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Do Google use the country domain or hosting IP address?

by marketingguy
2 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Hi,

Does anyone know if Google just uses the country part of the domain (site.co.nz for example) to decide if that site is in a particular country or does it use the IP address of the website hosting?

The reason why is I'm tempted to use a US hosting company (because they're much cheaper) for a quality blog about a niche but I'm mostly interest in getting New Zealand link juice and traffic from that blog.

I have the .org.nz domain name already, just wondering if I should really host it in New Zealand or can I host it in the US?

Cheers.
#address #country #domain #google #hosting
  • Profile picture of the author IM Ash
    Google actually takes both into account when ranking a site. But using a country specific domain will override the hosting IP. So you can use a .co.nz domain and host your site at a US based server if you want.

    I have a site that targets a South African audience but the site is hosted at a US location and I have no problem ranking within the South African SERP's. Even if you have a top level domain (TLD) like .com or .org and you change the location settings within the webmaster tools to the country you want to target that will serve as an indicator to Google where to rank your site.
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    • Profile picture of the author marketingguy
      Originally Posted by Eleva8 View Post

      Google actually takes both into account when ranking a site. But using a country specific domain will override the hosting IP. So you can use a .co.nz domain and host your site at a US based server if you want.

      I have a site that targets a South African audience but the site is hosted at a US location and I have no problem ranking within the South African SERP's. Even if you have a top level domain (TLD) like .com or .org and you change the location settings within the webmaster tools to the country you want to target that will serve as an indicator to Google where to rank your site.
      Great, thanks for confirming that
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