Hosting SEO Tips

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results. Typically, the earlier a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, and industry-specific vertical search engines.

As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO considers how search engines work and what people search for. Optimizing a website primarily involves editing its content and HTML coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines.

The acronym "SEO" can also refer to "search engine optimizers," a term adopted by an industry of consultants who carry out optimization projects on behalf of clients, and by employees who perform SEO services in-house. Search engine optimizers may offer SEO as a stand-alone service or as a part of a broader marketing campaign. Because effective SEO may require changes to the HTML source code of a site, SEO tactics may be incorporated into web site development and design. The term "search engine friendly" may be used to describe web site designs, menus, content management systems and shopping carts that are easy to optimize.

Search engine optimization is not only about keywords anymore. Your hosting plays an important role for ranking your website.

1. Use Linux Hosting

Don't get Windows Hosting. Linux hosting is much better (lots of free software, htaccess/mod-rewrite, good community support, etc). Hostgator and 1&1 are the linux hosting I recommend.

2. Get Unique IP's.

There is no proof on this one, but I believe having an unique IP is 'starting fresh'. Some shared hosting companies do not allow you to do this so make sure before signing up. (Hostgator allows you to get one for 2$/month or gives one free with the business package). You don't want to be on the same IP with a gay porn site, right?

3. Buy 3-Month-in-Advance Hosting

Buy your hosting from companies that require at least 3 months in advance! Find a hosting company that requires at least 3 months commitment. Most spammers, blackhatters etc. go for a cheap host that they can leave in a week or two. You don't want to be in the same boat with them. Some good hosts that require at least a 3-month contract are Hostgator, 1&1 and Host Monster.

4. Uptime

What if Google attempts to crawl your site and it's down? You don't want that. Use WebHostingStuff to find actual Up-Time data for particular hosts.

5. Call-to-Verify

A growing method to stifle credit card fraud is the usage of phone-verification systems. Yeah, it is annoying as hell. Many hosts do this automatically with text-message type systems, but I recommend the old-fashioned human-to-human phone call. A spammer creating 100 hosting accounts a week (or a day) is not going to be able to answer that many phone calls. And a phisher paying for hosting accounts with a stolen credit card will steer clear of these sites.

6. Demand Mod_ReWrite

In one of the most frustrating examples of a bug-not-fixed, Google has yet to offer a truly effective system for preventing duplicate content caused by accessing a domain by www. and non-www. version of your site. (Google offers a method by creating a Google Webmaster Account and providing a preferred domain. Why not just fix the bug, Google?!?)