SEO and Cloud Hosting

[Hlforr]

Is there any disadvantage from an SEO viewpoint in having cloud hosting?

[logic_earth]

No. Search Engines do not care how your site is served. You could put it on a toaster, they won't care.

[Hlforr]

As I understand it, they do care where the servers are as they prefer that web servers are located as near as possible to the target audience.

[logic_earth]

Geographical location is different matter to the type of hosting you use.

• BTW, your signature links, Search Engines won't see or follow them having the same link with different words is pointless.

[EastCoast]

Google do however care about page loading speed, which is directly influenced by hosting:

"we're including a new signal in our search ranking algorithms: site speed. Site speed reflects how quickly a website responds to web requests."

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.co.uk/2010/04/using-site-speed-in-web-search-ranking.html

[seotrafficsearch]

Its not a bad idea to switch over to cloud hosting, however you should make sure that you choose a generic TLD so that search engines can refine your site. You can configure the settings in GWT for local preferences as this would also help your site come up in region you want to target.

[TechnoBear]

... however you should make sure that you choose a generic TLD so that search engines can refine your site.

If you're targeting a specific country, then there's no benefit in choosing a generic TLD over a country-specific one. Bear in mind, too, that it is not only search engines which look at the domain extension, but also potential customers. If I'm searching on-line because I want to buy something, I will visit the .co.uk sites in the results and ignore the .coms, simply because I live in the UK and don't want to have to pay carriage charges from elsewhere. Some of those .coms will belong to UK businesses, but the majority do not, so I don't bother looking through them. I know other folk who take the same approach. A country-specific domain tells your potential customers that you are doing business in their area.

[Paid_Surveys]

Yep I agree it makes no difference, cloud hosting won't affect anything.

[yamakazi]

I've moved a number of sites to cloud hosting and similar services over the past year or so, and I've not experienced any problems at all.

[seotrafficsearch]

If you're targeting a specific country, then there's no benefit in choosing a generic TLD over a country-specific one. Bear in mind, too, that it is not only search engines which look at the domain extension, but also potential customers. If I'm searching on-line because I want to buy something, I will visit the .co.uk sites in the results and ignore the .coms, simply because I live in the UK and don't want to have to pay carriage charges from elsewhere. Some of those .coms will belong to UK businesses, but the majority do not, so I don't bother looking through them. I know other folk who take the same approach. A country-specific domain tells your potential customers that you are doing business in their area.

I pretty much agree with you Technobear! At the end of the day its the targeted region which determines the specific TLD. If otherwise, its always better to have generic TLD to target people across the globe.

[system]

But I am concern about the privacy issue as I have heard that privacy advocates have criticized this model, because the hosting companies have the full control to do anything with the data stored between the user and the host company?

[logic_earth]

But I am concern about the privacy issue as I have heard that privacy advocates have criticized this model, because the hosting companies have the full control to do anything with the data stored between the user and the host company?

You are confusing cloud hosting with storage services like Dropbox or Google Drive. Cloud hosting is best described as on-demand Virtual Private Servers. Their policies are no different to conventional hosting solutions.

[system]

You are confusing cloud hosting with storage services like Dropbox or Google Drive. Cloud hosting is best described as on-demand Virtual Private Servers. Their policies are no different to conventional hosting solutions.

Thank you so much! I am not against cloud hosting and completely aware of the advantages of cloud hosting, its flexibility and most important thing that pay only for what you see. But this too can't be ignored that the privacy advocates have literally criticized this.

[TechnoBear]

But this too can't be ignored that the privacy advocates have literally criticized this.

logic_earth has just explained that you seem to be confusing cloud hosting with cloud storage services. If you have really come across an article that suggests there are privacy issues surrounding cloud hosting, then please share the link so that we can give an informed opinion.

[system]

Can anyone explain me what is Cloud Hosting?

[TechnoBear]

Can anyone explain me what is Cloud Hosting?

You could easily find the answer to that with a simple search. For example, Wikipedia says:

Cloud hosting: is a new type of hosting platform that allows customers powerful, scalable and reliable hosting based on clustered load-balanced servers and utility billing. A cloud hosted website may be more reliable than alternatives since other computers in the cloud can compensate when a single piece of hardware goes down. Also, local power disruptions or even natural disasters are less problematic for cloud hosted sites, as cloud hosting is decentralized. Cloud hosting also allows providers to charge users only for resources consumed by the user, rather than a flat fee for the amount the user expects they will use, or a fixed cost upfront hardware investment. Alternatively, the lack of centralization may give users less control on where their data is located which could be a problem for users with data security or privacy concerns.

[veronicazora]

I don't think is there any disadvantage to having cloud hosting. Google isn't consider that factor. It only focus on content, wed design, title, meta, loading time and many more factors...