Influence of TLDs and where sites are hosted on local search rankings

[mikeevee]

Probably not the best place to ask this, but as you are such an experienced lot and a jolly nice bunch of people I thought someone could help with my question.

My situation is that I currently run several small websites, inc some that are Wordpress blogs. They are all targeted at the UK, and they are .co.uk domains. However the hosting is in the US because I got a cheap deal a few years ago and never bothered moving them.

My questions:

• Will the fact that the sites are hosted in the US affect my rankings in the local country (ie UK) search?
• In general, has anyone got any knowledge around what affects search position for country search (e.g the .co.uk domain extension, the IP of the host etc)
• Can anyone recommend a reliable, fast and cheap UK host that I can move 10 or so hosted domains to. Just interested in your personal experience. Personally, in the UK I use Easily and find them great – but too expensive as they charge per domain and I have lots.

[Andy Fletcher]

The TLD carries much more weight than the geography of the IP you're on but it certainly does help to have an appropriate IP address if you're targeting local search.

I don't know of anyone to recommend but a word of advice. Make sure any "UK" company you move to actually hosts in the UK. A number of the cheap UK hosts are so cheap because they have their DCs out in the States. Kinda defeating the point

Hope that helps,

Andy

ETA: Post something like this in the SEO forum next time please.

[allenjohn]

Hi,

I use Streamline in the UK and they do a reasonable job.

Hope this helps. Regards Allen

[taffiliae]

First, this is a subjective topic, people share differrent opinions.

My opinion is that the domain extension is more important than where you host
your site's.

Reason, Google may think all things being equal that a .co.uk has more relevant,
targeted content for it's UK visitors.

The country of hosting would become more of a factor, in say a.com targetting
UK traffic.

None of these factors would I consider major, too a well chosen domain name,
relevant, quality content site with a good link structure in place.

Don't sweat over the small stuff, action is much more important.

Hope this helps taffiliae

[John Pawlett]

Hi Mike

I have seen no difference in local search results using .co.uk with USA hosting.

I host all of my sites in the USA, if I have, for example a .com that I need to rank for UK traffic then I change my settings in Google's webmaster tools to the UK.

John

[mikeevee]

Thanks all for the views.

It seems Top Level Domain is by far the most important so I should stop worrying.

Performance I can work on anyway. I've found a few ways to speed up my Wordpress blog a bit.