Does the host server location effect local SEO results

6 replies
  • SEO
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Having a bit of a debate with some others and curious to get all your feedback.

If a host is located in a country other than where the local business is does this effect your ranking when trying to rank locally?

for example if I had a .co.nz domain for a local NZ business but the server is hosted in the US.

I have my own thoughts on this but keen to hear what everyone else thinks.
#effect #host #local #location #results #seo #server
  • Profile picture of the author BrianMI
    I created a website focusing on selling car rims to in the UK a while back. I bought hosting in the UK just for that site because it was thought, even back then, that having your hosting located in the country of origin was an advantage.

    Today, though, with the increased use of the cloud for everything, I have to wonder.

    If for nothing else though, site speed has become a bigger issue in recent months and if your server is closer to those who typically use your site, then it will respond faster and you'll reap whatever SEO benefits from the faster site that might be gleaned.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kingfish85
    Originally Posted by webpeon View Post

    Having a bit of a debate with some others and curious to get all your feedback.

    If a host is located in a country other than where the local business is does this effect your ranking when trying to rank locally?

    for example if I had a .co.nz domain for a local NZ business but the server is hosted in the US.

    I have my own thoughts on this but keen to hear what everyone else thinks.
    Do a local search for some location specific terms - like "house painter in whatever town" then trace the websites back to see where they're hosted. Chances are, most of them are not.
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  • Profile picture of the author ElusiveEnd
    Server location does affect rankings. I believe there was also a video released by Matt Cutts that spoke about it.

    Essentially, with Google trying to show the most relevant results to their users they do check server details to get a better understanding of who that website should best be returned for. That is not to say that you definitely can't rank within that country if the server is located elsewhere, but it would give your site a lesser relevance for those local searches.
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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    Google knows your ISP GEO location, so I'm sure they know the GEO location of a sites server.

    The ISP GEO location is easy to prove, search the keyword weather without any other keyword, just the keyword weather. You'll get the weather for your ISP, which isn't necessarily the actual town your located. When I do that weather keyword search, my ISP is at least 50 miles away with a lot of small towns & zip codes between the ISP & my own GEO location.

    I have no idea If the GEO location of a site server has any SEO weight but I'm sure Google looks at the server location.

    I wouldn't have my site hosted in a country outside of the local target area/country, that's just too extreme IMO.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mike Anthony
    Originally Posted by webpeon View Post

    If a host is located in a country other than where the local business is does this effect your ranking when trying to rank locally?

    for example if I had a .co.nz domain for a local NZ business but the server is hosted in the US.
    Yes its a key factor. Its the difference between me on the east coast of the US recommending a British doctor to you and someone who actually lives there doing so. Not that any link won't help but geo location of who is recommending you is a factor that I have had to deal with particularly in competitive areas like the UK and australia many times.
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  • Profile picture of the author C Rebecca
    Matt Cutts says it can.

    With the above noted, there are numerous other methods you can use to show relevancy such as setting the site's geo-target in Google WMT, using the meta language tag and showing a physical address
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