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World Wide Website - Does it matter where the host is?

by Domain 1
13 replies
I'm making a decent blog that will be targeting all continents equally. I live in the UK but I am not sure if a UK based host would be best to go with.

To the best of your knowledge, where should the host location be?

Thank you.
#host #matter #website #wide #world
  • Profile picture of the author writeaway
    Unless you are hosting with a company that has a track record of being extremely slow, hosting spam or attack sites, the location of the host shouldn't matter. With that said, you should really try to get the most bang out of every buck you spend. Look for the best uptime guarantees, top notch service, and great back end support.
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  • Profile picture of the author Tom Addams
    The location of your server won't impact efficiency (in any area) unless that server is on an isolated island in the South Pacific with poor connectivity and manned by the local wildlife. Be sure to Google reviews of hosting services to ensure you choose a good one: fast, good uptime, responsive and effective customer service.
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    • Profile picture of the author Domain 1
      It's just that I was wondering, given that there are more people in the USA than the UK, would it be safer to go with US hosting - I read somewhere that google prefers to rank sites that have local hosting first?
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      • Profile picture of the author lotsofsnow
        Originally Posted by Domain 1 View Post

        It's just that I was wondering, given that there are more people in the USA than the UK, would it be safer to go with US hosting - I read somewhere that google prefers to rank sites that have local hosting first?

        If you want to rank for US traffic: host has to be in the US.

        No question. No exception.
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        • Profile picture of the author David Keith
          Originally Posted by hpgoodboy View Post

          If you want to rank for US traffic: host has to be in the US.

          No question. No exception.
          there are definitely exceptions to this. Server location is just one part of the google ranking algorithm. And like 99.9% of googles algo...there is no absolute with it. sometimes it helps, sometimes it hurts.

          I would say it is almost required for non-specifc terms or search phrases to rank well for US traffic.

          However, if you search on google.com from the USA for travel or vacation information about another region you will certainly get results near the top that are not hosted on USA based servers. In fact, if you play with it a bit, you will find that in this example its quite common to find results ranking very high with the servers located in the region relating to the search term.
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  • Profile picture of the author FA8891
    Local hosting in the US will save you some milliseconds in loading time, but it never affect your ranking, no matter where the server is, A CDN for example will serve the near countries to the its location, anyway don't worry about that.
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  • Profile picture of the author Sushiman1111
    If you ever post anything that is going to offend anyone, the US is not the place to be. I would recommend hosting in a completely different country (Norway, for instance) because in the litigious US any idiot can threaten to sue you for pretty much anything, and if your hosting company decides that they don't want the hassle (which they likely will) then you run the risk of having your website shut down. I think it's a much better idea to spread your risk out legally as well as in other ways.
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  • Profile picture of the author Adie
    I live in Philippines and I've been running websites since 2002. I never hosted locally. US, UK, or anywhere should be fine as long as they satisfy your needs/requirements.
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  • Profile picture of the author David Keith
    server locations will absolutely affect how fast a page loads in an given place on earth.

    In the last few years many of the big cloud hosting services started offering "cdn's" (content deliver network) primarily to speed up content deliver to everywhere in the world.

    look at amazons s3 hosting or for a more traditional hosting setup try togglebox.com cdn hosting.

    practically speaking it wont make a super huge difference for most sites and most places, but a simple load time speed test will show you there is definitely a difference in load speed around the world from any given host.

    try this simple little speed test tool to see what i mean Website speed test
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  • Profile picture of the author Fat Wolf
    check webhostingtalk.com you will get ideal from there
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    See how much your website/domain worth
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  • Profile picture of the author zimzalabim
    OP: If you're in the UK (as I am.....) I'd strongly suggest going with a UK host.

    As others have said above, generally server location shouldn't be a huge issue however think about accessibility and support when it's needed. Would it be more "geographically friendly" to be contacting a hosting company more or less locally?

    Now I do use one hosting company in the US and they are great, though all my other stuff is with two UK hosting companies: TSOHost and United Hosting. It's a comfort (to me at least) that on the (very) rare occasions I need support it's there quickly and locally.

    TSOHost have an 0800 number for telephone support between 9am and 11pm. United Hosting offer the choice of UK or US server location.
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