The fields of cloud based technology and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) are typically studied as separate entities. But with increasing numbers of business concerns progressively migrating their operations to the cloud, the question of whether this practice impacts upon SEO strategy is raised.
A deeper understanding of the cloud
The impact of the development of the World Wide Web on business probably needs no explanation. The exponential growth of the internet – its speed and accessibility – has seen a steady migration of key business activities to the online world.
The growth of cloud technology – the use of decentralized, “virtual” servers instead of traditional office-based servers for the storage and operation of business applications – has also experienced stellar growth in recent years. When considering business SEO strategy and understanding the working of search engine algorithms, understanding this shift in business operation is worthy of investigation.
It will perhaps benefit both the IT manager and the SEO specialist to consider equipping themselves with a deeper understanding of cloud technology and architecture, and a relevant qualification such as google cloud certification can be achieved conveniently by online learning.
Can cloud hosting affect SEO?
The use of a cloud hosting service is becoming commonplace in the commercial sector. Essentially it permits remote or ‘off-site’ storage and management of both data and company intranet or internet applications.
One of the key advantages of cloud hosting is the realization of greater operating and processing speeds. For this reason, it can be observed that a switch to the cloud can result in improvements in a website’s search engine ranking.
One of the main factors which determine a site’s ranking is site performance and ease of use. The higher this so-called UX rating, the higher the ranking. This is one of the key analysis metrics of the Google algorithm, which gauges parameters including speed of website loading, popularity, and accessibility.
The short answer to this question becomes: YES. Cloud hosting can be shown to improve a website’s SEO and search engine ranking.
Does cloud hosting location affect SEO?
The key to answering this question lies in understanding that a search engine like Google first looks for locally hosted websites. For this reason, a business may have traditionally favored a locally hosted server in order to rank higher in local search results.
That interconnection between server location and SEO becomes redundant with a switch to a cloud-based hosting service. Both the cloud hosting service and search rankings are remote and independent of the service provider’s location.
In that sense, the actual physical location of the cloud hosting server does not have an effect on overall website SEO.
Other benefits of cloud hosting to SEO
It can be seen that a key benefit of cloud hosting with respect to Search Engine Optimization is found in the inherent improvement in website loading speed, which in turn presents more favorably to the search engine as a higher UX rating.
A further related benefit is found in the improvement of the site visitor experience, which also plays a fairly crucial part in overall SEO strategy.
Taken together, it can be observed that cloud-based technology and site hosting can work favorably to improve search engine rankings.
