Hosting location a factor?

Is physical location of servers hosting a site an SE ranking factor?

[Digital Worker]

My business is currently in the process of setting up a couple of offices around the world - hence this question.

Does anyone know whether the physical location of the servers on which a site it hosted is taken into consideration when Search Engines rank results?

For example, if I am looking to set up an office in France, have the domain mybusiness.fr and my site has been translated into french (so there's no duplicate content), does the site also have to be hosted in France? Or will it make no difference if, for example I have it hosted in the US or anywhere else?

Thanks in advance for help!

[le_gber]

Hi there,

try googleing for

site:webmasterworld.com server location local results

it seems that it is best to have both the .fr and the french hosting to put all of the chances on your side, espicially since the french searchers can filter SERPs with:

Rechercher dans : Web / Pages francophones / Pages : France
Look for: Web / Pages in French / Pages in France

Hope this helps

[Digital Worker]

That's very helpful. Thank you!