Server Location - Does it matter?

[rocker]

How important is it to Google where the server is located? If I have a .com and want to rank high in Google SERP's for the US, does it matter if the site is hosted in Canada, the US or the UK?

[Quadrille]

For local searches, server location and nation suffix are both important.

however, your example should not present any problems; .com is effectively the 'international' suffix. All you'd gain by moving your hosting to the US is better value hosting, almost certainly. Though Canada is a lot more competitive than the UK. Which isn't competitive at all.

[trinorthlighting]

Server speed is important. You do not want googlebot stalling out.

[engine]

.com is a US TLD

Targeting US - ideally, use a .com and US-based host
Targeting UK - ideally, use a .co.uk (or .com) and a UK-based host.

etc.

Check that the host IS in the county it claims. Some major 'hosts' use servers with IPs that are from a different country.

[austtr]

Engine....

So what about .net sites?

[Zygoot]

I have the same question.

One of my .net websites is hosted in Europe, can this hurt my US rankings?

[engine]

What I was trying to indicate is that a .com would be better perceived by a US-based audience, and the IP of the host would play a greater role in the geotargeting.

A .net was originally devised for firms such as service providers.

So, it's IP of the host which plays the main role.

[wrkalot]

I have a couple of US based .com sites hosted in Canada. YES, is does effect my .com results (US search). I have been able to over come this BUT I will NEVER get hosting outside my target country again.

I rock on a .ca search... too bad I can't ship there.

[pmkpmk]

Yes, it does matter. See [webmasterworld.com...]

[john28uk]

".com is a US TLD "

That is not correct, .com is Commercial and for use worldwide

[mjwalshe]

.net

Actualy .net was ment ONLY for players and not subs ;-)

Origioanly it was for network infastructure use (a bit like a civilain .mil) domains etc and only telcos ISP's and so on.

Now It's a generic TLD so the same rules apply as to .com's ie host in the target country.

Back in the day a .net email adress implied a certain l33t'ness.

[nicco]

we are an italian hotels site, with server located in italy. In our experience, google is now going to rank our site only in google.it for italian and foreign keywords. In the last few weeks we have seen our google.com ranks disappear and our google.it ranks rise.
I can't figure out why google is doing so.

[Simsi]

This is an odd assumption for a search engine to make surely? If you run a hotel in Italy and you want business from abroad, does this mean you have to get every TLD of your domain and host them in each target country to rank well for your location? This would surely mean affiliates based in the target country would outrank the actual hotel. Very strange IMO. Are we sure this is correct? And then of course there's the whole duplicate content thing...

[edited by: Simsi at 4:36 pm (utc) on Sep. 27, 2006]

[JackR]

Location certainly mattered to me.

I moved my .com to the UK last month and traffic has gone crazy. I can only attribute this to the fact that I'm at #3 on Google when selecting 'pages from the UK' and searching for my main (65% of all SE traffic) keyword. Having a dedicated server is obviously beneficial speed-wise too.