpoint having a "local" host really doesn't affect rankings.

[WhiteboardCreations]

Hey Ruben,

Like FCBM stated, there is no difference besides cost. I know you are a law firm, so that may not be an issue, but as web company, we get asked all the time about hosting and where clients can save money. A TON of money. Many smaller businesses don't need a managed service provider "watching over" their server environment. They just need a website that will load fast and be up 99.9999999% of the time.

We host with GoDaddy and have not had 1 issue in over 4 years, even when they had that huge takedown a couple years back. I can call them on a Saturday night 4am and speak with someone in Arizona or their other US based call center if I need, which I can't say the same for HostGator or BlueHost or many others, especially a local host provider.

Hope this was helpful! Good luck! - Patrick

[LesleyPaone]

I would shoot geographically close, most cities are not going to find top level data centers in their city and that is really what it comes down to. One thing to keep in mind too, is that just because a company is local it does not mean their data center is local. One that I would recommend is Web Hosting Buzz, they use a tier 3.5 data center in Atlanta. Which is more than likely geographically closer than what you are using. I am guess since you are using Bluehost you are in the Provo data center, which has had a ton of problems in the last couple of years.

One thing I would mention too is I would stay away from hosts that use data centers located in Florida for the reason of hurricanes. I know one big consideration in data center placement is natural disasters, and it would seem more likely down there.

SEO benefits, not really, but you should see a speed increase, assuming you are hosted in Provo.

[KempRugeLawGroup]

Leslie,

I was under the impression that increasing speed helps your rankings? And, yes, we are hosted in Provo. Btw, you probably don't remember this, but months ago you helped me out a lot when I asked which hosting company to go with. You gave me excellent feedback about the pros and cons of the big players. We did eventually decide to go with Bluehost over Web Hosting Buzz (though that was mainly because the BH salesman "misinformed" me about some of their services, but that's another story). I just wanted to say thanks; you're input now and then is extremely appreciated.

• Ruben

[KempRugeLawGroup]

It's definitely helpful. I'm hesitant to leave Bluehost, because even though it was a little rocky in the beginning, I've received excellent tech support there. Fortunately, I probably will never need to call anyone at Saturday night 4 am, but for a web company, I can definitely see that option as a plus.

My biggest concern is actually weighing the pluses of SEO (which apparently, there aren't any or not much) vs quality tech support. I fear a local host provider may not really being there, so i appreciate the feedback. I'm glad to see my concern is at least based in something.

Thanks,

Ruben

[LesleyPaone]

Ruben,

It does, but it is to a degree. There are multiple factors to take into consideration with improving speed to help with rankings. The first one is that Google uses some 200 ranking factors, speed from what I have researched is graduated. Like say all sites that load under 2 seconds get a full score, then sites that load 2-5 seconds get a half score, ect. The numbers are just made up, but that is what I have imagined is how things happen.

Also, you have to take into consideration that you might be moving the site geographically further from the location of googles crawling bot, which might make it seem slower for google.

Then there is the point also, that you might convert more because your site seems quicker to local users.

Is the site itself already optimized for speed? What are the normal page load times from something like pingdom?

[LesleyPaone]

If you want to shoot me an email at lesley@dh42.com I took a look at your site, there are other suggestions I would think would be more beneficial than getting a closer host and would pay off greater.

[KempRugeLawGroup]

Will do! Thanks.