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Where to host? UK or US?

by rosetrees
14 replies
A friend is designing a US version of her UK membership site. She wonders if it would make a difference to her Google rankings for US searchers if she hosts the US version with a US based webhost rather than a UK host?

The content will be different as the subject matter is country specific.

Thanks
Carol
#host
  • Profile picture of the author garyv
    wow, great question. I've never researched that before. I'd love to know if it works the other way around as well.
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  • Profile picture of the author TomBond
    There used to be issues with the site host location that stopped sites appearing within regional results pages such as 'pages from the UK'

    Now you can tell Google through Webmaster Toolkit where your site is targgetted so it's not such a big deal , but I would still host in the country the site is targetted if possible.
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    • Profile picture of the author NickArnold
      If you are targetting US Customers then yes you want to host your site on a US server.

      Being in the UK myself i have hosting accounts both UK and USA based, i cherry pick where to host the site (and of course the domain name) based on the target audience.
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      • Profile picture of the author milan
        Originally Posted by NickArnold View Post

        If you are targetting US Customers then yes you want to host your site on a US server.
        That's a good rule of thumb. In most cases you get faster data transfer / faster opening site, when you get geographically closer to the user. Internet is a network of networks, it does matter how many routers the data needs to pass, and the longer the path, more chances of a crowded link on the way.

        Today's world (full of satellites) will slowly create too many exceptions to this rule of thumb, but it's valid today.
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    • Profile picture of the author nRehman
      Originally Posted by distinctly_digital View Post

      There used to be issues with the site host location that stopped sites appearing within regional results pages such as 'pages from the UK'

      Now you can tell Google through Webmaster Toolkit where your site is targgetted so it's not such a big deal , but I would still host in the country the site is targetted if possible.
      There are various search engines, are you suggesting every one that your website works for specific region.. using google webmaster tools to tell google give me a place in regional search engine is not enough, google will not change it.

      If your website works for the UK market then its good to host in UK and if you want to host your website with the American server then get domain with the uk extension.
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  • Profile picture of the author spearce000
    If the website is going to be aimed squarely at a US audience, and is going to have different content from the UK one, hosting on a US based server would be the way to go IMHO. That way, you friend will only have to worry about one load of compliance issues, and she'll be able to take advantage of US public domain content for the site -- which might be tricky on a UK based server.

    Like NickArnold I also have websites hosted on UK and USA servers depending on the content and market. US servers tend to be cheaper, too (like everything else).
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
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      • Profile picture of the author nRehman
        Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

        To be honest, my real interest in this subject relates more to "the other way round": I'm always seeing people in forums advising internet marketers targeting the UK specifically to have their site physically hosted in the UK rather than in the US.

        I can understand why, in such cases, people might want to use a ".co.uk" domain rather than a ".com" version, but I never understand the advantage of using UK hosting rather than US hosting for such a site.

        Can anyone explain this, please?
        Dear Alexa, you have to read this thread again to find your answer.. its up here.
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  • Profile picture of the author Sumit Menon
    Well, given the FTC (and you don't live in US), I'd choose UK. And a co.uk domain.
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  • Profile picture of the author Whosyou
    To ensure that your access times / page load times are kept to a minimum its a good idea to host in the country you intend to target.

    This is the only real reason i can think of for doing this.

    To my Knowledge; where you host does not affect your rankings in your target location.
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    • Profile picture of the author rosetrees
      Thanks for the replies - some interesting thoughts. I've given my friend the link to this thread.
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  • Profile picture of the author michael_nguyen
    Because Matt Cutt says so.

    The "theory" advantage is that your rankings will be better. UK market = UK hosting.
    Matt Cutts says that server location may soon be a factor in assessing rankings.

    Saying that... I have 2 sites which target the UK market, they both have .co.uk extensions and both my sites are sitting at number 1 in Google. My hosting is by
    Hostmonster which is a US server........
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