My own server - Good Idea or Bad?

[jacobwissler]

I am considering purchasing several servers, to host my client's sites. How will Google view this? If I link to people on my own server, with that link have less value than if I linked to a site hosted elsewhere? I have a T3 connection, power backup, and a secure facility. My only concern is linking to clients on the same server.

I would appreciate your advice.

[cyanide]

Well, the issue will essentially be websites on the same ip or same class-c ip.
Either way, if you are talking about single links here and there... there might be a slight damper, but nothing to really worry about.

If you are talking about creating a network of sites, then that's when you're asking for trouble


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[coder]

we were considering this idea for a while, but it always came to downtime. Do you really want to monitor your own servers 24/365?

[DMC_34]

Originally Posted by cyanide

Well, the issue will essentially be websites on the same ip or same class-c ip.

You can purchase your own server but rent a half cab at ISWEST, they offer better connections and different c block ip's. Depending on the traffic it, atleast for our older site it was a better a choice than a sluggish T1.

DMC

[cyanide]

Originally Posted by Phantom

we were considering this idea for a while, but it always came to downtime. Do you really want to monitor your own servers 24/365?

This is a very good point too... (although, we're swaying away from the google question), but very valid, nonetheless.

Seems to be a big fad also. Everyone wants to have their own server... then they get hacked, or the server shuts down, or spammers get hold of security leak, bringing the server to its knees.

If you don't know how to admin a server, then you better be prepared to shell out some bucks to hire someone. There are lots of things that can go wrong.

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[Evic]

As far as the Google question, I'm fairly sure it won't effect your rankings at all. Most hosting you purchase have 25+ websites on one server. Google knows this, and knows it's a valid and well-accepted part of the industry, so I'm sure they focus on the domain rather than the IP of a website.

As long as you focus on normal SEO, no duplicate content, etc. you should be perfectly fine.

Now, as to running your own server. It's a pain, for real. I will never run my own server again, unless I absolutely need it. Shared hosting is so much easier to work with.

[brian.mark]

Originally Posted by jacobwissler

I am considering purchasing several servers, to host my client's sites. How will Google view this? If I link to people on my own server, with that link have less value than if I linked to a site hosted elsewhere? I have a T3 connection, power backup, and a secure facility. My only concern is linking to clients on the same server.

I would appreciate your advice.

Just one connection? That doesn't sound good. Our data center has 4 DS3 connections currently, and VERY secure. Yes, it is our own servers, but they have a monitoring service that they run for us and they have people there that can do emergency admin / maintenence.

The links, from what people have observed, won't carry much weight on the same IP / class C block, but they won't carry a penalty. If you're hoping to pass a lot of value to them for SEO reasons, then what you're proposing to do isn't best. However, since they're not really on-topic links anyway (design firm to client - unless they're also a design firm) won't help as much as it used to anyway, so I guess same server won't be a big deal either.

As long as they're devalued anyway, more devaluation won't hurt. If you're not concerned about the hosting issues, then go ahead and do it - especially if it'll create more revenue for you.

Brian.

[jacobwissler]

This idea got started because I host with GoDaddy, and I put some of my clients on with GoDaddy, and always pay for a dedicated IP, but I have noticed that my SEO efforts on Google do not work so well with clients that I host with GoDaddy. With MSN and Yahoo, it isn't seem to matter.

It is not a coincidence that the list of clients I host with GoDaddy are the clients I am having the most trouble with, on Google. My own sites, however, get great rankings on Google.

As a result, I am looking for hosting alternatives.

[Evic]

In my personal experience GoDaddy.com isn't that great of a host, period. I found them to be extremely slow.

If you are looking for hosting alternatives, I can offer no greater suggestions that globat.com (the only company I will ever, ever host with again, as long as I live) and ipower.com (another good one, but globat's better).

I find it odd hosting company is coming in SEO discussion. In my experience the host doesn't have anything to do with it, or has rarely been mentioned. Does host hav a significant effect? You're stats on this study could prove interesting jacob, I'd be interested in seeing how your ranks pan out after changing hosts on these GoDaddy hosted sites.

[jacobwissler]

I think hosting has a lot to do with SEO, unless you believe the accounts I hosted with GoDaddy just happened to be the hardest to SEO on Google. I suspect that Google saw IP addresses very close to my own, and devalued the links.

For a small static HTML site, GoDaddy always worked for me, and my sites, the problem was my clients sites. I just could not get them ranked well. Clients who hosted elsewhere ranked well.

[coder]

I host 4 sites at godaddy with no noticeable problems ranking in google. If you were looking for a dedicated server I would highly recommend rackspace.com though.

The only problem with godaddy hosting we ever had was hosting an online forum. The site was running extremely slow. We contacted them about this problem and they switched us to another server and that was over a year ago with no problems since.

[jacobwissler]

I agree Phantom, I have never had any problem with MY site ranking well, but I suspect that GoDaddy has placed my clients very near me, and as a result, my links to those clients are devalued.

This is only a guess. There is a clear pattern, and I am trying to find the cause. The clients I host with GoDaddy are the clients I have the most difficulty getting to rank well.

[MarcGrobman]

I would be really surprised if the host affected Google rankings -- is there perhaps something else that is common among these sites? Perhaps they are all recently registered domains? (I'm struggling with some recently regestered domains and have found SEO much easier with established sites, even when they were sitting dormant.) I suggest this because I know GoDaddy is also a registrar.....

I would be quite interested if this is the case. We have been recommending GoDaddy to our clients who we are kicking off of our server. We had to get out of the hosting business. We were doing it for convenience and as a courtesy and were not making money at it. We'd rather be designing websites than troubleshooting email problems. It gets ugly and frustrating.

[jacobwissler]

Yes Marc, that was my first thought, that these were all new domains, subject to the "sandbox." What shook me up was when a new client transferred an established domain to me (it had been on the Internet for 3 years, and when I became his web designer, he transferred it to me). I hosted it with GoDaddy, and it dropped on Google. Meanwhile, when I build a site for a client who hosts elsewhere, the SEO is much easier.

[jacobwissler]

Evic is 100% correct. I tested this. When the H1 tag matches the page title, exactly, the page goes up in SERPS. This happened in 7 out of 7 attempts.

My question is, Evic used the word header, what other than an H# is considered a header? How can a person use CSS to take the place of an H#? We like to use an H1 on ervery page, and use CSS to define the size of the font.

[Evic]

MSN and Yahoo only consider H# tags as headers, from what I have seen.

Google, in my experience, has algorithms in place to determine what text is considered a header by comparing the text formatting within a page.

For example, if all of you text is Verdana, Black, 11px, Normal - and there is text near the top of your page that is Verdana, Dark Blue, 15px, Bold - it will assume that is your header.

[jacobwissler]

You information appears to be very accurate. I shall pay special attention to your posts in the future.