The difference between a Shared web server, VPS and a Cloud Dedicated web server are night and day. To explain the differences, let’s first take a look at what each of these terms mean.
A web server is a computer, just like mine or yours. The difference is that a web server is usually a lot more powerful, it’s always connected to the Internet and it’s primary job in life is to do one thing and one thing only – to display or “serve” web sites.
Stats
As of 2018 an estimated 85% of all websites are being hosted on a shared web server.
Let’s start with a “Shared” web server. Think of a shared web server as an apartment building. Let’s assume that the apartment building has 1000 separate units or apartments. So in each apartment there is a different customer’s website. The reason it’s referred to as a “shared” web server is because all 1000 customers are “sharing” the same CPU, RAM, hard drive and bandwidth. Let’s assume that the person or company in the apartment next to you is running a CPU intensive website. If that’s the case then generally all the other 999 customers’s websites on that server suffer and become slow, all due to one or more of your neighbors hogging the majority of the resources of that machine – that web server.
This is why having your website hosted on a shared web server is so inexpensive. It’s like living in an apartment building where you have fixed resources and all the renters are “sharing” the same resources.
A VPS server is that same apartment building but instead of 1000 customers, there are much fewer, say 300 – but all are sharing the same resources of that web server and obviously more expensive per month.
In contrast, a dedicated web server is like having your own 20 acre 100 bedroom estate. It’s displaying your website(s) and yours only. Until now, the cost for a dedicated web server generally start at $600.00 per month.
The beauty of having your own dedicated web server to host your own website is obvious, but until now the monthly cost for a dedicated web server has been out of budget for most companies and young startups.
Decisions
Too often both individuals and companies make the decision as to who will host their website based solely on price. The point I’m making here is that this one decision of “going with the cheapest” can and usually does, have catastrophic consequences, especially when it comes to being found predominantly on Google search results.
At the end of the day, your choice of web hosting environment should never be based on price, but rather on these 3 important factors…
- Speed
- Reliabilty
- Scalability
Look, Google has many algorithms and heuristics which determine who gets ranked at the top of a Google search result. Three of these very important factors are:
- How fast your web server responds thus how fast your web site loads
- If your website is what “Google” deems as mobile friendly
- Whether or not your website has an SSL certificate
While there are many other factors, these 3 are extremely important and are at the top of the list. Forget the content on any website for a minute, if a website is not these three things – it’s game over. Especially when trying to be found by any competitive term.
Just for a moment, be Google. Use common sense. What does Google want for their users who perform a search? For starters Google realizes that over 85% of all websites are being visited via a mobile device or tablet. This means that your website better be mobile friendly and better load quickly since the Internet connection on a phone is generally a lot slower then on a computer.
Google also has the daunting task of sending out Google Roaming Spiders known as Google Bots, to every single website and to index or re-index those sites based on any new content that it finds. The problem is that there is only so much time Google will spend trying to index a website. By the way, this “spidering process”, where Google visits your website usually happens about about every 8 to 10 days.
When a Google Spider comes to visit your website, if your web server doesn’t respond within X number of milliseconds – it’s also game over. Google scores everything, and one of these scores is known as your “Crawl Rate”. What that means is that the faster your web server is, the more times Google will spend on indexing your website and the more content they will index. It also dictates how often their spiders return.
Let’s assume there are two websites. The first one is hosted on an extremely fast web server. It’s website is mobile responsive and also has an SSL certificate for their domain name.
On the other hand, you have another website which is hosted on a very slow shared web server, it’s not mobile responsive nor does it have an SSL certificate.
Again, be Google. Which of these two websites would you list above the other on a Google search result? I know that’s a very stupid question but the reality is that most website owners out there simply don’t care or are not aware of what you just read, otherwise they wouldn’t be hosted on slow traditional shared web servers.
A website hosted on a slow web server simply gets run over. To Google, a slow website is a time waster and penalizes you accordingly.
“We all go to Google to search for what we’re looking for. If you’re not found towards the top of a Google search result when someone searches for your products or services, then everything your doing is a waste of time and money.”
You may not be aware of this, but Google has a tool designed specifically to show how Google “sees” your website. It also provides useful tips on how to increase your performance. Your goal is to reach a score of 100/100.
It’s called Google PageSpeed Insights
Go ahead and click on the link now. Type in your domain name and make sure to look at your score for both Mobile and Desktop then come back to this article and keep reading…. we’ll wait.
If you did what we asked, then you might be feeling a little depressed. Don’t worry. It’s not something that can’t be overcome. The fact that you’re here means you’re on the right track. Achieving a score of 100/100 is very hard to do but can be done.
Since we eat our own dog food and are obviously hosted by Google, take a look at how we score:
Google PageSpeed Insights for https://CloudHostingSetup.com
See, it can be done so don’t ever give up. What’s great about this tool is that offers suggestions on how to improve how you’re seen by Google.
Now think about everything you just read. It’s not rocket science. In fact, it should make perfect sense but unfortunately very few website owners stop to think about the consequences to being “cheap” or not asking the right questions before choosing one of your most important online bed partners.
While on the subject of choosing your online bed partners, never compromise on the following:
- The first is your domain name registration provider. That should be regiSTAR.com. They are one of the oldest and most reputable domain name registration companies and have been partnered with Google since day one. They offer real-time DNS and offer some of the best customer service around. Since they’re a Google G Suite Partner, they also setup your domain name with Google’s G Suite email service at no charge.
- Next is your web hosting provider – that should obviously be Google themselves and the reason you’re here reading this.
- And lastly your email service provider. That too should be Google. Google email is by far the most popular, reliable and most secure email service around. When it comes to your most important form of business communication – you don’t compromise. Always use Google email. Either a Gmail email address or G Suite if you have your own domain name.
In closing, let me say this.. if you’re one of those people who are in business and say to yourself I can’t afford more than $40 a month for web hosting or if you don’t care about trying to be found on Google predominantly – then stay put where you are. In fact you’re just wasting your time reading this. Both our services and Google’s Cloud Platform are probably not right for you.
In contrast, if what you just read resonates and makes sense, then welcome to a whole new world. Start by getting hosted with the fastest network on Earth – Google Cloud and allow us to setup and configure your own dedicated web server alongside Google.
The average cost to get hosted with Google is $40.00 per month and allows you to have one or more of your own websites hosted on your own dedicated web server without increasing your monthly costs. Plus you get a free SSL certificate for one or all of your websites.
We hope that what you read makes sense. That it enlightens you and puts you toward the path to success.