<img src="https://itxdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/SEO-Hosting-300x246.jpg" alt="SEO Hosting" width="300" height="246" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-10835" />You can easily get caught up in how your website looks. While the design is important, you cannot only focus on the look of your site. The SEO and the hosting also matter and they are tied together. 

Design will make things look good, but the right hosting will make a bigger difference in whether you get seen. In addition, the SEO matters when it comes to getting people to see your website. SEO includes linking, content and many other things. It also includes quality hosting. Here's what you should know about web hosting when considering SEO for your website.

<h2>Downtime and Uptime</h2>

Maybe the most important thing to consider is how much downtime your site might suffer. You need to make sure your website will be up as much as possible. Downtime not only hurts your SEO, but it also kills your conversion rates.

While some companies promise 99.9% uptime, it's important to find one willing to give you 99.99% uptime. That extra 0.09% makes a much larger difference than most people think. High quality hosting companies will always give you at least 99.95% uptime, which is necessary in today's fast-paced online world.

<h2>IP Address Location</h2>

<img src="https://itxdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/SEO-and-Hosting-300x200.jpg" alt="SEO and Hosting" width="300" height="200" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-10834" />You want to make sure your hosting will include a local IP Address. It doesn't need to match your city, but it does need to match your country. If your IO is outside of the country, it could hurt your SEO ranking.

IO location will also change the speed of your website, which is another important part of your hosting. You need to make sure the IP is as close as possible and ideally in your country.

<h2>Speed</h2>

Page load speeds make a big difference with your SEO ranking. You need a website that loads very fast because your competition has one. You cannot make people wait because they will leave. Believe it or not, three seconds is super slow.

Your hosting may provide a CDN and other tools to make things faster. However, they have to have a good set of servers first before anything else. If the servers are not good, your hosting won't provide the speed you need for ranking well on search engines.

<h2>Security</h2>

While it's not a huge SEO factor, security is an SEO factor for your site. Using an SSL certificate is always a good idea, but you have to go beyond this. The biggest issue is the possibility of a hacker adding spam pages or code to your website. They could also create all types of fake backlinks, which could be a huge problem.

Good hosting will give you great security. You won't have to worry nearly as much about malware and other issues, which will help to protect your SEO. Make sure you get hosting with great security or you could be in trouble.

<h2>Full 24/7 Tech Support</h2>

<img src="https://itxdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/SEO-300x143.png" alt="SEO" width="300" height="143" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-10836" />There's nothing worse than your site going down and not being able to get any help from support. You need great 24/7 tech support from your hosting company. If you don't get good support, the hosting isn't going to help you much. Make sure your hosting company offers great support from experts ready to help you no matter the time of day.

Getting the right hosting will make a huge difference for your SEO. It's the foundation of your website and needs to be strong without cracks. Make sure you choose a great hosting company and you will be well on your way to getting the most SEO out of your website. Without great hosting, you’ll struggle to rank high on Google, Bing or any other search engine.
