Does it matter in which country my site is hosted?

[Mike Lewis]

I recently created a new site. The TLD is "co.uk", and the site is promoting a business aimed entirely at the UK market.

However, I have just discovered that the site is actually hosted in the US. Does this matter?

I've read some articles (for example, "Only in Canada, eh?" by Ian McAnerin -

http://www.mcanerin.com/EN/articles/local-search-01.asp)

which suggest that it does -- at least, as far as Google is concerned.

McAnerin asserts that the physical location of the site is an important factor when people use "regional" versions of Google. He quotes the case of a Canadian lawyer whose site was not showing up in the Canadian version of Google, and he believes the reason is that the hosting company is located in Florida.

Does anyone have any views on this? Unfortunately, it's difficult for me to test this because the site is still quite new.

Mike

__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

My Visual FoxPro site: www.ml-consult.co.uk

 

[Wullie]

If you read the article, it clearly states:

NOTE: This article is out of date. An updated one can be found here: Should SEOs Redirect or Park For Geolocation? and a complete guide to Website Geolocation is in progress.

There was a thread on here recently about this (although it was removed for whatever reason) and we basically proved that the information in that article was incorrect now and to rank for a regional search, your site either had to be physically hosted in the UK or have a .co.uk extension. As you have a .co.uk extension, you can host the site anywhere and it will rank for UK only searches.

Hope this helps,

Wullie

Fresh Look - Quality Coldfusion 7/Windows Hosting

The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The leader adjusts the sails. - John Maxwell

 

[Mike Lewis]

Wullie,

Thanks for the reply. You've set my mind at rest.

It's a pity the thread you mentioned was deleted. I'd like to have seen the testing. Understand, I'm not doubting what you said ... it's just I find it frustrating that it's always so hard to try things out for yourself in SEO.

Mike


__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

My Visual FoxPro site: www.ml-consult.co.uk

 

[Wullie]

It's a pity the thread you mentioned was deleted. I'd like to have seen the testing. Understand, I'm not doubting what you said ... it's just I find it frustrating that it's always so hard to try things out for yourself in SEO.

Take the following example:

Searching all the web for "Fresh Look Design" returns one of our .co.uk domains:

http://www.google.co.uk/search?num=20&hl=en&newwindow=1&q="fresh+look+design"&btnG=Search&meta=

Searching UK only for "Fresh Look Design" returns one of our .co.uk domains:

http://www.google.co.uk/search?num=...sign"&btnG=Search&meta=cr=countryUK|countryGB

That domain is hosted on a server in the USA.

Hope this helps

Wullie

Fresh Look - Quality Coldfusion 7/Windows Hosting

The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The leader adjusts the sails. - John Maxwell

 

[Mike Lewis]

Wullie,

That's exactly what I needed to know.Your site shows up at 3rd place on searching "the web" in Google UK, or just a straight Google search. But it comes up in 2nd place if you search "pages from the UK". That's pretty convincing.

Thanks again.

Mike


__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

My Visual FoxPro site: www.ml-consult.co.uk

 

[fxcolin]

Agree completely with Wullie.
It works the same way in Canada

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