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SEO Importance Of Web Hosting: Hostgator vs Bluehost vs Godaddy (2018)


HostGator vs Bluehost vs GoDaddy, three big players when it comes to providing web hosting. 

So are you planning to start your own website?

But confused which hosting suits you the best?

Then this blog is totally for you.

Choosing a perfect web hosting for your website can be a herculean task as there are so many players out there in the market. One wrong choice and you might end up paying more for the features which you didn’t even need to begin with or lose some important features in order to save some bucks.

HostGator vs Bluehost vs GoDaddy

So to help you a little I have picked 3 giant web hosting companies (HostGator vs Bluehost vs GoDaddy) that host millions of users around the world.

In this blog, we are going to learn:

Before diving into the battle let us grab some quick knowledge on web hosting.

 

What is Web Hosting?

A web hosting is a service that provides the technology required by a website to be viewed on the Internet. Web Hosting companies provide domain name, space on servers and connectivity for your website.

User’s computer will get connected to your server whenever they will type your website’s address or domain name on their search engine. Your web pages will be sent to them through the browser.

If your website gets heavy traffic or you want to increase website traffic then you have to consider having a strong web hosting. 

Hosting companies such as Hostgator, Bluehost and Godaddy help you get a domain name for your website and provides a server.

 

Types of  Web Hosting:

Each business has its own requirement on the basis of organisation size & goals.  The type of hosting you choose depends upon your requirement of speed, quality, features needed and storage. Here are five main types of web hosting:

1. Shared Hosting:

It is a less expensive hosting service and good for beginners. In this type of hosting a large number of websites shares the same server. But this server sharing can cause problems for websites with heavy traffic as many other websites are also connected to it. This can affect site performance and will increase load time. Remember site speed is one of the most important SEO factors.

2. Dedicated Hosting:

In this type of hosting you will get one dedicated server for your website with full control over it. So you don’t have to worry about sharing your speed with other websites. It is a good option if you are running a website with heavy traffic. The only downside is that it requires technical skills as you have to handle most of the part and is expensive than shared hosting.

3. VPS Hosting:

Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting is a combination of both, shared hosting and dedicated hosting. In this one server is divided into separate individual servers. Each individual server is connected to one website. If you want more control over your server but don’t want to invest much then its an ideal choice for you.

4. Cloud Hosting:

It is the best option for websites with heavy traffic as in this many servers are connected to support a single website. Hosting provider will keep on adding more servers to your website as per the need preventing the website from shutting down.

5. Reseller Web Hosting:

In Reseller web hosting usually another company (small-midsize business) rent hard drive space and bandwidth from host providing company which they later rents to the third party (entrepreneurs-small business). 

6. Managed WordPress Hosting:

This hosting is specially created for WordPress users. Web hosting company will keep your WordPress up-to-date, manage security, speed, daily backups, Uptime. It makes WordPress handling easier for a new user.

 

SEO Importance Of Web Hosting:

SEO & Google

1. Uptime and Down Effect Ranking:

To boost business your website should be up and be running whenever a customer visit. If the servers of your web host are down then your customers will not be able to access the site. This will decrease your site’s image and affect your ranking.

Search engines crawler will mark your website as unreliable. No search engine would like to display such site to its users. So, it is very necessary to have a web host that provides 99.9% uptime guarantee.

2. Page Speed:

Load time of your website plays a crucial role when it comes to decreasing the bounce rate. Websites which takes time to load lose traffic. You can reduce the image and video size, optimize java scripts and CSS files to increase your page speed.

But if you don’t have a well-performing hosting then it won’t help much. Poor performing server will affect the load time of a website.

Some of the tools for measuring page load time are:

3. Safety and Security:

Choosing a right company is very important as the server can crash because of many reasons such as heavy traffic, maintenance issues, overloading, viruses and malware attacks etc. A strong web hosting company will take care of these things to protect your site. The careless behaviour of the company can cause trouble to your business.

4. SEO Features and Facility:

Some web hosting provides extra features that help in optimising your website for search engines. These tools can take care of some of the problems which you can miss easily.  

5. HTTPS / SLL:

Some hosting companies provide free SSL certificates with their plans which will help to move your website from HTTP to HTTPS. Google has specifically stated that HTTPS or SSL is an SEO ranking factor as it tells Google that your site is secure to surf.

 

Since you have now learned about web hosting, its types and its importance for SEO, this will help you choose which web hosting company meets your need.

Now, its time to meet our fighters.

 

 HostGator vs Bluehost vs GoDaddy

 

HostGator:

Hostgator Logo

It is a  Houston based web hosting company founded in Florida Atlantic University by Brent Oxley on October 22, 2002. Currently, it is hosting around 600,000+ websites around the globe. The web hosting services provided by Hostgator are shared, reseller, VPS, and dedicated.

Bluehost:

Bluehost LogoIt is a Utah based web hosting company owned by Endurance International Group founded by Matt Heaton in 2003. Bluehost collectively with its sister companies, HostMonster, FastDomain and iPage is hosting over 2 million domains.

GoDaddy:

Godaddy logo

GoDaddy is an American based web hosting company founded by Bob Parson in 1997. It serves around 17 million customers and has over 6,000 employees worldwide.

 

Comparison Breakdown: 

HostGator vs Bluehost vs GoDaddy

After knowing how many people these companies are serving around the globe it can become little difficult to choose one for yourself. That is why we are going to use following factors to find out their pros and cons:

  1. Performance and Speed
  2. Customer Support
  3. User Interface
  4. Price

So, let’s begin!

 

Performance and Speed:

The performance and speed of any website depend upon two major factors:

  • Uptime – The time when the server is up and running.
  • Page Speed – The time website takes to load.

Web hosting companies have the major role in maintaining these two factors.

Uptime Test: Jun 2018

Uptime Test - Hostgator vs Bluehost vs Godaddy

(Source: Down.com)

Page Speed Test: Jun 2018

Page Speed Test - Hostgator

As you can see,

All 3 companies are almost equal. 

  • Hostgator is doing little better than its competitors with 99.976% uptime and 2.82s response time. 
  • GoDaddy is catching up with 99.967% uptime and 2.937s response time.
  • Bluehost, not that far behind with 99.939% uptime and 3.053s response time. 

Hostgator and GoDaddy both guarantees 99.9% Uptime.

Uptime and Page Speed plays a crucial role in any website’s SEO ranking. Customers will not be able to open or access your website if the server is down. Similarly, slow response time will annoy the customers and they might never come back again. This will affect your business in a negative way.

 

Customer Support:

Servicing your customer matters more than the price, a good customer service helps you to reduce problems and increase brand awareness. Understanding customer’s problem and solving it as quickly as possible creates trust.

Support Response Test: Jun 2018

Customer Support - Godaddy

 

GoDaddy is doing exceptionally well when it comes to customer support with an average result of 0.1 hours. It provides 24*7 phone support and live chat service to its customers but does not provide email support.

Bluehost is in the second position with 34.7 hours. Phone support and live chat support are available 24*7. 

HostGator lacks far behind than its competitors with an average result of 54.4 hours. It provides 24*7 phone support, live chat. 

In this case HostGator is lacking seriously.

 

User Interface:

HostGator, Bluehost and GoDaddy all of them use cPanel. With the help of cPanel, you can install Joomla, Weebly and WordPress. Both HostGator and Bluehost cPanel are user-friendly and can be easily understood by beginners who don’t know how to install web scripts. There is a tie between HostGator and Bluehost as their features are almost same. 

All three hosting providers have a high-security system for their cPanel to keep files safe from any virus attack and hackers.

But Godaddy beats them both in terms of domain interface. Its domain interface allows easier navigation and it easily integrates with other heavily used services and tools.

HostGator - cPanel

godaddy - cpanel

 

Pricing:

HostGator:

It provides various easy and affordable plans for Shared, Cloud, WordPress, Reseller, VPS, Dedicated Hostings.

Shared HostingCloud HostingWordPress HostingResellerVPSDedicated
Starting at only
$2.75/mo*
Starting at only
$5.95/mo*
Starting at only
$4.95/mo*
Starting at only
$19.95/mo*
Starting at only
$19.95/mo*
Starting at only
$79.00/mo*

Money-back Guarantee: 45 Days

Bluehost:

It provides pricing plans for Shared, Cloud, WordPress, WooCommerce, VPS, Dedicated Hostings.

Shared HostingCloud Hosting WordPress HostingWooCommerce HostingVPS HostingDedicated Hosting
 $2.95/mo* $6.95/mo* $19.99/mo* $6.95/mo*
 $19.99/mo* $79.99/mo*

Money-back Guarantee: 30 Days

GoDaddy:

It provides pricing plans for Shared, WordPress, VPS, Dedicated Hostings.

Shared HostingWordPress Hosting VPS HostingDedicated Servers
Starting at only $2.99/mo*Starting at only $3.99/mo*Starting at only $17.99/mo*Starting at only $69.99/mo*

Money-back Guarantee: 30 Days

HostGator and GoDaddy are much more affordable than Bluehost but the renew prices can be expensive. 

Bluehost provides free SSL Certificate with its hosting which is a plus point as SSL certification is also very important for a website to make it GDPR compliance and secure.

The other positive factor about Bluehost is that it provides free domain name for the first year.

Note: Price might get updated with time.

 

Pros and Cons: 

Let us now take a look at some pros and cons of each Hostgator vs Bluehost vs Godaddy

HostGator

Pros:

  • It provides Codegaurd service which is a website backup solution. Codegaurd monitors your website regularly for any changes, performs backups and notifies you by email.
  • Offers a large variety of hosting plans suitable for most websites
  • Unlimited Disk Space.
  • Unlimited Bandwidth.
  • Guarantees 99.9% Uptime.
  • Better response time than its competitors.
  • Easy to understand user interface.
  • 45-day money-back guarantee.

Cons:

  • No Windows-based VPS hosting;
  • No free domain registration.
  • Slower Customer Support Response Times
  • Does not support all WordPress plugins although according to HostGator this is because of some security reasons.

Bluehost

Pros:

  • WordPress.org itself recommends Bluehost.
  • Respected brand.
  • Have plans for e-commerce websites also.
  • Positive customers review.
  • Easy to understand user interface.
  • Add-ons available such as SiteLock, G Suite, and Spam Experts.
  • Free SSL certificate.
  • Free Domain name.
  • 30 days money back guarantee.

Cons:

  • No Uptime guarantee
  • Average hosting speed
  • Multiple Upsell attempts and many upselling emails.
  • No short-term plans. Only annual plans (12 to 36 months) and high renewal rates.
  • Lack of free migration service.

GoDaddy

Pros:

  • There is a one-click WordPress installation available.
  • Free domain with yearly accounts.
  • Access to cPanel for Linux and Plesk for Windows.
  • Supports a large number of domain name extensions.

Cons:

  • The renewal rate can be very high.
  • Limited live chat support.
  • Upselling can be annoying.
  • Although GoDaddy has fastest support response time, when it comes to solving the problem there are mix reviews from customers.

 

Conclusion:

Hope you enjoyed our HostGator vs Bluehost vs GoDaddy battle.

As you can see all three hosting companies provides almost the same features. 

In the end, it depends upon the type of business you have and features you want. But for any business Uptime and Page speed should be its first priority as it helps you gain SEO ranking in SERPs. 

In my opinion, Bluehost can be a good option, it does not guarantee Uptime but there is no big difference in its performance compared to the competitors. Also, Bluehost offers free SSL certificate and free domain name with its plans which can save alot of money.

Hope this blog has helped you in understanding the SEO importance of web hosting and helped you in choosing web hosting company for your business.

So, let me know in the comment section below which web hosting company matches your business. 

By Rishabh K Sharma

Rishabh is a hospitality professional with a pinch of marketing.

5 replies on “SEO Importance Of Web Hosting: Hostgator vs Bluehost vs Godaddy (2018)”

Nice!! This blog provides concise and to the point information on everything you want to know about web hosting and the major players involve in it.

Hi, great work. I really appeaciate the information you are providing through your site, i have alwasy find it helpful. Keep up the awsome work.

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