There are many factors that you need to think about when choosing a web hosting company to host your company’s website. One of the most important factors is the location of their servers, because this can heavily impact the growth and success of your business.
The very best part about hiring a web hosting business is the level of risk, which is considerably low. Even if you choose the wrong hosting company for your site, you can always change hosts. Nonetheless, changing web hosts can be a little complicated, so it pays to make the right choice at the start.
So, here are some reasons why you should host locally:
Pricing
The saying “you get what you pay for” certainly applies to web hosting. Being visible to new customers online is very important to many businesses in today’s market. Low cost web hosting companies often overload their servers or oversell bandwidth. Since the lowest cost web hosting company will usually be less reliable, this can damage your digital marketing efforts. If you’ve invested in a high-quality website and are actively marketing it through SEO or PPC, frequent downtime or slow page speed could cost you a lot of money.
Local Ranking Improvements
If you own a local business, hosting your site in the area where your customers live may provide a boost to your rankings on Google.
“In our understanding of web content, Google considers both the IP address and the top-level domain (e.g. .com, .co.uk)… we often use the web server’s IP address as an added hint in our understanding of content.” – FROM GOOGLE WEBMASTER CENTRAL
The above referenced article is a few years old, but Google’s understanding of the geographic implications of IP addresses has only increased over the time. While it is not a make or break factor, hosting your site locally will provide a bonus to your website’s visibility when your local customers search for businesses like yours.
Speed
A website loads up to 3 times faster when you host locally than hosting overseas due to ultra-low latency. Knowledge of your business’ needs is important before settling on a decision between hosting your website locally or overseas.
Local Support
Hosting support when you host locally will be a much better experience. Time difference and language will not be an issue. Using a reputable local company to host your website means you have easier access to quality support. 24/7/365 Telephone, Email, and/or chat support. Any issues can be resolved for you within minutes at times. One phone call connects the small business owner to a customer care representative instead of an automated phone tree.
Conclusion
It is advisable that you host locally rather than overseas if your target market is local. Hosting your website locally will ensure a higher up-time for your website and improved local rankings on search engines such as Google. Local hosting provides high-speed loading time for your web pages, and faster browsing for your local visitors, along with greater access to expert technical support.
For reliable and affordable local hosting, please visit Aura Host.
Website: https://aurahost.co.za/