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

by mikeevee
5 replies
  • SEO
    • |
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.
#hosted #influence #local #rankings #search #sites #tlds
  • Profile picture of the author AndrewCavanagh
    As far as I know it doesn't make a difference where your site is hosted.

    It's possible but I've never seen any hard evidence.

    Other factors like the number of times a business and its physical address appears on other local and related sites and the keywords you have listed in the categories of your listing seem to be the main factors.

    Backlinks, reviews also may have an influence.

    Kindest regards,
    Andrew Cavanagh
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    Old School Copy Like This Is BACK & Converting Like Crazy!
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  • Profile picture of the author Davioli
    It does make a difference based on some local websites I used to manage. Since most people host in the US, Google has decided to let you choose where you want to rank.

    There's an option in Google's webmaster tools which allows you to manually select the country you wish to rank in. This eliminates any other factors that could affect the results.
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    • Profile picture of the author janita
      It doesn't matter from where website is being hosted.The thing that matter is flow of quality traffic toward your web.
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      • Profile picture of the author Davioli
        Originally Posted by janita View Post

        It doesn't matter from where website is being hosted.The thing that matter is flow of quality traffic toward your web.
        What matters is "flow of traffic"? Since when did traffic become a factor in search engine ranking?
        Or is this an attempt to increase your post count?
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  • Profile picture of the author Bellthorpe
    From the perspectives of price, performance and variety of backbone connexions, it doesn't make sense to host anywhere except in the US.

    Google doesn't care.

    On the other hand, it does consider country TLDs.
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