'Look at web hosting to improve SEO'

E-commerce firms should consider their web hosting package when looking at refining their search engine optimisation strategy, according to one expert.

Writing on the Econsultancy blog, Ran Nir of Conversion Counts suggested that those specifically targeting the UK make sure their web hosting provider offers a UK IP address to improve the likelihood of appearing in UK rankings.

He also advised running a search against the IP address in question to ensure it has not been previously blacklisted.

Mr Nir went on to recommend that retailers check the server returns an accurate response when it comes to errors and moved pages, for example.

"Always display a correct 404 response so you can get an indication when a page is broken for better user experience," he remarked.

In 2006, Google engineer Matt Cutts confirmed that Google does not penalise websites in search rankings depending on whether they are on virtually hosted domains or on dedicated IP addresses, stating that links to both types of sites are treated the same.

Written by Tim Dunton