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Web Servers And Their Relevance To Seo

by Rav4u
12 replies
As someone who came into SEO from a marketing angle, I am on a never-ending learning curve to hone my tech knowledge.

I see frequent references to Apache, IIS etc, in relationship to SEO checklists - but I'm not sure how server types effect SEO activities.

Is it purely to do with how they handle database pages?

My clients typically have their sites hosted, up, and running before I even get to start advising them on their optimization options, but I've yet to have experienced an issue due to their server choice. Have I just been lucky? ;-)
#relevance #seo #servers #web
  • Profile picture of the author Pete Janelle
    That's interesting, I've never even considered this. As far as I know, server types don't matter that much with SEO, but now you've got me re-thinking it. I'll post if I find anything.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mark Brian
    The closest thing to servers and SEO are the IP addresses of the servers where the websites are hosted. Although there is no fine print with Google, it is assumed that backlinks from different websites to a mother site will not weigh that much if they came from one server or IP address.
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    • Profile picture of the author dar
      No, there is no influence on seo. It depends on what you are doing on the front end, not the back end:
      • quality, relevant content
      • title tags
      • h1, h2, h3, h4, etc
      • keywords
      • search engine friendly urls
      • title and alt text for images
      • tableless layout (better than table based)

      Really, the search engine can only see what the server outputs and judge the page based on that.

      -darek

      EDIT: Mark Brian made a good point.
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      • Profile picture of the author rwil02
        Originally Posted by dar View Post

        ...
        Really, the search engine can only see what the server outputs and judge the page based on that.

        ...

        Which includes the headers, which does include the server information (by default)

        Can't think of any good reason why it would affect things though.
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        Roger Willcocks
        L-Space Design
        Please vote to help me win a 3kW solar array

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    • Profile picture of the author greyhatter
      Originally Posted by Mark Brian View Post

      The closest thing to servers and SEO are the IP addresses of the servers where the websites are hosted. Although there is no fine print with Google, it is assumed that backlinks from different websites to a mother site will not weigh that much if they came from one server or IP address.
      From what I understand, Googles filters were updated at some point to devalue links from websites hosted on an IP in the same C Class as any website they link to.
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  • Profile picture of the author ChristianM
    Just want to echo what was said above - I can't see any logical reason for it to make a difference (save for ip/location etc).
    But, the world isn't always logical.
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  • Profile picture of the author tukang
    there are two kinds of website optimize. Off-page optimize and On-Page optimize. When you do Off-page optimize, you IP address is also important. When you try to find a backlink from another website, it is like you give you business card to another people. which one will bring you more popular when you give your business card to people that are in one family (IP) or to people that are from different family
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  • Profile picture of the author Dan Grossman
    The choice of server technology is totally irrelevant to SEO. Since in many cases there is absolutely no way for Google or any other search engine to know what hardware or software is serving a site, there's no way that can have an influence on the rankings.
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    • Profile picture of the author rwil02
      Originally Posted by Dan Grossman View Post

      The choice of server technology is totally irrelevant to SEO. Since in many cases there is absolutely no way for Google or any other search engine to know what hardware or software is serving a site, there's no way that can have an influence on the rankings.
      I agree 98%. And I don't think it should affect SEO regardless. And I suspect Dan knows this.

      But: HTTP Headers by DEFAULT (ie you can modify this stuff if you have appropriate permissions) reveal this information.
      For example:
      X-Powered-By: ASP.NET or PHP/x.x
      Server: Apache/2.0.52 or IIS/6.0
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      Roger Willcocks
      L-Space Design
      Please vote to help me win a 3kW solar array

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  • Profile picture of the author BonsaiJon
    As everyone seems to agree the Web Server has nothing to do with SEO relevance. One thing to note is when using ASP.NET "viewstate" code is created and that affects SEO, however this is not created directly by the Server but it's created by the programming language.

    Regarding the IP, make sure that you are not on a cheap server where they have a bunch of websites using the same IP, Google doesn't like it, for a couple of bucks a month you can get your own IP.

    I have heard marketers saying that Cold Fusion isn't good for SEO, but it's not true. They usually say that so they can redo the whole project and add development fees to their SEO fee. (sleazy)

    One thing I don't agree to what was said is that Google wouldn't know what technology is being used. Google is quite meticulous and footprints servers so they usually knows exactly what technology/server you are using
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  • Profile picture of the author kettlewell
    There is one thing that I didnt see in the list was server uptime/reliability - From my experience I've had better service out of Linux/Apache servers - if your site was to experience severe lag or downtime, your site could be negatively impacted from an SEO or even a visitor perspective. I've seen the myth of virtual hosts that have several domains on one IP, but I believe that Matt Cutts recently debunked that myth...
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