Many people order their website hosting without giving the options at hand a lot thought, however the truth of the matter is that there are some very significant differences between the choices of server on offer. These differences can have a big impact on how SEO friendly your website will be. The primary issues at hand regarding server choice that any web site owner needs to pay attention to are the fact that URL's should be case sensitive, and server configuration needs to be in the hands of the domain owner and not the web host. As an expert provider of SEO Services I have expertise of working with a wide range of servers, and thought I'd share my findings regarding the benefits and disadvantages of every server type.
Microsoft IIS 6.0
The Microsoft IIS 6.0 server has been around for a long while now, and was launched around 2003. Many websites are still hosted on this sort of server and in fact the Microsoft IIS 6.0 has a market share of just over a quarter of all web sites at 27%. You would be forgiven for thinking that a server with a following of so many users must have some SEO benefits, but actually the reverse is true, from an SEO perspective the Microsoft IIS 6.0 is a bit of a dog, the overall lack of case sensitivity in urls for instance, means that your website is wide open to abuse should competitors wish to construct links to case variations of your urls and cause you all kinds of canonical problems. Moreover, the fact that server configuration cannot be changed by the use of a user edited file similar to Apache's .htaccess, implies that even the most mundane server configuration activity, such as resolving non www. queries back to the www. domain can turned into a chore.
Microsoft IIS 7.0
Microsoft marketed this server as "new and improved" but the reality is that from an SEO viewpoint there is little to smile about. Microsoft still failed to recognize the need for case sensitive urls, and in true Microsoft style they also failed to hand over control of server configuration to the end user, instead opting to maintain the existing server side control panel server administration arrangement which was employed in their earlier IIS releases.
Lightspeed Servers
Lightspeed servers are an enormous step up from the servers on offer from Microsoft, and are, as their title suggests lightspeed servers are very fast performers. The intelligent people at lightspeed acknowledged the need to provide the end user with a means of configuring their server, and therefore the lightspeed supports the .htaccess technique of configuration as utilized by apache servers. Lightspeed supports all commonly used apache .htaccess configurations. The improved caching for .htaccess means that the lightspeed actually outperforms apache servers regarding the time required to serve a page. Nevertheless, there remains one fatal flaw with lightspeed servers, and that is the lack of a case sensitive file system. Any experienced SEO will tell you that search engines like google will view two different case variations of the identical url as two different locations, and due to this fact two separate pages. If the folks over at lightspeed actually address this one major problem they will then have a server that could potentially wipe the floor with the only real competition they have, that is to say the top dog of servers, the apache/linux.
Apache Linux.
The apache / linux server is the most popular server on the market, and for good reason. It supports case sensitive URL's as standard and is extremely configurable, urls can easily be rewritten by the end user by way of a .htaccess file, that is small text file that permits server configuration to be altered by way of FTP. Resolving non www. queries can be achieved in a matter of two minutes, and server security may be configured just as quickly and easily. No other server in the marketplace can match the Apache server for its Organic SEO friendliness, despite the fact that apache servers are actually now quite old. Apache has been the worlds most popular server since 1996, and continues to be the one that providers of SEO Services, across the globe will recommend.
Microsoft IIS 6.0
The Microsoft IIS 6.0 server has been around for a long while now, and was launched around 2003. Many websites are still hosted on this sort of server and in fact the Microsoft IIS 6.0 has a market share of just over a quarter of all web sites at 27%. You would be forgiven for thinking that a server with a following of so many users must have some SEO benefits, but actually the reverse is true, from an SEO perspective the Microsoft IIS 6.0 is a bit of a dog, the overall lack of case sensitivity in urls for instance, means that your website is wide open to abuse should competitors wish to construct links to case variations of your urls and cause you all kinds of canonical problems. Moreover, the fact that server configuration cannot be changed by the use of a user edited file similar to Apache's .htaccess, implies that even the most mundane server configuration activity, such as resolving non www. queries back to the www. domain can turned into a chore.
Microsoft IIS 7.0
Microsoft marketed this server as "new and improved" but the reality is that from an SEO viewpoint there is little to smile about. Microsoft still failed to recognize the need for case sensitive urls, and in true Microsoft style they also failed to hand over control of server configuration to the end user, instead opting to maintain the existing server side control panel server administration arrangement which was employed in their earlier IIS releases.
Lightspeed Servers
Lightspeed servers are an enormous step up from the servers on offer from Microsoft, and are, as their title suggests lightspeed servers are very fast performers. The intelligent people at lightspeed acknowledged the need to provide the end user with a means of configuring their server, and therefore the lightspeed supports the .htaccess technique of configuration as utilized by apache servers. Lightspeed supports all commonly used apache .htaccess configurations. The improved caching for .htaccess means that the lightspeed actually outperforms apache servers regarding the time required to serve a page. Nevertheless, there remains one fatal flaw with lightspeed servers, and that is the lack of a case sensitive file system. Any experienced SEO will tell you that search engines like google will view two different case variations of the identical url as two different locations, and due to this fact two separate pages. If the folks over at lightspeed actually address this one major problem they will then have a server that could potentially wipe the floor with the only real competition they have, that is to say the top dog of servers, the apache/linux.
Apache Linux.
The apache / linux server is the most popular server on the market, and for good reason. It supports case sensitive URL's as standard and is extremely configurable, urls can easily be rewritten by the end user by way of a .htaccess file, that is small text file that permits server configuration to be altered by way of FTP. Resolving non www. queries can be achieved in a matter of two minutes, and server security may be configured just as quickly and easily. No other server in the marketplace can match the Apache server for its Organic SEO friendliness, despite the fact that apache servers are actually now quite old. Apache has been the worlds most popular server since 1996, and continues to be the one that providers of SEO Services, across the globe will recommend.
About the Author:
High Impact SEO Services, are an award winning SEO firm based in Leeds. HISEO boast a formidable record of attaining results in highly aggressive markets. For details of the SEO Packages on offer at High Impact SEO, take a look at our website today.
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