Proof Hardware optimization has an impact on SEO?

11 replies
  • SEO
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I've recently launched my biggest project to date targeting dozens of Amazon niches.

Usually, I would create one site for one subject. E.g, I'd build one site focusing on "Food Processor Reviews".

This site is built on WordPress with a lot of custom mods & custom plugins, targeting 12 niches so far. Each subject is built as a silo hub. The "homepage" of each silo hub has a 5,000+ word article, backed with 5-10 supporting reviews/articles.

However, I've massively focused on hardware optimization. Here's what it's running on:

$40 VPS from Linode (4GB RAM, 4 CPU's)
900MB/SEC SSD

Software Used:

Ubuntu 14.04
NGINX
HHVM
REDIS
Google PageSpeed Module
MaxCDN / Amazon (benchmarking the two atm)
Percona (MYSQL)

There is no WordPress caching mechanism. NO plugin is used to handle caching of any kind. No W3, no WP Super Cache - nothing.

NGINX handles the page cache, while REDIS handles object & database caching.

HHVM replaces PHP caching, and provides much faster compute times, as well as better caching. REDIS far surpasses the object/database caching of W3 Total Cache, even when using Memcaching or a similar technology. Integrating REDIS into WordPress was actually fairly easy - three steps total.



I'm getting 150ms - 250ms loading times across the whole site in the United States (my target demographic).

I've also ran tests on Blitz.io and the site is able to handle up to 700 concurrent connections (more than 500,000 visitors/day). Exceeding this is near impossible for the audiences I'm targeting, but if it was ever strained, adding a load balancer and a second server can be done in 30-mins with Linode luckily.

The site has been live for about two weeks so far, and targets 5,000+ month search terms. These are "review" search terms, often with a lot of competition from affiliate marketers.

So far, the site has received ZERO links. Although, I will blast my PBN at it next year.

All of the keywords are ranking between #20 and #30 - which is absolutely crazy considering 0 links have been built.

From my single-subject sites, rankings like that were nowhere to be found till the 2-month mark at least.

What are your thoughts?

I know GodOverYou has been experimenting with hardware SEO.
#hardware #impact #optimization #proof #seo
  • Profile picture of the author paulgl
    Jeeesh...you do all that nonsense....and still use wordpress?

    Any of these tests are pure speculation. The real world of internet
    connectivity varies from user to user for any number of things that
    you cannot control from your end.

    And it probably does not matter anyway.

    Paul
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    • Profile picture of the author godoveryou
      Originally Posted by paulgl View Post

      Jeeesh...you do all that nonsense....and still use wordpress?

      Any of these tests are pure speculation. The real world of internet
      connectivity varies from user to user for any number of things that
      you cannot control from your end.

      And it probably does not matter anyway.

      Paul
      Paul,

      This is filled with ignorance. Being nice, I will leave it purely at that.
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      • Profile picture of the author Kevin Maguire
        Originally Posted by godoveryou View Post

        Paul,

        This is filled with ignorance. Being nice, I will leave it purely at that.
        I'd be very interested to bend an ear about your finding on the subject.

        My own decision to NOT base a money site on anything shared more for security, and hopefully one day load bearing.

        Any company I've worked with used only dedi, and vps at a min for all sites including networks. So I've only really got into shared hosting with networks since going it alone. But my plan is to root out to vps as soon as I can afford.

        Happy Xmas .
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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    Lol, those WP rants always crack me up.

    WP isn't a problem, it's PHP/HTML + MySQL doesn't matter If you build your own CMS or use WP.

    The problem is always the webmaster junking up the front end (plugins, javascript heavy, etc...). All that can easily be controlled by understanding there's no magic, it's PHP/HTML.

    Heck even a WP theme can be stripped down to 2 files bare minimum (style.css, index.php).
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  • Profile picture of the author godoveryou
    From a security point of view WP has plenty of holes and always will. But really, anything with a database and php will be subject to those kind of concerns.

    As far as server security, dedicated servers are the only option. Shared and VPS accounts both have the same problem of being completely dependent on the security of the root account. If someone gains root access you're pretty much ****** in most cases. (What, am I going to get banned for 6 asterisks?)

    That having been said, it's not going to be a problem in most cases overall. Secure the WP install as best you can with a strong login process, remove any of the standard WP footprints, and change the other elements with something like Hide My WP if you want.

    It still won't be perfect and you will still have some server-related concerns but if it gets crazy you can hire someone to harden the server for you. That often means that you will lose things like a mail server and what not, but you can't have your cake and eat it too. Just point your m record to another server on shared hosting if you really need email for that domain.

    As far as hardware optimization, yes, a faster loading site has multiple advantages. First and foremost, user experience. It's pretty significant to Google and you will produce additional conversions with a page that loads in a second or less. That's not to say that slower loading pages can't rank or won't make sales - it's just that using a setup similar to what the OP is taking about is putting one more thing in your favor.

    At this point there are very few moneys sites that I run that aren't on SSD servers that I will then test with cloud services (like MAXCDN) to determine if one is needed at that traffic volume. Typically as a site begins to rank and more traffic is accumulated the CDN service begins to really show it's advantage.

    It's also important to make sure that your host isn't getting cheap on your and hosting the database files on a slow platter-based server. I've seen a couple companies do that in the past and I'm not sure if that's still even something that happens, but it's not unheard of either.

    Lastly, the idea that something is wrong with WP is pretty silly. Sure, WP as it comes out of the box may not be exactly what you are looking for, but like anything else it can be modified to fit your needs. And if you don't have a dedicated development staff, it can be nice to have someone updating core files for you based on security holes. Yes, you'll have to go back and repack anything that you changed to a large degree but it's still potentially better than developing your own CMS that may have it's own holes that are unknown to you - particularly in those situations like I pointed out where you don't have a dedicated development staff to constantly be working on these things.

    But, it's speed and utility is perfectly suitable for virtually any need. There's no major drawback to it - it's pretty much like any other dynamic CMS, just with a huge variety of features by the way of plugins and plugin developers.
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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    Most security fails on WP happen because of webmasters uploading hacked themes/plugins (base64). Very few are hacked admin/host cracking passwords. Nobody is going to waste time cracking passwords when all they have to do is offer free themes/plugins that have the same end result.
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    • Profile picture of the author Icematikx
      Originally Posted by yukon View Post

      Most security fails on WP happen because of webmasters uploading hacked themes/plugins (base64). Very few are hacked admin/host cracking passwords. Nobody is going to waste time cracking passwords when all they have to do is offer free themes/plugins that have the same end result.
      That isn't entirely true though. There was one guy once with a Payday Loans site running Wordpress. He just kept getting hacked. Changed hosts, still got hacked.

      There are some people out there who are so intelligent when it comes to hacking (I don't have anything more than the concept mastered), that they can do anything. Just look at the Sony hack, or Anonymous.

      This payday guy eventually had to pay a developer to start from scratch. Somebody didn't want him taking up page one.

      At least with a VPS, you can set HTTP authentication for wp-admin to add extra layers. Limit wp-admin to your IP address only. But still then, your server is open to attacks.
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      Just got back from a #BrightonSEO. I was given room 404 in the hotel I stayed at. Couldn’t find it anywhere!

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    • Profile picture of the author godoveryou
      Originally Posted by yukon View Post

      Most security fails on WP happen because of webmasters uploading hacked themes/plugins (base64). Very few are hacked admin/host cracking passwords. Nobody is going to waste time cracking passwords when all they have to do is offer free themes/plugins that have the same end result.
      While plugins/themes are the largest problem, and hacked plugins/themes can be even worse, there are still plenty of holes in WP as it comes out of the box.

      Wordpress Wordpress : List of security vulnerabilities
      https://wpvulndb.com/wordpresses
      (and many more such lists...)

      - As far as SEO Chicago - It's all about the siggy link baby
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      Don't Know Me? - Read my interview at Matthewwoodward.co.uk
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      • Profile picture of the author jinx1221
        Originally Posted by godoveryou View Post

        As far as SEO Chicago - It's all about the siggy link baby
        Yes, and don't forget to Capitalize Every Other Letter Too.. Very Important For SEO Optimization!!
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        Visualization and Automation Tool




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  • I Seriously do not think so Hardware Optimization has Impact SEO. SEO is all about ONPAGE and OFFPAGE Factors.
    Hardware Optimization is not Relevant to SEO.
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    • Profile picture of the author Icematikx
      Originally Posted by Best SEO Company Chicago View Post

      I Seriously do not think so Hardware Optimization has Impact SEO. SEO is all about ONPAGE and OFFPAGE Factors.
      Hardware Optimization is not Relevant to SEO.
      Here's what you wrote in another thread:

      Yes Web 2.0 are most useful for generating Backlinks

      Your opinion has now been excluded.
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      Just got back from a #BrightonSEO. I was given room 404 in the hotel I stayed at. Couldn’t find it anywhere!

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