country where your website is hosted does not mean anything

[tyrone]

Google does not care where your website is hosted - It means nothing to them! SEO "experts" still trying to put across that the country that your website is hosted in makes a difference are wrong.

This is the year 2009 - you can host your website anywhere you like - in a free commerce environment Google is not going to penalise you for choosing to host your website off shore and target local markets.

example in point;

My site is hosted in the United States
My target market is in a city called Tauranga in New Zealand

This example is a competitive phrase.

In case anyone was wondering about competitive phrases and their relevance as to where exactly your website is hosted - currently nzbn.co.nz ranks 2nd in google for the search web design tauranga from google.co.nz:

ie - go to www.google.co.nz (http://www.google.co.nz/)
type in the phrase: web design tauranga
click NZ only search results

and there you have it ... :) Country where your site is hosted does not mean anything!

To make it easier I would upload a photo of the search results but unfortunately you cant do that here :)

[designsbysteve]

I have heard some people saying sometimes with hosts abroad there is a certain amount of lag especially with Wordpress and other installs. This is from various sources, but it would be great to see more evidence from both sides to prove conclusive.

[MrTempleDene]

Of course, if your site is hosted in a different country, then the content of your site becomes dependant on the laws of that country

this is why I will be moving my site to a UK server sometime soon. I'd rather be hosted in the country I live in so I am bound by that countries laws, makes legal issues easier

[tyrone]

Yup it does mean your site is bound by that countries law – although if you don’t do business in that country it probably doesn’t effect you as generally you would be bound by the country’s law that you do business in.

Yes Database back ended sites like Joomla, wordpress, dotnetnuke etc can take a touch longer to load, they do by default – mainly due to the nature of database back ended websites – but I think it really is quite negligible in todays modern internet. – and most people just assume it’s their internet connection anyway that is causing it to be slightly slow if they notice a slowdown of the site loading :)

[designsbysteve]

I've heard people have had a bit of an issue with MT in America, though some people are raving about it. Maybe it's just the nice perk of being able to phone someone up if your server goes down, would having it hosted abroad be a problem?

[Scott-CopyandDesign]

Google does not care where your website is hosted - It means nothing to them! SEO "experts" still trying to put across that the country that your website is hosted in makes a difference are wrong.

This is the year 2009 - you can host your website anywhere you like - in a free commerce environment Google is not going to penalise you for choosing to host your website off shore and target local markets.

example in point;

My site is hosted in the United States
My target market is in a city called Tauranga in New Zealand

This example is a competitive phrase.

In case anyone was wondering about competitive phrases and their relevance as to where exactly your website is hosted - currently nzbn.co.nz ranks 2nd in google for the search web design tauranga from google.co.nz:

ie - go to www.google.co.nz (http://www.google.co.nz/)
type in the phrase: web design tauranga
click NZ only search results

and there you have it ... :) Country where your site is hosted does not mean anything!

To make it easier I would upload a photo of the search results but unfortunately you cant do that here :)

That proves nothing.

For a start 'web design Tauranga' is not a competitive phrase. I could probably outrank most of those sites in a few months from scratch.

Where your site is hosted may be an influence on localised rankings yes. IF it is (I'm not sure) then it will be a part of a mixture of so many different things which influence ranking. Just because your site is hosted in the US and it's appearing for localised results for an uncompetitive phrase, it doesn't mean it has no influence. If your websites SEO is better than the other sites, then this will make up for the international hosting.

Again, I don't know if this does influence rankings. All I'm saying is your argument doesn't prove or disprove anything.

By the way, your site isn't 2nd for these results (http://www.google.co.nz/search?hl=en&q=web+design+tauranga&btnG=Search&meta=cr%3DcountryNZ). I might be missing something here but I can't even see it on the first page, or the second.

[DotNetWebs]

... I might be missing something here but I can't even see it on the first page, or the second.

Same here.

Regards

Dotty

[Scott-CopyandDesign]

Just found it, at the bottom of page 3.

That ranking is only for your 'contact us' page too which seems to be ranking higher for that term than your actual index page. So far that hasn't really helped your argument about hosting/IP locations making no difference.

[tyrone]

Actually it is competitive Its a specific search in a CITY for a Generic Business Type - the only phrase more competitive is a global search for "web design" Stop wasting peoples time making spurious claims without substance

Here's the image: - see second in the natural search listing and no green arrow highlighted so I can't have just pushed the rank up using Google's rank voting

<<Excessively large image removed for ease of reading>>

That proves nothing.

For a start 'web design Tauranga' is not a competitive phrase. I could probably outrank most of those sites in a few months from scratch.

Where your site is hosted may be an influence on localised rankings yes. IF it is (I'm not sure) then it will be a part of a mixture of so many different things which influence ranking. Just because your site is hosted in the US and it's appearing for localised results for an uncompetitive phrase, it doesn't mean it has no influence. If your websites SEO is better than the other sites, then this will make up for the international hosting.

Again, I don't know if this does influence rankings. All I'm saying is your argument doesn't prove or disprove anything.

By the way, your site isn't 2nd for these results (http://www.google.co.nz/search?hl=en&q=web+design+tauranga&btnG=Search&meta=cr%3DcountryNZ). I might be missing something here but I can't even see it on the first page, or the second.

[Scott-CopyandDesign]

Well no, it isn't competitive. There's 48,000 results and only a handful of websites which seem to have put mediocre effort into ranking for this term, that isn't proper competition. Your example has rankings which are nowhere sensitive enough to show whether hosting locations will make a difference.

Search for 'web design london' Now that is a term people are really working hard to rank for.

Maybe an SEO expert can shed some light on why your rankings are like that but for us UK folk, even on the New Zealand Google, you're at the end of page 3.

If someone can find me credible proof that hosting locations make no difference I'll be happy to agree as I genuinely don't know myself. I just don't think your examples really show anything worthwhile.

Actually it is competitive Its a specific search in a CITY for a Generic Business Type - the only phrase more competitive is a global search for "web design" Stop wasting peoples time making spurious claims without substance

Here's the image: - see second in the natural search listing and no green arrow highlighted so I can't have just pushed the rank up using Google's rank voting

[tyrone]

Yes that would be competitive in London because London alone has twice the population of the country of NZ. The picture above shows 432,000 results returned - searching from a location probably has far more to do with it than where the website is hosted

[Scott-CopyandDesign]

Yes that would be competitive in London because London alone has twice the population of the country of NZ. The picture above shows 432,000 results returned - searching from a location probably has far more to do with it than where the website is hosted

I don't think you're getting my point here.

It doesn't matter where it's located or what we're searching for. What does matter is the localised term and the competition for that term. If everyone is heavily competing for a search term with SEO then server locations may play quite a factor and give a website that edge. However if no one is competing for a term and a handful of websites make a mediocre effort, then other factors will play a MUCH more important part before server location/IP.

A keyphrase is competitive no matter where you are, it still has the same 'rating' of competitiveness so to speak. It might not be competitive WITH YOU, but it's still at the same level with other websites in a localised area.

You may be right about the search location although I doubt it makes much difference. If someone from the UK is using specific NZ search conditions then I still can't work out why there is such a difference with your specific rankings only.

Maybe an expert SEO can shed some light.

[fisicx]

If you take away the location from your search parameters then the server location, domain name and IP of the user all come into play.

Suppose you have a .com domain hosted in the USA. Someone searching for a product in New Zealand is very unlikely to see your site at the top of the SERPs.

If they then narrow that search down to 'results from NZ' and your .com will disappear form the SERPs.

You rank well because you have a .nz domain, are using the local version of google and searching for a result near your IP. Someone at the other end of the country or even in the UK will see a different set of results.

I don't regard myself as an SEO expert, all the above is the result of carrying out tests. And just like the others, using google.co.uk your site dissapears from the SERPs.

[ServWise]

Lets get a few things clear here as it seems people are confusing the issue.

1. Google does consider hosting server location in its evaluation of a websites target audience, however this is just one of many pointers google uses to determine target audience and more important are the sites language, domain name, google webmaster setting and probably domain whois information and they play a far greater role in this determination than the server location.

2. Server location itself has little effect on ranking as long as google understands the local target for the site, if it cant determine the target audience then the site will not perform well for localised searches.

In the OP's example he is using a .nz domain and so google will assume the sites target audience to be New Zealand and so the site will rank better in localised searches in google.

Logically google would be silly to use server location as a major consideration as so many sites are hosted in the US that target localised audiences.

Where you are likely to come into problems is if google simply can't determine your site locale, e.g. an English site on a .com domain without any locale setting in webmaster tools will likely perform bad in localised searches.

[Kneoteric_eSolutions]

The location of the web server is only one of the many factors that Google uses to provide geo targeted results. You are trying to study one particular factor (web server location) in isolation, when it is not the case. Google will also look at other factors while making the decision - both on page and off page.

Your TLD is co.nz which is a very strong signal for Google that the website is targeted for New Zealand.

You have Tauranga in the tile of your homepage (one of the strongest on page signals), another reason for Google to rank you for the keyword web design tauranga.

Google is going to use a combination of all these signals and then rank your website.

[Mantarae]

Hosting where your customers are based is very important when it comes to lag-times in loading data. Think of all the database requests, image downloads, API accesses (Google Maps, YouTube, etc), that all need to go into downloading a modern website. There can be hundreds of server requests that go into loading a single page; so having to perform those requests over thousands of miles, rather than tens/hundred of miles can cause huge page loading delays.

For proof, try pinging a site hosted in your own country, against a site hosted on the other side of the world. I bet the response from the local one is around 10 milliseconds, whereas the one on the other side of the world is over 100 milliseconds. Times that up by however many server requests it takes to load a site, and that's how much lag you have.

In terms of Google, only the guys at Google know and I'm sure it won't influence rankings that much.

[awebapart.com]

My site is hosted in the United States
My target market is in a city called Tauranga in New Zealand
and your domain name is domain.co.nz

That's the important point you are not considering. Hosting location has little effect in your case because the .co.nz in your domain name makes it clear to the search engines that you are based in New Zealand.

If you used a .com or a .net domain, then by default, in the absence of any other information, the search engines would assume you are based in the US, because that is where your website is hosted.

The same is true for UK companies, if they have a .co.uk then hosting location has little effect on SEO, but if they use .com domains then hosting location can have a big effect on SEO (although there are search engine specific workarounds to this nowadays).

[DotNetWebs]

The bit I don't understand is:

Why if you are based in New Zealand are you coming on this forum and making such an effort to win UK customers? Are their not plenty of potential customers closer to home?

Regards

Dotty

[fisicx]

Why if you are based in New Zealand are you coming on this forum and making such an effort to win UK customers? Are their not plenty of potential customers closer to home?

Not in Tauranga there isn't. The portfolio cupboard is very bare...

[Tin]

The picture above shows 432,000 results returned - searching from a location probably has far more to do with it than where the website is hosted

But... that figure is NOT indicative of your competition, despite many people thinking this way. One of the basic techniques seo people use is to incoporate the keyphrase they are targeting into the page title in verbatim form, so... doing a simple check in Google along these lines will give a reasonable idea of competition, you might realise that it's not at all competitive!

allintitle:"web design tauranga

[Delicious Webdesign]

i believe server location for .com TLD websites make a considerable difference under certain circumstances.

Have an example of a .com hosted in Germany that had one link from a German website (plus about 400 other links from mainly uk websites) from the start it didnt rank well in google.com or .co.uk despite every possible measure being taken (set to uk in webmaster tools, Local Business centre entry, Uk code on phone number, Geo location and language in meta data, full uk address on site etc etc) spoke to some of the best SEO brains I could find (at some trade events and on some forums) and nobody saw a reason for google not ranking it well in google.com or .co.uk (it ranked top 3 in yahoo and msn) the best guess from everyone was to move hosting to UK.

This was done and ranking for keywords has gone from in the hundreds to in the top 3 for six out of eight key search terms. In may last year one search term was position 700+ and now its number 3 in google.com and google.co.uk

I thought the google webmaster tools geo location would be the main factor but obviously not in my situation. I havent noticed any problem with .co.uk TLDs hosted in the US or Germany.

[adventurelife]

Moved one of my sites from USA host to UK host

Result increase in traffic, increase in conversions, increase in serps

Not a expert in these things just stating what happened

[openmind]

Hosting where your customers are based is very important when it comes to lag-times in loading data. Think of all the database requests, image downloads, API accesses (Google Maps, YouTube, etc), that all need to go into downloading a modern website. There can be hundreds of server requests that go into loading a single page; so having to perform those requests over thousands of miles, rather than tens/hundred of miles can cause huge page loading delays.

For proof, try pinging a site hosted in your own country, against a site hosted on the other side of the world. I bet the response from the local one is around 10 milliseconds, whereas the one on the other side of the world is over 100 milliseconds. Times that up by however many server requests it takes to load a site, and that's how much lag you have.

In terms of Google, only the guys at Google know and I'm sure it won't influence rankings that much.
SEO aside you are dead right. For example:
Pinging nzbn.co.nz [74.54.26.126] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 74.54.26.126: bytes=32 time=148ms TTL=44
Reply from 74.54.26.126: bytes=32 time=139ms TTL=44
Reply from 74.54.26.126: bytes=32 time=158ms TTL=44
Reply from 74.54.26.126: bytes=32 time=143ms TTL=44

Ping statistics for 74.54.26.126:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 139ms, Maximum = 158ms, Average = 147ms
compared to:
Pinging openmindhosting.co.uk [78.129.162.206] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 78.129.162.206: bytes=32 time=22ms TTL=118
Reply from 78.129.162.206: bytes=32 time=23ms TTL=118
Reply from 78.129.162.206: bytes=32 time=22ms TTL=118
Reply from 78.129.162.206: bytes=32 time=23ms TTL=118

Ping statistics for 78.129.162.206:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 22ms, Maximum = 23ms, Average = 22ms

And for the trace:

Tracing route to nzbn.co.nz [74.54.26.126]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.1.1
2 14 ms 8 ms 8 ms 10.124.192.1
3 9 ms 10 ms 9 ms 62-31-64-41.cable.ubr06.brad.blueyonder.co.uk [6
2.31.64.41]
4 * 23 ms 18 ms lee-bb-b-ae1-0.network.virginmedia.net [195.182.
178.94]
5 40 ms 19 ms 21 ms pop-bb-a-as1-0.network.virginmedia.net [213.105.
175.130]
6 27 ms 23 ms 24 ms pop-bb-b-ae0-0.network.virginmedia.net [213.105.
174.230]
7 24 ms 21 ms 21 ms tele-ic-2-as0-0.network.virginmedia.net [62.253.
184.6]
8 * * * Request timed out.
9 146 ms 151 ms 145 ms bd.fd.5746.static.theplanet.com [70.87.253.189]

10 131 ms 143 ms 142 ms te9-1.dsr02.dllstx3.theplanet.com [70.87.253.22]

11 * * * Request timed out.
12 135 ms 142 ms 147 ms te1-2.car06.dllstx6.theplanet.com [70.87.254.182
]
13 138 ms 132 ms 136 ms 7e.1a.364a.static.theplanet.com [74.54.26.126]

Trace complete.
Compared to :
Tracing route to openmindhosting.co.uk [78.129.162.206]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.1.1
2 11 ms 14 ms 20 ms 10.124.192.1
3 9 ms 11 ms 9 ms 62-31-64-40.cable.ubr06.brad.blueyonder.co.uk [6
2.31.64.40]
4 33 ms 15 ms 15 ms man-bb-a-ae1-0.network.virginmedia.net [195.182.
178.90]
5 28 ms 19 ms 17 ms nth-bb-b-ae1-0.network.virginmedia.net [212.43.1
63.82]
6 23 ms 22 ms 25 ms tele-ic-1-as0-0.network.virginmedia.net [62.253.
184.2]
7 23 ms 38 ms 26 ms 86-14-250-212.static.virginmedia.com [212.250.14
.86]
8 * * * Request timed out.
9 * * * Request timed out.
10 22 ms 24 ms 21 ms 78.129.162.206

Ignore the request timed out lines simply as that is the router deliberatley ignoring the tracert command.

UK site for a UK audience on a UK server:
Faster ping responses..
Less hops...
Faster routes between routers...
Faster site loading for UK visitors...
Faster FTP transfers...

Nuff said...

Host in the country that you are targeting for customers and ignore the techy, geeky, pingy, tracerty, seo'ey (sic) stuff :)

[Ali-v-8]

For god sake.
Forget competitiveness for a moment and think logically.
google.com dont give a damn (to a point where you are hosted (us preferable))

Google.co.uk (for example) gives preference to you being hosted in the uk.
It also has a nice little tab that says PAGES FROM THE UK.

I have found it IS important to where you are hosted. 1&1 host in germany and after taking clients of those servers and moving them to UK servers i find a much better result.

try this tool and see for your self if your server is an issue.

go to www.yougetsignal.com (http://www.yougetsignal.com)

this will show you if your server has too many websites on it and what the websites are. also it will red flag (just like google does) any websites that have an adverse effect on that server. I.e. porn, gamming etc..

[tyrone]

So basically what comes out of this discussion that I can see are the following points:

For the most part Google doesn't care where your site is hosted it cares more about where you search from and what search "Location" you are using - also included in that combo are your domain name and webmaster location etc etc

Unless your search phrases are short tail or very competitive phrases logically defining the location of your website in the website itself and in Google webmasters is usually sufficient.
In addition to this perhaps defining your business location along with your website address in Google maps adds to your business ranking for location specific searches.

There have been exceptions where location of hosting does make a difference to search results but without specifics around the SEO done to that site there is no clear indication what may or may not have been holding it back from the rankings.

Loading TImes -> As can be seen from the above example there is a 0.0120 second difference in the time it takes a site to respond between US and UK from a UK address. So for information to traverse to and from by hosting in the states you have increased the load time of your website by 0.0240 seconds. Hosting local will result in faster page loads but how much do your customers really care is perhaps up for debate on the load time issue.

We as a forum have come to the conclusion no-one really knows because every scenario is different and you just have to Test and Measure what works for you like any marketing campaign, Try something, measure the result, change it, try it, measure the result ...... Nice one :)

One person asked why target UK not NZ - answer is really I target both but for UK I don't have to pay GST on services exported, It is a much much bigger market and the timezones are complete opposites - which means if anyone needs work done your after hours - its my during hours.

[openmind]

Loading TImes -> As can be seen from the above example there is a 0.0120 second difference in the time it takes a site to respond between US and UK from a UK address. So for information to traverse to and from by hosting in the states you have increased the load time of your website by 0.0240 seconds. Hosting local will result in faster page loads but how much do your customers really care is perhaps up for debate on the load time issue.

Not a debate, fact. That test was with 32 bytes of data. Imagine a 50KB (that's over 1,500 of those little critters) page being loaded.

Pages hosted in NZ will load slower than the UK when being browsed from the UK. Fact.
FTP transfers will take longer. Fact.
Response times will be longer. Fact.
I'm getting bored repeating myself that hosting in the country that is specific to your market is the best route. Fact. :)

[tyrone]

Of course linear scaling would be taken into account when loading larger items - you did use an icmp as an example which has QOS etc attached to it through routers etc etc (although given your example just given it would take 36 seconds to load 50kb of data from the US vs 6 seconds in the UK which is not actually an accurate depiction of time to download that data)

You fail to take into account TRIB which is the Transmission rate of information bits that determines the network throughput based around the packet size and protocol used which YES can vary depending on the network providers settings which will be determined by the best possible algorithm for determining the best possible rate of information they can deliver to any destination. So no you would not neccessarily have 1500 ping sized packets.

To effectively determine load times based on most peoples nil knowledge of common routing algorithms and QOS algorithms (That include giving higher priority to html vs video and sound etc), alongside the load algorithms your browser is using plus the technology behind the website, SQL optmisation etc, to say without comparing an exact website with an exact website, technology, backend, browser, datacenter host internet access speeds, QOS/COS, your internet provider specs ....... It is impossible for you to say beyond doubt that

a) There is a significant difference determined by the country you are in (It is acceptable to assume there will be small differences)
b) That customers will notice the difference to the detriment of your site

In short it will not take 6 times longer to load the exact same site in the US as it does to load in the UK (Assuming all things are equal)

Not a debate, fact. That test was with 32 bytes of data. Imagine a 50KB (that's over 1,500 of those little critters) page being loaded.

Pages hosted in NZ will load slower than the UK when being browsed from the UK. Fact.
FTP transfers will take longer. Fact.
Response times will be longer. Fact.
I'm getting bored repeating myself that hosting in the country that is specific to your market is the best route. Fact. :)

[fisicx]

We as a forum have come to the conclusion no-one really knows because every scenario is different

Don't agree. Everyone except you considers the location of the hosting server to affect the ranking of site. There may be contributing factors but in general any of the com, info, edu, org type TLDs can be badly affect6ed if not hosted in the target country.

[openmind]

Of course linear scaling would be taken into account when loading larger items - **snipped all the unnecessary geek stuff** (Assuming all things are equal)

And you honestly believe anyone apart from a small minority on this forum have a clue what you are talking about?

I was keeping it simplistic on purpose.

Look I'm not slating your business, I'm just saying to you that you are better off concentrating on your own marketplace. I don't go looking for business outside of the UK, I don't kneed to...

[Scott-CopyandDesign]

So basically what comes out of this discussion that I can see are the following points:

For the most part Google doesn't care where your site is hosted it cares more about where you search from and what search "Location" you are using - also included in that combo are your domain name and webmaster location etc etc

How did you come to that conclusion? Plenty of people believe it does have an influence.

Unless your search phrases are short tail or very competitive phrases logically defining the location of your website in the website itself and in Google webmasters is usually sufficient.
In addition to this perhaps defining your business location along with your website address in Google maps adds to your business ranking for location specific searches.

You're not getting this SEO lark are you? It isn't about things being 'sufficient', EVERY little bit helps when it comes to competing against other sites for competitive keyphrases. Just because you have one small part of it in place it doesn't automatically mean that the other pieces will make no difference.

Loading TImes -> As can be seen from the above example there is a 0.0120 second difference in the time it takes a site to respond between US and UK from a UK address. So for information to traverse to and from by hosting in the states you have increased the load time of your website by 0.0240 seconds. Hosting local will result in faster page loads but how much do your customers really care is perhaps up for debate on the load time issue.

---------

Of course linear scaling would be taken into account when loading larger items - you did use an icmp as an example which has QOS etc attached to it through routers etc etc (although given your example just given it would take 36 seconds to load 50kb of data from the US vs 6 seconds in the UK which is not actually an accurate depiction of time to download that data)

*Useless technical jargon which will make negligible difference compared to the basic facts involving locations, distance and network nodes*

a) There is a significant difference determined by the country you are in (It is acceptable to assume there will be small differences)
b) That customers will notice the difference to the detriment of your site

In short it will not take 6 times longer to load the exact same site in the US as it does to load in the UK (Assuming all things are equal)

You can say as much technical stuff as you want but you cannot argue with the straight facts. I visited a few UK based sites and they loaded immediately. I then visited your site and a few others based in the US and they loaded quite a few seconds slower. Openmind's findings are also further proof of this.

Hosting local will result in faster page loads but how much do your customers really care is perhaps up for debate on the load time issue.


It isn't up for debate, they care a lot, that's a fact.

It only takes a few seconds for a visitor to get bored and give up if they are a luke-warm lead. On average you must grab the attention of a visitor within 6 seconds and your slow page delivery will eat into that time.

We as a forum have come to the conclusion no-one really knows because every scenario is different and you just have to Test and Measure what works for you like any marketing campaign, Try something, measure the result, change it, try it, measure the result ...... Nice one :)

People do know, or they have a very good idea. It's all been tested and measured many times before and it's been measured again in this thread.

[Ali-v-8]

hi everyone.
I just read this through twice and I have come to the conclusion TYRONE aint reading or listening to anything anyone else is saying. As far as i can see everyone has said hosting does effect ranking.

He quotes us as saying the opposite, which leads me to believe he is trying to convince people his view is correct even when evidence is booting him in the ................

And tyrone We from the forum..... Where did that statement come into play.

I am 100% positive that hosting will effect your ranking full stop.

[fisicx]

I konw it's bit old but this is from the google webmaster blog:

Does location of server matter? I use a .com domain but my content is for customers in the UK.

In our understanding of web content, Google considers both the IP address and the top-level domain (e.g. .com, .co.uk). Because we attempt to serve geographically relevant content, we factor domains that have a regional significance. For example, ".co.uk " domains are likely very relevant for user queries originating from the UK. In the absence of a significant top-level domain, we often use the web server's IP address as an added hint in our understanding of content.

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2007/08/server-location-cross-linking-and-web.html

But as Ali suggests, tyrone ain't listening.

[tyrone]

wait a minute Scott - oh thats right fisicx is quoting straight from the Google blog which just verified exactly what I said. :)

Obviously if you buy a .com and target locally specifically you will need a fair bit more help not only in getting local rankings but some business advice on choosing appropriate domain names probably wouldn't go astray.

Oh and Scott you also omitted that you did not compare exact like with exact like for site loading times - come on man get with the program and give examples that are justifiable. If you want to have a technical discussion about speeds and load times you have to be prepared to deal with the jargon and technical side of it.

Ali-v you are just rather annoyed that your example got blown out of the water by someone who understands how information is transferred across networks.

lol this has been a crackup

[Dawg]

No Comment.


Dawg. DCSish.co.nzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[Cornish Steve]

Just to add another factor into the mix. I was once told that it's not location that determines speed to load but the number of hops from your provider's server to the backbone network that covers the world. In other words, you can have a slow provider in the UK (because they are several steps away from the network) and a fast provider overseas (because they are just one hop from the backbone). This matters if your business is global and you expect visitors from other countries. It probably matters less if you expect (and want) only visitors from your own country.

Let me qualify this observation with the comment that I'm not an expert in this field, and I'm simply quoting what a supposed expert told me a while back.

[fisicx]

wait a minute Scott - oh thats right fisicx is quoting straight from the Google blog which just verified exactly what I said. :)

Err, no it's not. Is says quite clearly that the server IP (location) is used as a ranking signal. If you are in the UK then a .com hosted in America is less likely to rank as well as a .com hosted in the UK.

[tyrone]

Err, no it's not. Is says quite clearly that the server IP (location) is used as a ranking signal. If you are in the UK then a .com hosted in America is less likely to rank as well as a .com hosted in the UK.


LOL : In the absence of a significant top-level domain

READ:
Obviously if you buy a .com and target locally specifically you will need a fair bit more help not only in getting local rankings but some business advice on choosing appropriate domain names probably wouldn't go astray.

[tyrone]

That quote reads that the IP Address is only used as a ranking signal in the absence of you making a sensible decision about your domain name - Google is attempting to numpty proof their rankings ....

[Ali-v-8]

That quote reads that the IP Address is only used as a ranking signal in the absence of you making a sensible decision about your domain name - Google is attempting to numpty proof their rankings ....

Hey Tyrone - I'd like to quote a guy who is what i class as a professional in the field of SEO. With over 350 clients on page one of google (many with generic terms). A fantastic PROVEN track record with seo spanning 5 years. And has given more sound advise in SEO than the samaritans :cool:

I quote "you are so wrong tyrone"

Yes it was me that said it and i will say it again. :D

HOSTING WILL EFFECT YOUR POSITIONS ON GOOGLE.:eek:

[fisicx]

Obviously if you buy a .com and target locally specifically you will need a fair bit more help not only in getting local rankings but some business advice on choosing appropriate domain names probably wouldn't go astray.

Read the title of this thread: country where your website is hosted does not mean anything

The answer to this question as shown in the Google quote is that it does matter. If you have a .nz domain, use google.co.nz and search in NZ for a local business then no it's doesn't matter. But for just about every other search it does.

[OldWelshGuy]

Apart from anything else, the definition of 'where your website is hosted' is one that many get wrong. There are LOTS of servers based around the world, in London for example, that are not hosted (in the eyes of an algorithm), in the UK IF their IP resolves to another country. This is the main problem with resellers. mThe hardware might well be in London, but the IP resolves to the owner which could well be in the US.

Fisx, is spot on here as Tyrone appears to be arguing about something different to the title of the thread. The title is a CLEAR statement that it 'means nothing' . NOTHING, not 'very little' or not needed in certain circumstances' etc, NOTHING., a black and whit e statement that has been proved wrong. (I am not saying Tyrones arguments have been proved wrong, only that HE is arguing wone thing, while EVERYONE ELSE is arguing about the title of the thread!

Tyrone, You say the hosting means nothing right? OK I havve lots of 'eu domains, and i am in the European Union. How does google handle searches from
.uk
.fr
.de
.es

My site is in London, the Ip resolves to London, London is within the EU. So HOW will google position my site for someone searching from say paris?

1. Location of searcher. this is THE most important element in a google search, as before ALL ELSE Google needs this as a core element in the SERP's it will return

2. Search phrase, again a core element of determining SERP's returned

Ok so it knows where you are and what you are searching for

3. Search language used, search in french, you get french pages

4. now we get into the search algo process which is ALREADY filtered and weighted from the above elements.

So are you saying that in the above scenario my eu domain written in french for a french search, hosted in London the location of my hosting 'deos not mean anything'?

Consider your answer carefully here as I NEVER ask a question like this without knowing the answer ;)

Good SEO's carry out testing, hells teeth I instigated on eof the first tests carried out to prove that google was weighting the SERPS based on the location of the person searching. A bunch of us from high rankings got together on MSN messenger (as we did most nightsto discuss and share our knowledge in private) ;) And we all instantly carried out the same search and logged the results. this is top people like Jill whalen, Danny sullivan, Barry schwarts Kim Krause etc.

Honestly this is all water under the bridge, there is more testing going on than many realise. if something needs testing we all get together and test, we share test data and findings IN PRIVATE!

[tyrone]

Ok so so far nearly everyones examples have verified all of my posts -

1.) Where you are searching FROM matters (Old Welsh Guy)
2.) IF you choose the right domain name for country relevant searches you don't have to worry about where your site is hosted (EWD Post from Google Blogs)
3.) I NEVER SAID if you choose a .com domain and host in the US you are going to get good rankings in the UK or NZ i used a .co.nz example which could have just as easily been .co.uk! That is an assumption no one bothered to ask me outright.

@OldWelshGuy - You havn't given the whole picture of your site, if you are targeting france did you choose an fr domain name (if you have just written the site in french it could be considered generic and return results for people searching in french from french speaking parts of countries of the world such as france, canada, NZ etc etc). If you chose .co.uk and tried to rank for results in France in a french speaking website I really would ask you if you made the right choice in domain name for a start (people searching just fr domains are going to totally miss you). People make the mistake of being too complicated about things, search is easy, simple, and logical. if you want to rank in france, buy a french domain name, host it where you like (Google blog verifies this). Write the site in french, target your chosen location by using location identifiers in titles and contact details ..... Get your backlinks sussed, it's not like getting sites to rank is hard work just test it and measure the results change something then test it again... :) Likewise it would be equal folly to attempt to target english speaking people with a site written in French and using an fr domain name .... so why make it hard work for yourself?

People can read just the title of my post if you want or you can take it in the context of the whole posting I gave which was a .co.nz site ranking in nz searches while being hosted overseas - I did not give the example of my .com site (nzbncrm.com) which is hosted in the US ranking on New Zealand searches for competitive phrases. Alot of peoples postings here objecting to my statement have come from just reading the title of the posting (or replying in ignorance) which is a classic example of not paying attention to the whole big picture. Many people got their exercise jumping to conclusions these past few days :)

[fisicx]

Tyrone,

I have read all your posts and your arguement doesn't work. In you opening post your said:

Google does not care where your website is hosted - It means nothing to them! SEO "experts" still trying to put across that the country that your website is hosted in makes a difference are wrong.

You then gave an example of a .co.nz domain and a search that includes a local town. Because this is a very specific search then yes the location of the server is less relevant, nobody disagrees with you on this point. But the thread has contained a number of posts that demonstrate how the server/IP location can affect the results.

If you had begun by suggesting that if you have a country specific tld then the server location is less relevant then you may have had a better response.

[Ali-v-8]

tyrone you still aint listen to a word OWG said.

I'll make it clearer. DOMAIN NAME is nothing to do with hosting. You could have .com .co.uk .fr.

But WHERE you host does.

Please don't tell me that i am agreeing with you Because i am definitely 100% against what you are saying.
I can get a .co.uk to position one of google.fr even though it is .co.uk
URL extentions are now not as important as the location of the server.

[iboxsecurity]

Google DOES care where you server is located, NOT YOUR DOMAIN name but the IP address of the server. It does not matter if you have a .fr, .co.uk, .de if your server is US based then the IP is US this will indicate to Google that your site is for the US despite the TLD, although the TLD will still influence it, its not the be all and end all.

Get a UK based hosting solution if you want best results for your UK customers with regards to ranking, speed and most likely better and more timely support - that said most UK hosting "tend" to be more expensive (slightly) than US hosting.

Check this video out from Matt Cutts http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXt23AXlJJU

[PrettyPaws]

This example is a competitive phrase.

type in the phrase: web design tauranga


lol.........that's funny.

[steveonz]

I do believe google does spend some of it's results on IP/location. For example our companies website did a lot better local results when we moved from a US to NZ server.

[malcolmcoles]

I'm a bit late to this, but I noticed a couple of months ago that google wasn't treating Man U as a UK club (http://www.malcolmcoles.co.uk/blog/man-utd-not-uk-club-says-google/) - it didn't return Man U's site for a search on UK pages only.

The club had used a US site to register its domain and had a .com address.

Google's fixed the issue now but it shows you need to be careful where you appear to be operating with factors like this.

[32cardinalpoints]

I would prefer to have a website hosted in the UK rather than abroad. It's nothing worse than having to wait for hours before you can get a response if your website suddenly goes down or you come across a problem and cannot fix it straight away. If you host your website in the UK 7/10 you will be able to pick up the phone and speak to someone in their support department.

It is worth mentioning that if you host your website with a UK hosting company - this does not generally mean your website is hosted in the same country. Some ISP's have their data centers in different countries.

There are a number of i.p tools out there who will be able to tell you the country your website is being hosted in. If you perform a search for ip location tools - you will come across these online tools.