![How To Host Or Migrate A Website In 2025: Factors That May Break Rankings [+ Checklist]](https://www.searchenginejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/featured-508.png)
This post was sponsored by InMotion Hosting. The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor’s own.
Is your website struggling to maintain visibility in search results despite your SEO efforts?
Are your Core Web Vitals scores inconsistent, no matter how many optimizations you implement?
Have you noticed competitors outranking you even when your content seems superior?
In 2025, hosting isn’t just a backend choice. It’s a ranking signal.
In this guide, you’ll learn how hosting decisions impact your ability to rank, and how to choose (or migrate to) hosting that helps your visibility.
Learn to work with your rankings, not against them, with insights from InMotion Hosting’s enterprise SEO specialists.
Jump Straight To Your Needs
| Best For | Hosting Type | How Easy is Migration? |
| Growing SMBs | VPS | Easy: Launch Assist (free) |
| Enterprise / SaaS | Dedicated | Very Easy: White-Glove + Managed Service |
Don’t know which one you need? Read on.
Hosting Directly Impacts SEO Performance
Your hosting environment is the foundation of your SEO efforts. Poor hosting can undermine even the best content and keyword strategies.
Key Areas That Hosting Impacts
Core Web Vitals
Server response time directly affects Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) and First Input Delay (FID), two critical ranking factors.
Solution: Hosting with NVMe storage and sufficient RAM improves these metrics.
Crawl Budget
Your website’s visibility to search engines can be affected by limited server resources, wrong settings, and firewalls that restrict access.
When search engines encounter these issues, they index fewer pages and visit your site less often.
Solution: Upgrade to a hosting provider that’s built for SEO performance and consistent uptime.
Indexation Success
Proper .htaccess rules for redirects, error handling, and DNS configurations are essential for search engines to index your content effectively.
Many hosting providers limit your ability to change this important file, restricting you from:
– Editing your .htaccess file.
– Installing certain SEO or security plugins.
– Adjusting server settings.
These restrictions can hurt your site’s ability to be indexed and affect your overall SEO performance.
Solution: VPS and dedicated hosting solutions give you full access to these settings.
SERP Stability During Traffic Spikes
If your content goes viral or experiences a temporary surge in traffic, poor hosting can cause your site to crash or slow down significantly. This can lead to drops in your rankings if not addressed right away.
Solution: Using advanced caching mechanisms can help prevent these problems.
Server Security
Google warns users about sites with security issues in Search Console. Warnings like “Social Engineering Detected” can erode user trust and hurt your rankings.
Solution: Web Application Firewalls offer important protection against security threats.
Server Location
The location of your server affects how fast your site loads for different users, which can influence your rankings.
Solution: Find a web host that operates data centers in multiple server locations, such as two in the United States, one in Amsterdam, and, soon, one in Singapore. This helps reduce loading times for users worldwide.
Load Times
Faster-loading pages lead to lower bounce rates, which can improve your SEO. [Server-side optimizations], such as caching and compression, are vital for achieving fast load times.
These factors have always been important, but they are even more critical now that AI plays a role in search engine results.
Image created by InMotion Hosting, 2025.2025 Update: Search Engines Are Prioritizing Hosting & Technical Performance More Than Ever
In 2025, search engines have fully embraced AI-driven results, and with this shift has come an increased emphasis on technical performance signals that only proper hosting can deliver.
How 2025 AI Overview SERPs Affect Your Website’s Technical SEO
Google is doubling down on performance signals. Its systems now place even greater weight on:
- Uptime: Sites with frequent server errors due to outages experience more ranking fluctuations than in previous years. 99.99% uptime guarantees are now essential.
- Server-Side Rendering: As JavaScript frameworks become more prevalent, servers that efficiently handle rendering deliver a better user experience and improved Core Web Vitals scores. Server-optimized JS rendering can make a difference.
- Trust Scores: Servers free of malware with healthy dedicated IP addresses isolated to just your site (rather than shared with potentially malicious sites) receive better crawling and indexing treatment. InMotion Hosting’s security-first approach helps maintain these crucial trust signals.
- Content Freshness: Server E-Tags and caching policies affect how quickly Google recognizes and indexes new or updated content.
- TTFB (Time To First Byte): Server location, network stability, and input/output speeds all impact TTFB. Servers equipped with NVMe storage technology excel at I/O speeds, delivering faster data retrieval and improved SERP performance.
Created by InMotion Hosting. May, 2025Modern search engines utilize AI models that prioritize sites that deliver consistent, reliable, and fast data. This shift means hosting that can render pages quickly is no longer optional for competitive rankings.
What You Can Do About It (Even If You’re Not Into Technical SEO)
You don’t need to be a server administrator to improve your website’s performance. Here’s what you can do.
1. Choose Faster Hosting
Upgrade from shared hosting to VPS or dedicated hosting with NVMe storage. InMotion Hosting’s plans are specifically designed to boost SEO performance.
2. Use Monitoring Tools
Free tools like UptimeRobot.com, WordPress plugins, or cPanel’s resource monitoring can alert you to performance issues before they affect your rankings.
3. Implement Server-Side Caching
Set up caching with Redis or Memcached using WordPress plugins like W3 Total Cache, or through cPanel.
4. Add a CDN
Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) can enhance global performance without needing server changes. InMotion Hosting makes CDN integration easy.
5. Utilize WordPress Plugins
Use LLMS.txt files to help AI tools crawl your site more effectively.
6. Work with Hosting Providers Who Understand SEO
InMotion Hosting offers managed service packages for thorough server optimization, tailored for optimal SEO performance.
Small Business: VPS Hosting Is Ideal for Reliable Performance on a Budget
VPS hosting is every growing business’s secret SEO weapon.
Imagine two competing local service businesses, both with similar content and backlink profiles, but one uses shared hosting while the other uses a VPS.
When customers search for services, the VPS-hosted site consistently appears higher in results because it loads faster and delivers a smoother user experience.
What Counts as an SMB
Small to medium-sized businesses typically have fewer than 500 employees, annual revenue under $100 million, and websites that receive up to 50,000 monthly visitors.
If your business falls into this category, VPS hosting offers the ideal balance of performance and cost.
What You Get With VPS Hosting
1. Fast Speeds with Less Competition
VPS hosting gives your website dedicated resources, unlike shared hosting where many sites compete for the same resources. InMotion Hosting’s VPS solutions ensure your site runs smoothly with optimal resource allocation.
2. More Control Over SEO
With VPS hosting, you can easily set up caching, SSL, and security features that affect SEO. Full root access enables you to have complete control over your server environment.
3. Affordable for Small Businesses Focused on SEO
VPS hosting provides high-quality performance at a lower cost than dedicated servers, making it a great option for growing businesses.
4. Reliable Uptime
InMotion Hosting’s VPS platform guarantees 99.99% uptime through triple replication across multiple nodes. If one node fails, two copies of your site will keep it running.
5. Better Performance for Core Web Vitals
Dedicated CPU cores and RAM lead to faster loading times and improved Core Web Vitals scores. You can monitor server resources to keep track of performance.
6. Faster Connections
Direct links to major internet networks improve TTFB (Time To First Byte), an important SEO measure.
7. Strong Security Tools
InMotion Hosting provides security measures to protect your site against potential threats that could harm it and negatively impact your search rankings. Their malware prevention systems keep your site safe.
How To Set Up VPS Hosting For Your SEO-Friendly Website
- Assess your website’s current performance using tools like Google PageSpeed Insights and Search Console
- Choose a VPS plan that matches your traffic volume and resource needs
- Work with your provider’s migration team to transfer your site (InMotion Hosting offers Launch Assist for seamless transitions)
- Implement server-level caching for optimal performance
- Configure your SSL certificate to ensure secure connections
- Set up performance monitoring to track improvements
- Update DNS settings to point to your new server
Large & Enterprise Businesses: Dedicated Hosting Is Perfect For Scaling SEO
What Counts As An Enterprise Business?
Enterprise businesses typically have complex websites with over 1,000 pages, receive more than 100,000 monthly visitors, operate multiple domains or subdomains, or run resource-intensive applications that serve many concurrent users.
Benefits of Dedicated Hosting
Control Over Server Settings
Dedicated hosting provides you with full control over how your server is configured. This is important for enterprise SEO, which often needs specific settings to work well.
Better Crawlability for Large Websites
More server resources allow search engines to crawl more pages quickly. This helps ensure your content gets indexed on time. Advanced server logs provide insights to help you improve crawl patterns.
Reliable Uptime for Global Users
Enterprise websites need to stay online. Dedicated hosting offers reliable service that meets the expectations of users around the world.
Strong Processing Power for Crawlers
Dedicated CPU resources provide the power needed to handle spikes from search engine crawlers when they index your site. InMotion Hosting uses the latest Intel Xeon processors for better performance.
Multiple Dedicated IP Addresses
Having multiple dedicated IP addresses is important for businesses and SaaS platforms that offer API microservices. IP management tools make it easier to manage these addresses.
Custom Security Controls
You can create specific firewall rules and access lists to manage traffic and protect against bots. DDoS protection systems enhance your security.
Real-Time Server Logs
You can watch for crawl surges and performance issues as they happen with detailed server logs. Log analysis tools help you find opportunities to improve.
Load Balancing for Traffic Management
Load balancing helps spread traffic evenly across resources. This way, you can handle increases in traffic without slowing down performance. InMotion Hosting provides strong load balancing solutions.
Future Scalability
You can use multiple servers and networks to manage traffic and resources as your business grows. Scalable infrastructure planning keeps your performance ready for the future.
Fixed Pricing Plans
You can manage costs effectively as you grow with predictable pricing plans.
How To Migrate To Dedicated Hosting
- Conduct a thorough site audit to identify all content and technical requirements.
- Document your current configuration, including plugins, settings, and custom code.
- Work with InMotion Hosting’s migration specialists to plan the transition
- Set up a staging environment to test the new configuration before going live
- Configure server settings for optimal SEO performance
- Implement monitoring tools to track key metrics during and after migration
- Create a detailed redirect map for any URL changes
- Roll out the migration during low-traffic periods to minimize impact
- Verify indexing status in Google Search Console post-migration
[DOWNLOAD] Website Migration Checklist
Image created by InMotion Hosting, May 2025Why Shared Hosting Can Kill Your SERP Rankings & Core Web Vitals
If you’re serious about SEO in 2025, shared hosting is a risk that doesn’t come with rewards.
Shared Hosting Issues & Risks
Capped Resource Environments
Shared hosting plans typically impose strict limits on CPU usage, memory, and connections. These limitations directly impact Core Web Vitals scores and can lead to temporary site suspensions during traffic spikes.
Resource Competition
Every website on a shared server competes for the same limited resources.
This becomes even more problematic with AI bots accessing hundreds of sites simultaneously on a single server.
Neighbor Problems
A resource-intensive website on your shared server can degrade performance for all sites, including yours. Isolated hosting environments eliminate this risk.
Collateral Damage During Outages
When a shared server becomes overwhelmed, not only does your website go down, but so do connected services like domains and email accounts. InMotion Hosting’s VPS and dedicated solutions provide isolation from these cascading failures.
Limited Access to Server Logs
Without detailed server logs, diagnosing and resolving technical SEO issues becomes nearly impossible. Advanced log analysis is essential for optimization.
Restricted Configuration Access
Shared hosting typically prevents modifications to server-level configurations that are essential for optimizing technical SEO.
Inability to Adapt Quickly
Shared environments limit your ability to implement emerging SEO techniques, particularly those designed to effectively handle AI crawlers. Server-level customization is increasingly important for SEO success.
In 2025, Reliable Hosting Is a Competitive Advantage
As search engines place greater emphasis on technical performance, your hosting choice is no longer just an IT decision; it’s a strategic marketing investment.
InMotion Hosting’s VPS and Dedicated Server solutions are engineered specifically to address the technical SEO challenges of 2025 and beyond. With NVMe-powered storage, optimized server configurations, and 24/7 expert human support, we provide the foundation your site needs to achieve and maintain top rankings.
Ready to turn your hosting into an SEO advantage? Learn more about our SEO-first hosting solutions designed for performance and scale.
Image Credits
Featured Image: Image by Shutterstock. Used with permission.
In-Post Image: Images by InMotion Hosting. Used with permission.
