Can a blacklisted webhost hurt my Google results?

[Brownie]

I have just signed up with a Russian web host, who was recommended by our Russian distributors (to host our Russian website in Russia). The reasoning is that a Russian hosted site will rank better in Russia that the current, UK-hosted site.

However, I am worried that I have signed up with a blacklisted web host.

1. Will this hurt my google.ru rankings?
2. Can a host be blacklisted, or just a domain?
3. Can I find out if the host is actually blacklisted?

[tedster]

What you can find publicly available is email spammer blacklists, but not search engine related blacklists.

It's certainly possible that Google *might* ban all IP addresses from a host who has many abusive websites, but I think it would be extremely rare.

It should be easy enough to put your mind at ease on this - just ask for one example of one site they host that ranks well for something, anything at all. How about their own website, for instance? Even one site would be a counter-example that proves "all websites on this host are not banned".

[lammert]

I have just signed up with a Russian web host, who was recommended by our Russian distributors (to host our Russian website in Russia). The reasoning is that a Russian hosted site will rank better in Russia that the current, UK-hosted site.

I would not recommend hosting on a Russian webserver for several reasons (speed, security, etc). With the current location setting in Google's webmaster tools you can tell google where your visitors are and the ranking should be the same as hosting in Russia.