Importance of local domains

Does a local domain name improve my ranking in local searches?

[Kinshasa]

How important is it to have a local domain name vs. an international? I am talking pure ranking on google and msn here.

Ie if I want to market a keyword in The Netherlands, and a potential customer writes the keyword and selects "pages in Dutch" - does a .nl-domain outrank a .com domain? If yes, how important is it? Very? Marginal?

Thanks in advance

[Kinshasa]

Bump.

Is there really nobody here who knows about the importance of the importance of local domain names in local queries?

[activeco]

Yes, country level domains have some preference, when search being conducted from the local IP address.
Of course, there are some other factors too, but that one, as well as hosting place, being very important.

You should have noticed up to now that, when you do a search from Netherlands, even in other languages, the above proportional number of Dutch sites is returned.

[M_Bison]

makes no difference, as it is based on IP address.

However, when using a .com domain and targeting local searches, make sure you get the point across either in your title or meta description that you are in fact local, as people may think with a .com you are from the USA etc.

[Kinshasa]

Thank you for your replies.

So if I want the best possible ranking, I should (in order of importance):
- Get local hosting
- Get a local domain

Right?

[rescendent]

Hosting isn't important, its what IP address your Host supplies you with and what country that IP address associated with.

[activeco]

- Get local hosting
- Get a local domain

Right?

Right.

[Kinshasa]

Thank you very much. I'll start looking for local hosting companies. :)