Hosting Providers and SEO

[bronxpad]

I have been wondering for a while which web host provider is the best for SEO purposes?

Things to consider.

1. Shared Hosting vs Dedicated Server
2. Location of the Host Provider
3. Site Up Time

One question that I have been thinking about is what impact would changing a host provider have on a websites serps ranking? Is there a possible negative impact and if so how can it be avoided?

Name the top 3 Web Hosts for SEO.

[SEO5Team]

Hi Joel,

Changing a hosting provider should not impact your rankings or traffic. We have changed hosting for a lot of websites without any adverse impact in rankings.Just make sure that all the site files are transferred correctly on the new hosting account.

If the new and the existing hosting providers are located in the different countries , that can impact the results.

We recommend Rackspace to our clients for their hosting needs.

[bronxpad]

Question, are they worth the price? WHat in your opinion sets them apart from others and how would their service benefit local seo efforts?

[SEO5Team]

When we recommend a hosting provider to a client, there are 5 important considerations for us:

1. Reliability and Uptime

2. Pricing

3. Support

4. Backup services

5. User Friendly Back end ( C panel, Webmail)

Rack space excels in all these categories. For the more price conscious clients, we recommend host gator which has proven to be another solid option for our clients.

[bronxpad]

Thank you for your advice. I have heard from some companies that changing hosts changes the ip address and this can have an impact.

My key issue is that i need a 301 redirect because both the www and non-www version come up as two different sites.

I have told google and bing through the webmaster tools which I prefer and I've put in the canonical link tag in the head of my doc but I hear it still needs a 301 redirect.