Does Cloudflare hurt SEO?

tahtor

tahtor

Newbie
Joined
Nov 28, 2010
Messages
26
Reaction score
61
Cloudflare hides the real IP address and acts as a reverse proxy. Does this have a negative impact on local SEO and SEO in general?
 
Advertise on BHW
As a newbie on this forum please read the rules and use the search bar. This topic has been debated for years!
 
on1 said:
As a newbie on this forum please read the rules and use the search bar. This topic has been debated for years!
Click to expand...
Help me with link for local SEO impact?
 
More than 10% of world wide webs are using cloudflare, the cuestion is pretty equivalent to ask if AWS Cloudfront hurts SEO (TLDR No)
 
Cloudflare does not affect,it hepls reduce the loading time for a website and also helps in security for the website also.
 
since pageload is a ranking factor its will positivley effect your ranking. espacially when you try to rank in multiple countrys because cloudflare will provide your assets form the closest cdn servers where your webusers are located. for international sites its definatley positive for your rankings.
 
on1 said:
As a newbie on this forum please read the rules and use the search bar. This topic has been debated for years!
Click to expand...
Well the OP joined before you.. Like 8 years before you.. :D

So, Yes cloudflare will surely affect your rankings only if you are a small site with local traffic (200-1000 users/day) because by using cloudflare you share your IP with all kinds of people. The legitimacy, Spam Score & location of your IP is ranking Factor.
Now, If you are not a Niche centered local site, you operate a bigger sites which gets traffic around at least 3-4k+ users/day then you needn't worry. Cloudflare will help you and at that level search engines don't really care about your traffic's location because with these numbers, the traffic will surely be diversified & other ranking factors like speed & backlinks will come more into play.

Regards.
Chris.
 
Long-story-short the answer is no. There are bad rumours about CloudFlare because most of the hacked sites are hidden with it. I believe there is a site that talks it called CrimeFlare
 
Cloud-flare does not effect on local SEO. in my experience its help to drive traffic to your site..
 
Anybody know have any free CDN service like Cloudflare?
 
CDN's are generally a good idea. Would I not go with CloudFlare because I think it would hurt SEO no. However I belive that there are better options out there but not free. Best of luck.
 
No its great for seo. But there is one problem with using CDN's and that's the origin server. If someone finds the origin server IP then they can bypass all that nice protection Cloudflare gives you:

Here's what I do, install mod_cloudflare so you are getting the real ip

In .htaccess

RewriteCond %{HTTP:CF-Connecting-IP} ^$
RewriteRule ^ - [F,L]
 
Actually, it depends on how CF is setup on your site - if it is setup in a too high settings, it can affect SEO in a way. Eg, there is a CF setting that prevents access from a certain country, for legal purposes. So if banning access from a certain country to your site, there is a possibility that the spiders from that region will also be prevented access. That will somehow reduce your organic traffic in the process, or having crawl errors on GSC, which sends a signal to big-G that your site is problematic, etc, and the list goes on. So bottom line - it depends on how CF is setup.
 
Advertise on BHW
You must log in or register to reply here.
Sign up now!

Main Menu

Home Main Forum List Black Hat SEO White Hat SEO BHW Newbie Guide Blogging Black Hat Tools Social Media Downloads

Marketplace

Account Selling Content / Copywriting EBooks / Methods Hosting Misc Proxies For Sale SEO - Link building SEO - Packages Social Media Social Media - Panels Web Design More

Making Money

Affiliate Programs Hire a Freelancer IM Journeys Making Money Pay Per Click Site Flipping Want to Buy

BlackHat World

Dispute Resolution Forum Suggestions & Feedback Introductions Lounge
Back
Top