Does Web Host Location Affect SEO?

8 replies
  • SEO
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While I'm thinking of replacing HostGator I was looking at some non-US based hosts. Does the server location matter for Google SEO? What if my data joins Snowden in Russia to get away from NSA snooping?

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#affect #host #location #seo #web
  • Profile picture of the author Mike Anthony
    Originally Posted by kindsvater View Post

    What if my data joins Snowden in Russia to get away from NSA snooping?
    Can't you threaten them with a frivolous lawsuit?
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  • Profile picture of the author vk3
    My best *educated* guess is yes, it does have some affect on SEO.

    Imho, you're better off hosting in the US if you're looking to rank in the US.
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  • Profile picture of the author kpmedia
    Site speed affects SEO.
    Site speed from USA to Russia isn't great.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jeannie Crabtree
    Moving a site to a different host has in the past. I had my brother move his websites from some obscure host to Hostgator and all the listings jumped up a few slots in Google in a few days.

    As to whether it will now, or not I can't say. You are planning on doing the opposite and Google just keeps changing.
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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    Lol, Snowden will steal everything you have & show it to the world. He might even be the kingpin behind SAPE (j/k).

    Go for it!
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  • Profile picture of the author Dead Body
    if you installed WMT you can see targeted country option.
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  • Profile picture of the author paulgl
    Originally Posted by kindsvater View Post

    While I'm thinking of replacing HostGator I was looking at some non-US based hosts. Does the server location matter for Google SEO? What if my data joins Snowden in Russia to get away from NSA snooping?

    .
    You didn't know the NSA snoops all over the world?

    Funny thing, Russian sites are the biggest, baddest spammers, scammers,
    and malware sites on the planet. I assume google has taken notice.
    Get a server in Russia at your own peril.

    Paul
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    If you were disappointed in your results today, lower your standards tomorrow.

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  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Originally Posted by kindsvater View Post

    Does the server location matter for Google SEO?
    They say it does.


    My only personal experience of this, if it helps: I had a .co.uk domain for a "UK-only niche" (well, nearly - I wanted it to rank on google.co.uk and didn't care much about google.com, anyway) originally hosted in the US - knowing no better - and when I switched the hosting to a UK host, that suddenly made a big difference to my google.co.uk rankings but was bad for my google.com rankings. I've seen other people (here) say exactly the same, but I've also seen some people saying they did that and thought it made no significant difference to their rankings at all. Not helpful, very subjective and partly second-hand, but there it is.
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