How do you know when to upgrade hosting to VPS or Dedicated Server from an SEO perspective?
-
From an SEO perspective, how do you know when to upgrade web hosting to VPS or Dedicated Server?
Added:
We have a Dedicated IP Address and plenty of bandwidth and disk space. We've done a lot of work on page speed.
What we don't need is slow-downs due to the sharing space. Our business is seasonal with much higher traffic for three months of the year.
I'm leaning towards moving it up a notch. What is the next level after this?
And yes, our web host just confirmed that some of the things I want to implement can't be done because we are on a shared server. He recommended going to Dedicated Hosting.
And finally:
If we want to be absolutely positive that shared hosting problems won't affect us, and to customize, and also to increase speed, dedicated server seems to be the way to go?
-
Before adding new expenses purely for a speed boost, I would suggest looking at your site with PageSpeed. It is a free add-on in FireFox and is also available for Chrome. The results will let you know what opportunities you have to improve your page load optimization. Some changes offer a noticeable and immediate difference.
Don't try to get a perfect score. Generally speaking, anything 90+ is fine.
If you are purely looking at speed, VPS + Cloud would probably be the ideal solution. I would specifically use Amazon's cloud service to start, as they charge you on your exact usage with no minimum. If you ever get up to $100/month in usage, you can then began to examine other services to compare pricing.
If you use a cloud, I recommend not only offering your images and video files, but all your CSS and Javascript files. Your users will notice the speed difference.
I also want to be clear you may be able to keep your existing shared server and make other adjustments, or change hosts, and be absolutely fine. A shared server often costs less then $100/yr, where a dedicated server or VPS + Cloud will probably be $150+ per month. It's a big difference.
-
Thank you. I have something to compare now and more choices.
-
For all of the issues you mention, I am leaning towards the dedicated server. I think the level of business that we do on the web justifies the expense, even if it may be "overkill" on our actual needs. But with Google looking at speed (which is in their best interest...), it could only help.
Customization and not having to share problems other websites may be having on the server are also in the mix.
Thanks!
-
-
Would you share your really good host's name? Ours got back with a quote and I think it is high, but his expertise is probably worth the extra.
-
-
OMFG I did not know this tool existed!!!! i have been hosting on shared accounts for years, and always wondered, but never knew. now i do. WOW!
I wish i could give you 2 thumbs up.
-
You are right zharriet, time to give your host a call
-
I did look it up and though I have a "Dedicated IP Address", I saw another domain hosted on the server with that same IP Address. It's not a bad site in red, but I thought a dedicated IP address was for one website only.
I also checked it at http://www.domaintools.com and we show up as the only one.
And our host did check it out, too.
-
All great responses
Here is a neat tool to see who is sharing space on your present server (it will also indicate potential 'bad' sites in red) http://www.yougetsignal.com/tools/web-sites-on-web-server/
Andy
-
I concur with the following advice given.
Nothing short of the cloud beats having 100/mbs download speeds.
On a side note, VPS cloud nodes have become the new rage. While cheaper than a dedicated server, here has been but one experience:
I went from a 8.4ghz 5.14gb cloud setup (14 nodes at VPS.net) to a local (to Seattle) dedicated quad proc with only 6gb ram. The second server is well over 40% faster than the VPS cloud.
-
Ryan has given a great answer. I have left hosting services because of speed issues. They had way to many sites on the server.
Then I found a really good host and never had a speed issue running lots of sites on several of their servers. My movement through their various plan levels and on to dedicated hosting was mainly the need for bandwidth. Speed was not an issue when I moved to dedicated but that gave me the ability to select processors and add memory which got my site really fast.
-
For the most part, SEO does not care whether you are hosted in a shared environment, VPS or dedicated server.
There are a few issues that can arise from a shared environment.
Issue 1 - shared IP. Many shared hosting environments have 200+ sites on a server. Often there are porn sites and other sites which may get blocked by various filters. The problem this causes for you is the blocking is often IP based. If you get a VPS or dedicated server, you will usually have a unique IP. You can also obtain a unique IP in a shared hosting environment.
Issue 2 - speed. In a shared environment any one site owner can perform an action which causes issues for the server. The server can become very slow, and stay that way until you contact your host and they investigate the problem, then stop the task which is causing the issue. Some shared environments work out well. They hosting companies have alarms and processes to prevent or quickly identify issues. In my experience, most hosts do not take enough preventative measures and sites suffer.
Issue 3 - customization. When you first create a site, your needs are often small and generic. Over time your site grows and you desire to add additional software. The latest and greatest software packages for a CMS, for example, may require more updated versions of the supporting software. You may also require a server setting to be changed. Shared hosts are almost never willing to make these changes as they affect all users on the server. In a VPS or dedicated hosting environment, you can make these changes any time you want.
In summary, if you don't have any significant issues, you can stay with your shared environment.
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
-
Sharing/hosting of content questions...
I just wanted to get opinion on some of the fundamentals and semantics of optimisation and content generation/distribution - your thoughts and opinions are welcome. OK, for example, lets assume (for illustration purposes) that I have a site - www.examplegolfer.com aimed at golfers with golf related content. The keywords I would like to optimise for are: golf balls golf tees lowering your golf handicap drive a golf ball further Now, I'm going to be creating informative, useful content (infographics, articles, how to guides, video demonstrations etc) centred around these topics/keywords, which hopefully our audience/prospects will find useful and bookmark, share and monition our site/brand on the web, increasing (over time) our position of these terms/keywords in the SERP's. Now, once I've researched and created my content piece, where should I place it? Let's assume it's an infographic - should this be hosted on an infographic sharing site (such as Visually) or on my site, or both? If it's hosted or embedded on my site, should this be in a blog or on the page I'm optimising for (and I've generated my keyword around)? For example, if my infographic is around golf balls, should this be embedded on the page www.examplegolfer.com/golf-balls (the page I'm trying to optimise) and if so, and it's also placed elsewhere around the internet (i.e on Visually for example), this could technically be seen as duplicated content as the infographic is on my site and on Visually (for example)? How does everyone else share/distribute/host their created content in various locations whilst avoiding the duplicated content issue? Or have I missed something? Also, how important is it to include my keyword (golf balls) in the pieces' title or anchor text? Or indeed within the piece itself? One final question - should the content by authoured/shared as the brand/company or an individual (spokesperson if you like) on behalf of the company (i.e. John Smith)? I'm all for creating great, interesting, useful content for my audience, however I want to ensure we're getting the most out of it as researching influencers, researching the piece and creating it and distributing it isn't a quick or easy job (as we all know!). Thoughts and comments welcome. Thanks!
Technical SEO | | Carl2870 -
Webmaster Tools Server Error
We recently did a build to our site and after the build the build one of the softwares that we are using changed. This caused our server errors to go into the thousands. right now google webmaster tools gave us a list of top 1,000 pages with errors and we fixed them all is there a way to see the rest of the errors?
Technical SEO | | DoRM0 -
Redirection Impact on SEO
Need help urgently. There is the situation [This is how is it working now]: 1. Have a global landing page [say when user types in www.mysite.com - takes user to the global landing page: [www.mysite.com/global/en.html]](http://www.mysite.com/global/en.html] ) 2. Users from this landing page can select a country on his/her choice and get redirected say: [www.mysite.com/us/en.html] Would like to change the functionality as below: 1. When user types in www.mysite.com 1a. Would find the location of the request based on GEO IP and if the request is coming from North America region then would redirect the users to: www.mysite.com/us/en.html 1b. If the request is from any other location/region then it would continue to work as it is currently working: take the user to the global landing page: www.mysite.com/global/en.html Would this change have any negative impact or not found by search engines from SEO perspective? If it does then what are the impacts and if does not then why not. If it does then what is the best possible way to address this request. Appriciate your help. Thanks, Koushik Roy
Technical SEO | | KoushikRoy0 -
SEO friendldy Site structure?
we are in the process or rewriting all the pages on one of our sites and will be changing some urls around. i was just wondering if dashes or underscores are better in the urls SEO wise? www.site.com/word-word-word/ or
Technical SEO | | 858-SEO
www.site.com/word_word_word/ i personally like the underscores better but some colleagues tell me that dashes are better, any tests out there on this issue?? Thanks0 -
The impact of mulstisite wordpress on seo
hi there, i would talk about a specific topic: The impact of mulstisite wordpress on seo Do you think that penalize seo activity ? i make you an example : a wordpress network of sites, domain based let the possibility to manage two domain on a single wp install, but even if the domains are separete, how does google see them, as separate or as a sigle domain?
Technical SEO | | guidoboem0 -
SEO Checklist
Ok I know that this would be a huge over-simplification but I am wondering if there is (at least a bird's eye view) a checklist of SEO do's and dont's? I checked to see if something like this existed but could not find one. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks~
Technical SEO | | bobbabuoy0 -
Does server location (IP) help with international SEO?
If I have a .com.br domain with all my content in Portuguese, will it make a difference if I host in the US or if I host on a server in Brazil? I thought I had the answer to this from Rand in one of his Whiteboard Fridays a while back where he said hosting in the target country would help, but the lady who did the international SEO presentation in MozCon 2011 said any SEO who says this helps doesn't know international SEO. Can anybody point me to a case study on this? I have US and Brazilian dedicated servers but I'd prefer to get rid of the Brazil server expense.
Technical SEO | | jargomang0 -
Best Joomla SEO Extensions?
My website is a Joomla based website. My designer is good, but I don't think he knows that much about SEO . . . so I doubt if he added any extensions that can assist with SEO. I assume there are some good ones that can help my site. Does anyone know what/which Joomla extensions are must haves?
Technical SEO | | damon12120