Google Caffeine and Server Location

[pepperfield]

With the new updates coming, I'm hearing that localized search will be more relevant.

My widgets company's server is based in Texas yet all our traffic and business is in the UK. Should I consider moving servers to the UK?

How much of a difference will it make?

[rainborick]

If you have a .uk domain name, then it doesn't matter. Your site will automatically be seen as being in the UK by all of the search engines.

If you have a generic TLD (.com, .net, .info, etc.), then it would probably be worthwhile to move your site to a server located in the UK. It will not only help your geo-location in Google, but the other search engines as well. If you do change servers, be sure to leave the old service running until the DNS changes have had time to propagate throughout the Web.

[tedster]

Rainborick's analysis is correct, in my experience - for sites that want to better target the UK. But it sounds like you've already achieved that without UK hosting - possibly your backlink profile already makes your target market clear.

If all your traffic and business is currently coming from the UK, then it sounds like Google currently gets it, so I wouldn't make any changes based on someone's conjecture about what might happen.

If Caffeine enables something more about "localized" search, it could be on the granular level of city or even section of a city. This would not have anything to do with the country level. For that reason, I would say wait, and possibly do some preliminary research to have a plan ready "just in case", if you want. I would not expect you to see any disruption, however.

[pepperfield]

Hey guys, looks like I got my answer from Matt Cutts. I hope it's ok to post a YouTube video but short answer, server location is a factor.

[youtube.com...]

Also, I Googled "google caffeine server location" and this posting appeared #1, 20 minutes after I posted it.

[tedster]

Yes, server location is already a factor - it's been discussed here quite frequently. For more, see our Hot Topics area [webmasterworld.com], which is always pinned to the top of this forum's index page.

But I don't think you should anticipate some change when Caffeine rolls out 100% (it's already partly with us). If there's something unsatisfactory about your current Google traffic, then that is a reason to consider the move.

[FranticFish]

I've found the country setting in Webmaster Tools to be a great help. I'm in the UK and I'm working on two sites that are hosted abroad (one in the US, one in Germany) and since I set the loaction they have both popped into the country-specific UK results.

Does anyone know if hosting on a UK-based server would give these sites any extra boost?