In a world where internet users expect websites to load and respond instantly, a high-performing website is vital. Choosing the right hosting provider can significantly boost your website’s performance, including loading speed, user interactions and visual stability – key ranking criteria for search engines. In this post, we explore how hosting affects these factors and why your choice of host is crucial for optimising Core Web Vitals and improving rankings.
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Why website performance matters
How well your website performs has a direct influence on user experience and search engine optimisation (SEO). According to KissMetrics, nearly half of internet users expect a website to load in less than two seconds, with Google reporting that most visitors will leave if it takes more than three seconds . As a result, slow-loading websites have higher bounce rates and lower conversion rates.
With more than half of users now searching the internet using a mobile, speed is of even greater concern given that mobile sites generally load slower than desktop versions and that, according to Think with Google, every second of delay in mobile page load can cut your conversions by up to 20%
For more information, read: How Website Loading Times Impact User Experience and Hosting Choices
Website performance is also a key ranking factor for search engines. To provide their users with better experiences, search engines like Google reward faster-loading web pages with higher rankings, helping to increase traffic and boost sales.
When assessing website loading times, Google specifically looks at what it calls Core Web Vitals. Here is an explanation of what these three metrics are:
- Largest contentful paint (LCP): This metric measures how long it takes for the main content of your page to load, such as images or text.
- First input delay (FID): This tracks how long it takes for your site to respond when a user interacts with it, i.e. when they click, tap or type.
- Cumulative layout shift (CLS): This assesses how much the page layout shifts unexpectedly as it loads, which can often frustrate users.
By improving these metrics, not only can you provide better user experiences; you can also boost search engine rankings.
For more information about Core Web Vitals, read: Page Experience: How Google’s New Ranking Factors Will Affect Your Website
How web hosting affects performance
Your choice of hosting provider plays an important role in determining how well your website performs. Here are some of the key factors to consider:
Hardware specifications
The physical hardware on which your website is hosted can have a significant impact on loading times. Hosting infrastructure is constantly evolving, so it pays to choose a host that provides the latest, performance-enhancing technologies.
Performance monitoring
Using advanced monitoring tools, web hosts can address issues before they affect performance. Furthermore, they can also monitor resource usage (e.g., CPU, RAM and bandwidth), enabling them to provide additional resources during traffic spikes while fine-tuning server configurations to enhance load times.
Server location
As data has to travel over the internet to reach your users’ devices, the geographical location of your server can affect your website’s loading speed. The further a user is from your server, the longer your site will take to load. For this reason, choosing a web host whose data centres are located closer to your target audience can keep loading times quick.
For websites that have international audiences, it can be worthwhile choosing a host that offers international servers in different countries. Alternatively, you can use a content delivery network (CDN) that stores your website’s static data on servers around the world.
Advanced caching techniques
Caching is a powerful way to reduce the amount of data your server needs to send and thus can significantly improve loading times. Some web hosts offer advanced caching measures that enable content to be delivered quicker, improving your Core Web Vitals metrics.
Understand the link between hosting and SEO, read: Hosting with SEO in Mind: Essential Features to Consider
Why choose eukhost?
At eukhost, we understand the importance of website performance. Our hosting solutions are designed to meet the needs of today’s websites and feature the latest technologies, such as high-frequency Intel Xeon CPUs, SSD and NVMe storage, DDR4 and DDR5 RAM and fast 1GB port speeds.
Our newest WordPress Hosting plans not only combine these advanced technologies to deliver exceptional performance; they also come with WP Accelerated, a suite of optimisation features like caching, image compression, lazy loading and database enhancements, all of which ensure faster loading times, improved Core Web Vitals and enhanced user experiences – on both desktop and mobile devices.
In addition to our UK-based data centres, which are ideal for local audiences, we now offer internationally located dedicated servers in India, the Netherlands, the USA, Canada and Australia, enabling you to cut international loading times.
Conclusion
Website performance has become increasingly important to meet user expectations while Core Web Vitals are an essential metric for search engine ranking. Choosing the right web host can have a major impact on how well your site meets these requirements, with good providers offering faster infrastructure, performance monitoring, advanced caching and ideally located servers.
Looking to improve WordPress performance and ranking? Our WordPress Hosting comes with WP Toolkit, WP Accelerated and Imunify360, boosting loading times, reliability and security, while making it simple to manage your site. For more information visit our WordPress Hosting page.
