Does server or hosting location make a difference on co.uk domains seo?

[3 MORE YEARS]

Hello Everyone,

I have a co.uk domain. I like a hosting company, but their servers are in the US. As its a co.uk it will show as UK results, however, will it effect the SEO at all because of US server location?

Does anyone know?

Thanks.

 

[bigbuzzbelfast]

Now you have opened a can of worms Watch this space to see the lectures and many expert opinions you are going to get now lol.

 

[Matt Temple]

On paper this does make a difference yes however in practise this is not essential.

I have a number of .co.uk websites hosted on a US based server ranking well on the major search engines in UK.

 

[fisicx]

If it's properly configured and you have set up all the geolocations and whatnots then you should be ok. However, page load speed is a ranking signal and a shared server in the USA can be considerably slower than one in the UK.

 

[AllUpHere]

With mixed opinions on this surely it's best just to use a UK host (for the 2 or 3 quid per month it will cost).

 

[WHGB Tom]

You can use a UK host or if you want to go with your chosen provder just use Cloudflare or a CDN to offset some of the loading.

 

[Alan]

It will show in the uk - Google auto assumes .co.uk is targeted at the UK - but you can always set the geo targeting in google search console.

Speed is meant be a factor in SEO, but it is one of many factors. As mentioned you can mitigate global speed issues using a CDN, such as CloudFlare.

 

[Scott Adlhoch]

No...its doesn't matter but make sure that server is online 24*7. Else your website may be down any time

 

[bigbuzzbelfast]

But as we all know even the best of hosting companies cannot and will not guarantee that their server will be online 24*7 as it's an impossibility to give such a guarantee.

 

[Rina Talwar]

If you have co.uk domain, then why you are going take us hosting. It's not guaranteed that it will affect ranking because hosting is not a single factor to rank.But if you want to take US hosting then add Geo location in your website.

 

[webhostuk]

It will make difference probably I wont risk it for good ranking , will keep co.uk on UK server if I am targeting UK market.

 

[3 MORE YEARS]

I love all the varied opinion on this site. I have a number of hosting accounts. I was considering going with wpengine for some of my less trafficked sites. So I wanted a reliable website host for wordpress. Although I haven't used them, people seem to say good stuff about them. So I was thinking about trying them. Thanks.

 

[3 MORE YEARS]

@bigbuzzbelfast you are spot on. Half the time I get told off on here. Thats what it feels like sometimes. But I am always grateful to people here who give their time freely to answer questions, and help where they can

 

[3 MORE YEARS]

I just found out wpengine lets you chose server location. Thanks everyone.

 

[fisicx]

But $29/month is a lot of money to pay for low traffic sites.

Talk to @Dan_HiHosting. I tell all my clients to use his services - excellent support and very good value. And hosted in the UK.

 

[Dan_HiHosting]

Thanks @fisicx, much appreciated.

As others have mentioned Google normally works this out, and you can set the geo targeting / location to be sure.

While using a CDN can mitigate the latency issues you'd otherwise face serving a website hosted in the US all the way to UK visitors, why not just choose a UK server in the first place?

Like for like you're then ensuring the best performance.

Using a UK web host maintenance windows are more likely going to be when your primary visitors are asleep, especially for scheduled maintenance - while the middle on the night in the US can be the morning or early afternoon in the UK, so far from ideal.

The same applies to daily backups. These typically have an affect on server load. As such hosts will typically run these in the middle of night, when websites are less visited and the server load is lower.

Again for a US host this could be when you have notable traffic.
If you're one of only a few UK websites hosted in the server that isn't an issue, but it's far from ideal.

While most decent hosts provide 24/7 support, it does also help having support during your working hours, especially if you want extra help that goes beyond what would be expected.
A decent provider can be happy to discuss plugins and approaches for a website, but may be less likely to do so at 4am (9am here)!

Lastly there's currency to consider. Banks can charge you extra if you're buying in USD, and there's currency fluctuation's to consider - so your monthly invoice can be variable, and costs could increase (which isn't unlikely if you've been watching Sterling vs the US Dollar).

So if you want to host a UK website and you're based in the UK then it makes sense to use UK web hosting personally.

Just realised it sounds like you're sorted. Hopefully this is helpful as a reference for anyone else wondering about this.

All the best,

Dan

 

[Jolt.co.uk]

Hello Everyone,

I have a co.uk domain. I like a hosting company, but their servers are in the US. As its a co.uk it will show as UK results, however, will it effect the SEO at all because of US server location?

Does anyone know?

Thanks.

The biggest influencing factor, above everything else, is the locale you set in WMT.

Its 2017 and Google knows better than anyone the masses of nTLD and gTLD options so barely takes account in geo ranking. Server performance, more than location, will play a part -- so choose someone with decent hardware.

And lastly, choose a real business. When were they established? Ltd company, registered at companies house? Do their accounts show that they are established, likely to be around for a while? VAT registered so turning over more than £80k a year (£6k a month, not a lot really)...