1 Reply Latest reply: Jul 7, 2014 4:25 AM by Liam Dilley RSS

    Is BC hosting causing you SEO issues?

    ryanprentice Community Member
    ryanprentice Jul 7, 2014 2:24 AM

      Hi,

       

      We are a BC partner and host all of our client sites on the BC platform. We provide a number of additional services to our clients as well as web development, one of which is SEO.

       

      We are based in the UK and all of our sites are hosted in the EU data centres in Dublin. The problem with this is that this makes it more difficult to rank our sites in the UK than if our BC sites were hosted in London for instance. I know this may seem like a very small point when it comes to SEO but we are noticing it is having a bigger impact than it used to as Google continues to increase focus on on-page elements of websites to determine ranking.

       

      I've raised this is an issue with BC but I just want to know from the BC community if it is something you are aware of and worried about also? If it is then the more people we can get talking about it then hopefully it will bring it more to the attention of the BC team.

       

      I'm an avid  BC fan so very keen to keep on using it - I just hope this can be resolved in the medium term.

       

      Thoughts and opinions on this would be great.

       

      Ryan

        • 1. Re: Is BC hosting causing you SEO issues?
          Liam Dilley CommunityMVP
          Liam Dilley Jul 7, 2014 4:25 AM (in response to ryanprentice)

          I have heard this so many times, it is one of those SEO Myths I am not sure where they come from. The core issue with hosting and location with the data centre is performance which if search engines like google find the bot searching takes to long does factor into things. Your domain is the key locator and reference to determine local searching and ranking. As google has said several times in the past, if they just based ranking on the server being in the same location they would be ruling gout half the web because it is not set up that way.

           

          Very easy to pull up Video's from Mike Cutts on this and blog posts etc.

           

          Yep if you put a site on the AU data centre that is a UK site, it will run like a dog and there will be traffic and bot issues which will factor, but no one would be doing that

           

          You mention the likely real reason for your SEO concerns but for the wrong reason. Google has and is increasing making changes to focus on real content, good content and relevant content. Anything that is spammy or the page with one paragraph etc are no longer effective. Recent changes are less about keywords and more about the sentencing of contents. So if your focusing a lot on the keywords then that will be one of the mistakes.

          You not provided info on what your actually doing so I am spitballing here on a lot of things but have you set up google + accounts for clients, set up google places information, local listings, google add words and local setup...

           

          One mistake company sites have that have an actual store or stores they want people to visit are when they do talk enough about the stores and their locations. Being generic for the sake of being on the web will fail.

           

          Lots of people do not do any SEM. They think a site and some SEO basics will rank and see their business grow. You still need to market and be dynamic about it.

           

          Another one that still amazes me is there are people who get a .com because they think its bigger and more powerful and then do not rank and blame it on the data centre or being on a data centre with other bad ranking sites on it etc. If you want to rank better in the country then go smaller. A local domain will be the better option.

           

          We also took on a site which had some SEO work on it - 30 odd domains for the site. This sill happens.

           

          Not saying you are doing any of that but these and other things are the REAL SEO matters and the things need to be focus.

           

          I have worked on BC in New Zealand with the data centre in Australia before I moved to Australia. Done right sites were ranking high and Other experience BC partners I am sure, if they see this thread will respond and share success stories as well.