What's a VPS (Virtual Private Server) used for in SEO and would one benefit me for SEO purposes?

Yes a VPS is like having another computer running at the same time on the same machine. It does share system resources of course.

What you could do is monitor how much ram applications are using and set them to only use so much. There are plenty of apps out that can do this for you.

Also, if you want to try out some virtual stuff there is VirtualBox that is just as good as VMWare. It will allow you to run and set how much resources that virtual machine can use.

...from PA, Id die for a Yuengling

From an SEO perspective, a VPS isn't going to do anything noticeable. Hopefully I answered you correctly in terms of what you are asking.

Oh my, totally wrong information!

A "VPS" aka "Virtual Private Server" is a hosting solution - it has NOTHING to do with your own computer at home. You are probably talking about a VM/Virtual machine on your home PC which eg. would allow to run another OS "virtually".

However, a VPS (Virtual Private Server) is a web server where you are hosting your sites. It's basically a "in between" shared hosting (like hostgator) and dedicated hosting.

While with dedicated hosting you would own/rent, well, your own server and connection to the internet to your WEB (for high traffic sites)....a VPS is "basically" similar but implemented in a virtual way, thus "virtual private SERVER".

Technically, it looks like that you indeed share a PC on your hosting provider for your sites - but you have a fixed memory, CPU, bandwidth etc.etc. assigned to you so it "feels" and behaves like a dedicated server.

The big difference is

) you dont share bandwidth etc. with other users like on cheap, shared hosting
) you have full access and control to your VPS, eg. root/linux access...down to being able to compile a new kernel on linux etc...making DEEP modifications/optimizations to your web server which you cannot do on shared hosting.

On shared, if eg. the company has some weird security policies in place making it impossible that some scripts could not work - on the VPS you could configure everything, incl. your web server.

I myself have a VPS with Cpanel...that is there is main "VPS management" interface with all those options, firewall, security etc.

But i can also log-in into each separate account/site via cpanel and manage them separately via Cpanel as in with other hosting.

Edit: To answer OP's question. You cannot make "more resources" more memory, CPU etc. by installing WHATEVER on your home pc. Its physically and logically impossible A 3ghz 4core Intel PC with plenty of memory (4gb+) and good internet should be able to handle most common things really.

Now..you could rent/get a WINDOWS (!) VPS from some provider indeed...and then somehow install and run web applications to off-load from your PC at home - for example if someone needs to send millions of emails etc... you would hardly do this from your PC at home. Then you would install such a mailer software on the VPS instead.

But usually, main use is web hosting...and most applications and VPS are actually running some form of Linux/PhP and not so many Windows-Server VPS.

Look at it this way ...

If you are automating things and running your computers 24/7 means 80% of the electriticy bill goes into the home office, then it is time for a VPS. If you are watching tv and see an ad for an ISP and think "damn that connection is slow" ... or "he he I would chew through that bandwidth in no time at all", then it is time for a VPS.

If you are not automating but have a system slowing down because of manualy processes, then just grab a second cheap computer.

Or you might consider getting a new PC altogether, new OS too like Win7. Honestly, my PC is not the newest anymore (Intel Quad Core, 3.6Ghz, 4GB, Win7)...but there is HARDLY anything what brings it down. And running article submission tools etc. is a joke..they should NOT bring your PC down at all. Heck, i could have 10 browsers open, MS Flight Simulator or World of Warcraft in the background...plus HTML Editor/Paintshop whatever...it would still not cause a problem.

I highly recommend a VPS, but be prepared to learn some linux commands a make sure your IM software will run on linux. I wouldn't bother with a windows server.

Keep in mind that VPS's are biased toward serving websites vs. performing processing tasks. You may end up paying $75/month for a 2GB server(which has less RAM and speed than your home computer. Keep in mind that your software may actually run faster despite the smaller specs. The server's internet connection will likely be 10X faster than that in your home and it might have more "available" resources despite the lower physical resources because you're running linux.

If you really need processing power, then try out Amazon EC2. Since its pay-as-you-go, you could have 5+ high-speed computers run your software for 30 minutes everyday and have it be cheaper than renting a server monthly for your tasks.

Aegh...that sounds like a lot of problems in the making...

Did you just say you want to run Virtualbox on the LINUX server, then run/emulate Windows on the server and from there run your IM programs?

Well..i dont have experience with that...but i can see this being a pain to set up respective get running? You might ask your provider first whether this is at all possible.

Hey, i have a good VPS on solarvps.com ...and you could ask their suppport (from their website) whether this is feasable to do. I am paying $60/month right now for my VPS and have a zillion of my sites hosted there.