Many fail to find the connection between web hosting and search engine optimization, however there is a very real association between the two. There are various aspects of your web hosting control panel, your web host’s policies, and the overall features of your hosting plan that contribute to the rise and fall of your rankings in the search engines. For example, your robots.txt file (which can be edited from the file manager in your hosting control panel) dictates whether or not search engines and other bots can browse your site. Some web hosts include an  already modified robots.txt file which blocks search engines from visiting your site. Unfortunately, there have been many people who struggled for months on end only to find that their robots.txt file was not allowing search engines to index their site. This is just one example of the way a web hosting plan can affect your search engine ranking.

Site IP Addresses and Link Building

One of the most powerful ways to raise your site’s PR and search engine ranking is through link building, which is the practice of building backlinks to your site online. The more links you have pointing to your site, the more powerful your site appears to be to the search engines. Thus, many webmasters try to build links back to their own sites in a failed attempt to create what are known as link wheels. These are networks of self-owned sites that you have control over, through which you can dictate backlinking and the PR that results from those links.

Link Wheel Anonymity

However, search engines can see which IP address the links are hosted on, and if they are all on the same IP address, then this could negatively impact your site’s ranking. Of course there are other factors that come into play such as the number of outbound links on each page, and the PR of every page that links back to your site. The main issue is having control over sites that are located on different IP addresses.

Hostgator’s SEO Hosting

Luckily Host Gator is no dinosaur when it comes to search engine optimization, and they understand the eds of their clients. Thus, they have established SEO hosting, which gives you access to various C class IP addresses. This means you will be able to have many sites under your control which are hosted on various IP addresses. In other words, you will have control over a network of sites that appear to be unique entities. The plans offered by Host Gator’s SEO hosting are suitable for a wide range of site owners, with plans starting at only $35 per month for 5 C-class IP addresses. Of course each plan also includes a web hosting control panel and all of the other features you have come to know and love with your current hosting plan. If you are looking for a reliable web hosting plan then you can be sure that Host Gator can offer you everything you need with their new hosting company – SEO hosting.

Most web hosting service providers offer a wide variety of hosting plans that can meet everyone’s needs. All web hosts strive to provide service that is satisfactory and prices that are affordable, however each one has a different set of plans to offer, and the inner workings of the hosting account can be significantly different. Perhaps most importantly is whether or not your hosting account is search engine friendly. While this may not make sense to many webmasters, there are certain aspects of a web server that may make it more susceptible to higher or lower search engine rankings. The following information should help you understand exactly why some web hosting accounts are not liked by the search engines.

Shared IPs

Shared web hosting accounts in particular are risky when it comes to search engine optimization because they require you to share an IP address with other webmasters, which means you can be viewed as the same entity by search engine bots. Also, shared web hosting accounts stand a  greater chance of  causing server downtime, which can cause the search engine bots to fail to index important site updates. In general, all shared web hosting plans are not recommended for serious online business owners are those looking to get high rankings in the search engines.

Free Web Hosting Accounts

Just like shared web hosting accounts, free hosting accounts are also frowned upon by the search engines, not only because they are a form of shared hosting but because the servers are generally sub-par. As mentioned web servers that perform poorly are not ideal for search engine optimization, simply because they reduce the quality of web surfing, both in the perspective of the visitor and the search engine crawlers. Free web hosting accounts also tend to have many limitations that will keep you form updating your site regularly, which is an important factor when trying to rank highly for a particular keyword.

Robots.txt

The robots.txt file is a file that dictates who can and cannot view your website. The file has the ability to block all search engine crawlers from your site, so it can be devastating for your search engine optimization campaign if formatted incorrectly.  Most hosting accounts will have this file created and formatted for you by default, however some hosting providers will have the file set to block all search engines by default. Virtually any hosting account can have this problem, depending upon the provider. Most hosting providers have taken steps to prevent this, however if you notice that your robots.txt is automatically configured to block search engines you should immediately correct it and notify the support staff so that the problem can be fixed.

Conclusion

Although search engine optimization relies on seemingly countless factors, the fact is your entire campaign can be doomed right from the start if you encounter any of the above web hosting pitfalls. It is always best to make sure you have covered all of the basics before you begin structuring your site for the search engines.

Have you ever changed content on your website and looked back a few days later with the old information still being displayed? This is a common question when dealing with search engines that many new web owners ask. With search algorithms changing and different criteria for relevant content constantly changing, it can be difficult to understand the answer.

In short there are a few reasons why search engines will initially ignore a newly submitted website. These include:

• Time
• Lack of backlinks
• Search engine updates

Time

Time is the enemy of all businesses. In the case of websites this is no different. In most instances, it takes time (sometimes days) for the search engine of choice to index the site. Indexing the site is simply adding the website to the results of a search on a search engine.

Search engines like Google have crawlers that are essentially searching the internet for new websites and web pages. Due to the size of the internet, it often takes awhile for the crawler to find the site and add it to the results.

Lack of Backlinks

Another reason the website might not be indexed immediately is due to a lack of backlinks which are inbound links to a website. The higher the page rank (above six) and the quality of the related links, the better the position on a search engine. Those sites that do not have many or related links may not even be indexed by a search engine as the crawler will see it as an irrelevant website.

Search Engine Updates

The final reason can be attributed to search engine updates. In many instances the search engine is performing scheduled maintenance or upgrading their software which would result in a longer time to index. Often, sites are updated at off-peak hours so be cognizant to the timing of the submission of a site.

Solutions

There are a few ways to speed up the indexing process. For instance, by placing homepage links on social media sites like Twitter, this improves the page rank and quality of backlinks. Also, submitting to link exchanges will provide the same result. Additionally, its good practice to check the homepage’s cache to verify when it was last crawled. Finally, utilizing meta-tags in the website will help the crawler identify the website more quickly.

In most cases, time is the primary cause of slow indexing followed by a lack of backlinks, and then scheduled maintenance. Simply be patient and if the site doesn’t show up in the results after a week, contact the search engine and they should be able to provide adequate reasons.

Bing is Microsoft’s version of a search engine, similar to Google. While Google is the industry leader in the market today, Bing is trying to grab a piece of Google’s market share. Search engines primarily generate their money from internet marketers paying the company per click (or impression) to advertise their website by keyword.

Highly clicked keywords tend to cost more per click due to the amount of users that use the keyword in a search. The biggest part of search engine optimization is to create websites that can be found on the search engines within the first few pages. This increases the number of visitors and thus conversions.

This raises an important question: is Bing an effective search engine for generating traffic? If it isn’t then internet marketers shouldn’t spend time and money attempting to target Bing users.

To answer this question: Yes and no. Bing is effective in certain areas of the world and not in others. This all relates to their marketing strategy and advertising. In the United States, there are many more advertisements for Bing than for Google. The difference being that Google has become a household name and doesn’t need to advertise.

A few areas that make Bing an effective search engine are:

• Dominant in some territories
• Brings targeted traffic
• Graphical User Interface (GUI)

The primary advantage of Bing is that it is the dominant search engine in some areas of the world. In turn, this brings in much more targeted traffic. Consequently in an emerging market where Bing dominates, an internet marketer will be quite successful. Another advantage is the easy to use graphical user interface that makes transactions a breeze.

There are two areas that Bing is not effective including:

• Lack of overall traffic
• Slow at indexing pages

These are two extremely important areas. Google holds a huge chunk of the search engine market while others, such as Bing are trying to catch up. With a lack of overall traffic, it can be unprofitable to pump money into advertising nobody will see. Also, with slow indexing of new pages, this costs the web owner money since nobody knows the page is there during the index interval.

In general, Bing is effective when simply targeting a specific geographic area. With a lack of overall traffic, it may not be profitable to invest in Bing just yet. Microsoft is constantly working on this decision engine to improve traffic, so stick around; Bing might give Google a run for their money.

SEO or search engine optimization is the act of increasing the amount of internet traffic to a website. This is one of the most important aspects of internet marketing and web sales. There are search engine optimization consults for hire ranging in price based on experience and portfolio of clients.

There are many website optimization tips available to assist both newcomers and novices alike. As the internet constantly grows and expands, better and more efficient optimization methods are developed. Consequently there are a few basic tips that will remain consistent even as other methods change and grow.

The 20 tips to create a successful search engine optimized website include:

1. Create user-friendly url’s – use dashes between words as opposed to underscores
2. Update content daily and add a few new links weekly
3. Create lean, efficient code that doesn’t clog the website
4. Utilize accurate title pages that describe exactly what the page is about
5. Use clear buttons so clients can easily take action
6. Offer multiple types of payments including PayPal, credit card and e-check
7. While creating the page set obtainable SEO goals
8. Never repeat the name of a page without a serious benefit to do so
9. Always delete obsolete pages from the server so the website is not cluttered
10. Create sites made to pass a human inspection, not just a search engine algorithm
11. Always check for the percent of duplicate content across all pages
12. Keyword research is the most effective method for discovering what users are looking for and typing in the search engin
13. Gather links to quality external sites and resources
14. Eliminate all links to fluff external sites and dead links by checking regularly
15. Plan so the website is scalable and can be expanded for unplanned traffic
16. Adjust the website strategy based on the targeted market
17. Add content that .edu, .gov and .us sites would be interested in linking too; this adds credibility to the site
18. Rationally name folders so they make sense and relate to the product on that page
19. Plan so the website can easily change to new and updated technology
20. Create and maintain a sitemap

These are simple yet insightful tips that can drastically improve a website for better rankings in the major search engines. The main idea is to create a website that is appealing to those customers in that specific market. Creating for the customer will not only improve customer retention, but also improve page rank thus increasing traffic.