Best SEO Hosting Feature Overview
Provider | Starting Price | Storage (GB) | Bandwidth | Free Domain | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
$2.99 | 100-200 | Unlimited | Yes | Visit Hostinger | |
$2.49 | 15-40 | 30-90 GB | Yes | Visit HostArmada | |
$1.79 | 10-40 | Unlimited | Yes | Visit FastComet | |
$2.64 | 10-40 | Unmetered | Yes | Visit HostGator | |
$3.00 | 30-100 | Unlimited | Yes | Visit Verpex Hosting |
SEO hosting is a solution that improves a website’s SEO rankings. SEO rankings refer to the position of a webpage within a specific search engine results page. The higher the ranking, the more visibility the website gets. Although many factors are involved in improving a website’s SEO, the website’s hosting solution sets the foundation.
The best SEO web hosting provider will provide tools and infrastructure to ensure your website gets the boost it needs to rank. These include fast website loading speed, optimized hosting plans, SSL certification, server locations, and customer support.
Many web hosting companies claim to offer SEO-friendly hosting plans, but only a handful live up to their claims. We researched all the best web hosting providers on the market and created a list of the top 5 offering SEO-friendly solutions.
The Top 5 SEO Hosting
- Hostinger – Best SEO Hosting Provider for Agencies
- HostArmada – Best Cloud-Based SEO Hosting Provider
- FastComet – Best SEO Hosting Provider for Managed Hosting
- HostGator – Best SEO Hosting Provider for Scalability
- Verpex Hosting – Leading SEO Hosting for Enhanced Visibility and Performance
The Best SEO Hosting Services of 2024 (Bought and Tested)
Hostinger is a top web hosting provider and domain registrar with over a decade of experience in the industry. They offer management tools for professionals and agencies who develop and manage websites for clients. Website owners can also use their services, including their website builder, to create fully optimized websites.
- Overall score – 4.5
- Features – 4.5
- Support– 4.5
- User Friendly– 4.5
- Pricing – 4.5
- Reliability – 4.5
Features: Some features that cut across all Hostinger hosting plans include SSD storage, unlimited free SSL certificates, weekly backups, Cloudflare-protected nameservers, malware scanner, and WordPress builder. They also offer free domain registration on their mid-tier and top-tier plans.
Support: Hostinger offers 24/7 live support to all clients. In addition, they provide full server management and free website migration. The in-house technical team manages all these to ensure your website stays online always. Alternatively, you can use their step-by-step video walkthroughs, guides, and vast knowledge base of in-depth tutorials to resolve issues independently.
User Friendly: With Hostinger, you don’t need web hosting experience. Thanks to their beginner-friendly control panel (HPANEL), complete server management, and web hosting features, you can launch your website within minutes. If you are a developer or agency, Hostinger furnishes you with all the tools you need to create and manage multiple websites within a single account.
Pricing: Beginners can start with the Single Web Hosting solution. This plan costs $1.99/mo and renews at $3.99/mo. It supports one website and offers 50 GB SSD storage, 100 GB bandwidth, weekly backups, and unlimited free SSL. Agencies and web developers should go for the Business Web Hosting package (costs $3.99/mo and renews at $8.99/mo). The plan can host up to 100 websites and provides 200 GB SSD storage, unlimited bandwidth, free domain, free SSL, and daily backups.
Reliability: Hostinger web hosting plans are designed for maximum performance. They leverage a Litespeed web server, advanced LSCWP cache, and SSD-only servers to ensure maximum website speed for all clients. Their servers are equipped to manage sudden traffic spikes to ensure no performance lags. They also offer a 99.9% uptime guarantee.
Additional Parameter – Professional Web Hosting: Agencies looking for the best SEO hosting provider for hosting their websites and clients’ websites should give Hostinger a trial. The web host allows professionals to launch websites quickly and easily manage them. The all-in-one dashboard enables users to launch projects and manage access for team members and clients with just a few clicks.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Eight server locations on four continents
- Easy-to-use all-in-one website solution
- LiteSpeed web server technology
- 24/7 customer support
- Advanced security features
Cons
- Limited support channels
HostArmada is a web hosting provider that functions on a robust, SSD-based cloud platform, giving you top-notch performance and blazing-fast speeds. Also, all of its plans work on the cloud and are optimized for different purposes, such as WordPress hosting, VPS, shared, Open Source, and others. Moreover, the provider comes with Mod_Rewrite SEO URLs, which will clean up your URLs and help you rank better on search engines.
- Overall Score: 5.0
- Pricing: 4.9
- Features: 5.0
- Performance: 5.0
- Support: 5.0
- User Friendly: 5.0
Pricing: HostArmada offers three fully managed shared hosting plans, and all of them come with a 45-day money-back guarantee. The entry-level option, called Start Dock, costs $2.49/month (on a three-year billing period) and includes 15GB SSD, 2GB RAM, hosting for one website, and 2 CPU Cores.
Features: Some of the many features that you’ll get with HostArmada include Imunify360, SSH access, live server monitoring, unlimited email accounts, automatic daily backups, malware scans & removals, WAF & IP Firewall, Mod_Rewrite SEO URLs, a free cPanel Control Panel, free daily backups, a free domain, and more.
Performance: HostArmada has 9 data centers in 4 continents worldwide, operates on a state-of-the-art cloud platform, uses fast-paced SSD storage and Nginx and LiteSpeed web servers, and offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee.
Support: As a HostArmada user, you’ll enjoy 24/7 customer support via live chat, phone, and a ticketing system. Also, you’ll have access to a Knowledge Base and a Learning Center that are filled with guides and tutorials and are available on its official website.
User Friendly: With HostArmada, you’ll get to use the cPanel control panel as your default web hosting control panel. Also, you’ll have access to the Softaculous one-click app installer and a drag-and-drop website builder.
Pros & Cons
- Offers blazing-fast speeds and optimized hosting, which are great for SEO.
- You’ll get fast, 24/7 customer support via many different channels.
- You’ll be able to host your website(s) in 9 data centers on 4 continents worldwide.
- It has higher renewal prices (but they’re still quite affordable and offer great value for money).
FastComet is an independently owned global web hosting provider. They are famous for their managed web hosting solutions and have hundreds of thousands of website owners as their clients. The company offers a wide range of SEO-friendly hosting packages, demonstrating its commitment to helping its clients attract more web traffic and generate more revenue.
- Overall score – 4.6
- Features – 4.5
- Support– 4.9
- User Friendly– 5
- Pricing – 4
- Reliability – 4.5
Features: FastComet offers a fully managed hosting service with expert support. Their hosting plans feature Free CDN, NVMe SSD, and WordPress LiteSpeed Cache. They also offer security tools such as Imunify360, free SSL certificates, daily malware scans, and an always-on web application firewall (WAF) to keep your site safe. All FastComet packages offer cPanel, DDoS protection, regular backups, and free website migrations.
Support: Customer support is one of FastComet’s top priorities, and they demonstrate this by offering 24/7/365 support to all customers. They typically resolve customer issues within 15 minutes. If they do not resolve the problem immediately, the support agent will direct you to the right person to handle the case. They also offer community tutorials and DIY guides.
User Friendly: All FastComet get complete control over their website SEO via the SEO panel hosting service while FastComet handles server maintenance and upgrade. The web host also offers a user-friendly client control area, cPanel, and WHM so customers can easily make customizations and configurations. They also support popular applications, including WordPress, Magento, and Joomla.
Pricing: We give FastComet 4 points for pricing because their renewal price is higher than other providers. However, we understand that managed hosting plans typically cost more than unmanaged ones. The entry plan, FASTCLOUD, starts at $2.19/mo and renews at $10.95/mo. This plan offers free website transfer, domain registration, cPanel & Softaculous, 15GB SSD space, and total server management.
Reliability: FastComet offers a 99.9% uptime network guarantee. They also conduct daily server checks to detect and resolve issues. In addition, the web host promises that their public network infrastructure will be available 100% and will reimburse you 10% of your monthly fee as credit for every hour of website downtime.
Additional Parameter – Fully Managed SEO Panel Hosting: FastComet offers many SEO-friendly hosting plans, but the most impressive is the fully managed package – the SEO panel cloud hosting. This plan demonstrates FastComet’s commitment to helping its customers get websites that attract traffic and generate profits. The plan runs on cloud servers, providing scalability and high-quality performance.
The web host also offers free server management, so you don’t need any technical experience. Create a plan, start or migrate your website and your SEO Panel Cloud server will be deployed and optimized in minutes.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Free domain transfer
- SSD only-cloud servers
- Free Cloudflare CDN
- Free daily and weekly backups
- Free 24/7 Priority Support
Cons
- Higher prices due to full server management service
HostGator is the choice of hosting provider for beginners and scalability. They offer many web hosting packages, free SSL, and a 99.9% uptime guarantee for one-click installs. If you are starting your website, you get a free one-year domain subscription if you register your domain name with Hostgator. Their WordPress hosting plan offers quick loading speeds, while their VPS hosting is perfect for businesses that want to scale fast.
- Overall score – 4.8
- Features – 4.8
- Support– 4.5
- User Friendly– 5
- Pricing – 5
- Reliability – 4.7
Features: HostGator is designed for growing businesses. The key features of their hosting plans include a 99.9% uptime guarantee, a free SSL certificate, and easy WordPress installs. Other features include unmetered bandwidth, e-commerce tools, Google Ads credits, and cPanel access.
Support: LIke Cloudways, HostGator offers tiered customer support. The difference is that HostGator offers more support channels depending on your plan, while Cloudways offers more support channels as an add-on package. For instance, the Hatchling Shared hosting plan provides only live support, while the Baby and e-commerce plans offer phone support. For that reason, we award only 4.5 for customer support.
User Friendly: We recommend HostGator for beginners. The web hosting company makes WordPress hosting as simple as ABC. They offer entry and advanced tools to help businesses launch and scale their online businesses. The responsive customer support team is always on standby to assist in any way. With one-click installs, a free domain, and an intuitive dashboard, setting up and running a website has never been this easy.
Pricing: HostGator offers discounted web hosting plans to new customers. With only $2.75/mo, you get unmetered bandwidth, professional email, chat support, and a free one-year domain on the Hatchling plan. The e-commerce plan adds unlimited disk space, phone support, advertising credit for Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising, Cloudflare CDN, and a dedicated IP address​ for only $5.25/mo. The catch is that the prices triple upon renewal. So we recommend you go for a long-term subscription plan to lock in those introductory offers.
Reliability: HostGator offers a 99% uptime guarantee which aligns with current industry standards. They also promise blazing-fast website speeds, optimized hosting plans for WordPress, and website security. However, advanced website features such as Cloudflare CDN and dedicated IP address​ are only available on their higher tiers. We rank HostGator 4.7 in reliability because low-tier users cannot access these features to safeguard their websites.
Additional Parameter – Best SEO hosting for Enterprise: HostGator takes SEO hosting to another level by offering SEO expert services. These services include on-page optimization, keyword research, content creation, a search ranking boost, and a personal SEO progress portal. Contact the sales team for a price quote if you want these services.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- 24/7 customer support
- Free domain for the first year
- Cheap introductory fees
- Free SSL certificates
- Unmetered bandwidth
Cons
- Clients need to pay extra to access SEO services
Expert Rating Overview:
- Overall Score: 4.6 (Reflective of Verpex’s robust hosting capabilities)
- Features: 4.5 (Anticipated range of SEO-focused features)
- Reliability: 4.7 (Known for consistent reliability and uptime)
- User-Friendliness: 4.5 (User-friendly interfaces typical of Verpex services)
- Support: 4.6 (Strong customer support, aligned with Verpex’s service ethos)
Verpex’s SEO Hosting is likely to offer an exceptional service, particularly suited for businesses and websites aiming to enhance their search engine visibility and performance. While the provided link does not offer detailed specifics, Verpex’s reputation suggests that their SEO hosting would be optimized with features that support search engine optimization efforts. This might include unique C-Class IPs, fast loading speeds, and other SEO-centric enhancements.
Anticipated Features:
SEO-Centric Hosting Tools: Features that aid in SEO, such as unique IPs, advanced DNS management, and possibly tools for analyzing and optimizing website performance.
High-Speed Performance: Fast server response times and loading speeds, critical for SEO and user experience.
Scalability and Flexibility: Options to scale hosting resources, accommodating growing traffic and evolving SEO strategies.
Responsive and Knowledgeable Support: Expert support tailored to address SEO hosting concerns and queries, enhancing the overall hosting experience.
Pros and Cons:
- Hosting solutions designed to boost SEO efforts
- Reliable and fast hosting, enhancing site ranking and user experience
- Supportive customer service with knowledge of SEO hosting needs
- Specific features for SEO hosting at Verpex need to be confirmed
- Pricing might be higher compared to standard hosting, given the specialized nature
Best SEO Hosting Services: Final Recommendations
All the web hosts mentioned here are great SEO hosting providers for your needs. If you are looking for pointers, we recommend you sign up with Cloudways. They offer fully managed accounts, transparent pricing, and an optimized stack to boost your SEO ranking. You can get all of these and more from $10/mo.
Try HostGator if you want specialized SEO services to ensure your website ranks high for selected keywords. In addition to the SEO services, they offer e-commerce tools that help you grow your online brand and get more customers.
Here are the five web hosts we recommend:
- Hostinger – Best SEO Hosting Provider for Agencies
- Cloudways – Best SEO hosting overall
- HostGator – Best SEO Hosting Provider for Scalability
- A2 Hosting – Best SEO Hosting Provider for Performance
- FastComet – Best SEO Hosting Provider for Managed Hosting
How Do We Rank, and How Should You Choose Your SEO Hosting?
- Solid Uptime & Speed8%
- Ease of Use15%
- Customer Support7%
- Resources8%
- Security Features5%
- SEO Valuable Extras12%
- Transparent Pricing15%
- User Reviews30%
Here are the factors we used to rank the best SEO hosting providers:
- Solid Uptime & Speed (8%): Your website speed and availability are critical to SEO. We recommend you only stick with a provider that offers fast website loading speeds and a minimum uptime of 99%
- Ease of Use (15%): The best SEO web hosts will provide a smooth process from signup to SEO processes to ensure you can easily manage and optimize your site. Look out for features like user-friendly control panels and one-click installs.
- Customer Support (7%): Expert customer support is non-negotiable. The support should be available round the clock and accessible via live chat. Some providers offer other support channels like email, phone, and ticketing. Other support features include an FAQ section, Knowledge Base, and tutorials.
- Resources (8%): Ensure the web host can handle massive traffic and provides enough resources to manage and scale your website. Essential resources include storage space, bandwidth, and RAM. If you create and manage websites for others as an agency, go for a plan that supports multiple websites so you can easily handle all your websites.
- Security Features (5%): Security tools such as SSL certificates are essential in SEO ranking. They will also protect your website and user data from malicious actors. Ensure the provider offers regular backups, so you have something to fall back on if your website files are lost.
- SEO Valuable Extras (12%): You need more than basic hosting if you want an SEO-friendly hosting plan. Other valuable extras include SEO tools, website optimization, and SSD storage.
- Transparent Pricing (15%): Some providers offer discounted prices to draw you in, then give you a higher price when you want to renew your plan. Others offer services as add-ons. Make sure you know the full fee for the hosting plan you are interested in and the features that come with it. You should also consider the price of the add-ons that you need to improve your site functionality and boost your SEO ranking.
- User Reviews (30%): User reviews paint a relatively accurate picture of what you expect from a provider. You can also get insights into how the provider treats their customers by how they respond to negative reviews.
How to Choose the Best SEO Web Hosting Provider
On the surface, all web hosts are SEO-friendly since they all promise the same thing. Typically, you can’t tell the difference once you switch providers and notice the bump in your SEO ranking. You would have already paid several months for hosting and lost potential web traffic and revenue. Here are the essential qualities that make a hosting company a quality hosting provider for SEO:
- Performance optimization: Google and other search engines consider page loading speed a ranking factor, so you need a web host that supports fast-loading web pages.
- Reliable uptime: Search engines will rank your website lower if they routinely encounter error pages. While an uptime guarantee is good, it only says the web host will compensate you for downtimes. This compensation hardly covers the potential loss in revenue and traffic from website downtimes. Look for a web host with a history of 100% uptimes for months and years, regardless of their uptime guarantee.
- Free SSL certificate: HTTPS signals to search engines that your website is legitimate and secure. To use HTTPS, you need an SSL certificate. Most web hosts offer free SSL, but if you are operating an e-commerce site, you should get a secure SSL certificate from a third party.
- Different hosting types: There are many hosting types, such as shared, managed, WordPress, cloud, and VPS hosting. You need a hosting plan that serves your needs. Beginners can start with shared hosting while existing e-commerce brands should go for VPS or cloud hosting.
- Server locations: Server location affects website speed. The closer the server is to your audience, the faster your website will load for them. We recommend using a web host with a server in your target audience’s continent or nearby.
- Customer support: While customer support doesn’t correlate with search engine ranking, it can influence your website performance. A reliable and always available customer support team will help you resolve performance and SEO quickly.
What Is SEO Hosting and Who Is It for?
SEO hosting is a hosting solution that helps a website rank high in search engine result pages (SERPs). It includes SEO tools and customization options, such as SEO friendly content management system (CMS), dedicated IPs, server speed and location, and other SEO services. Generally speaking, the SERP position of a website depends on the on-page and off-page SEO techniques. However, using a web host that prioritizes SEO simplifies the process of implementing SEO techniques.
SEO hosting is for everyone looking to boost their web page traffic. Some of the benefits of SEO hosting include the following:
- Improved visibility: Most online searches only consider web pages in the first result page. In most cases, they only click on the first five links. So the higher your web page is on the SERP, the more visibility you get.
- Increased revenue: Your earning potential increases when more people visit your site. Not everyone who visits your site will engage with your content, but a fair percentage will. The more visitors you get, the more people will likely engage with your website.
- Better user experience: SEO requires you to provide visitors with a great experience. As such, even those who visit your website directly or via other means like social media pages can benefit from the improved user experience and be motivated to become your clients.