When selecting a website host, website owners and Web masters should be well aware of some server or hosting obstacles that, when encountered; can negatively affect your ongoing SEO efforts.

Here are a few hosting factors that affect SEO:

1. Server Timeouts and Slow Response Times

If a search engine requests a webpage, and it is not returned in a timely manner (or produces a server timeout); it is not likely to get indexed. This will most often result in an unfavorable/reduced ranking. As such, you can see the importance of ensuring that there is no significant down time, for your server or website. Not only are web crawlers unlikely to wait for webpages to load, but Internet consumers will very quickly choose to visit another Internet resource; if accessing your website is problematic. My guess is that you have 10 seconds at most.

2. Shared and Blocked IP Addresses

Three (3) common concerns include 1) server speed, 2) failing to receive the full benefit of valuable inbound links and 3) the potential for untrusted neighbors; to share your IP address. As spiders or web crawlers travel the web, they frequently discover IP addresses which contain unwanted content (web spam). Rather than discount each individual website, search engines will simply block the IP address; or range of IP addresses.

3. Bandwidth and Other Limitations

Does your server have limitations set on the amount of web traffic that can travel to the website? In most cases, if you exceed your allowance, your website hosting is suspended; and spiders or web crawlers are prevented from indexing. Furthermore, do not overprotect or restrict access, to files that would limit a search engine spider’s ability to effectively crawl/index; your website or webpages.

4. Geographic Location of Server

Search engines will consider the location of a web server, when determining a website’s relevance to a local search query. As such, it is strongly recommended that you acquire hosting in the target country; where your content is determined most relevant. If you are using a dot com and shift hosting to another country, you may experience undesirable effects on your search engine results; in some parts of the world.