Choosing hosting
Does web hosting affect your Google rankings?
Key takeaway
Web hosting can affect the availability, speed and technical access that support search visibility. It does not guarantee a Google position. Choose reliable hosting, keep useful pages accessible, preserve important addresses during a move and publish information that answers your customers’ questions.
In this guide
Good hosting gives the website a sound base
Search engines and customers need to reach the pages you publish. A hosting setup that responds properly supports that access. A slow or unavailable website can also make the experience harder for the people you want to contact you.
That is different from buying a better ranking. Google evaluates many things, and good page-experience results do not guarantee a top position. The provider name on a hosting bill cannot replace useful, relevant pages.
Choose a hosting service with clear responsibilities
Sources: Google: page experience and search rankings (opens in a new tab)
Keep important pages available to search
Google’s technical requirements include a page being accessible to its crawler, returning a successful response and containing indexable content. A live business page should not accidentally inherit a private preview’s search-blocking settings.
Tell your developer which services and pages matter to the business. Check those pages after a launch. Protect customer accounts and private proofs separately, so making the public website accessible does not expose private information.
What an SSL connection protects
Sources: Google: technical requirements for search eligibility (opens in a new tab)
Treat speed as part of the experience
A page should be useful as well as quick. Make the service clear, put the next action where a customer can find it and choose pictures that help explain the business. Performance work should support that job.
AWS hosting and CloudFront CDN are included in both Lightning Web Hosting plans. If the existing page itself needs repair, we assess that separately. A CDN is helpful delivery infrastructure, not an automatic rewrite of the website.
Take care when changing hosts
A hosting change can keep the same domain and page addresses. In that case, plan the new hosting, test it and arrange the switch without also changing every URL. If a redesign changes addresses, map the old pages to the right replacements.
Do not discard useful service information simply to start with a cleaner design. Bring the existing site address and your important pages into the modernisation brief, including pages that already attract enquiries.
Protect your SEO work during a hosting move
Sources: Google: changing hosting without changing page addresses (opens in a new tab)
Measure the right outcome
Search Console can show which queries and pages receive impressions and clicks. Those observations help you choose the next improvement. A position seen in one manual search is a narrower view than a pattern of relevant queries and enquiries.
For a business owner, the useful result is the right people finding a clear page and taking the next step. Keep those enquiries in the conversation alongside technical reports. A better score by itself does not tell you whether customers understood the offer.
Understand what a speed-test score means
Sources: Google: the Search Console performance report (opens in a new tab)
Keep useful information current
Opening hours, service descriptions, team photos and contact details should keep pace with your business. The Lightning plan adds everyday Arc updates to hosting at NZ$99 + GST per website a month, with private previews and your approval.
Thunder hosting is NZ$55 + GST. Both plans include the same domain registration, DNS, SSL, CDN, platform security and daily AWS website backups. We agree the move and any separate work before hosting billing starts at go-live.