Boosting UK traffic - happy to sacrifice even US traffic

[graeme_p]

My site has carried on growing this year, but UK traffic has been virtually static, although it remains my largest single source.

I can monetise UK traffic better, so this is not ideal (a lot better than not growing!).

The site is a .co.uk, it has a reasonable number of links from British sites (but a lot of the strongest links are from the US), and the lang attribute of the root element is en-GB

What more can I do? Do I need to send the language in the http headers as well as in the document? Does the fact that the site is hosted in Germany matter? Does the address to which the domain name is registered (not in the UK) matter?

[HeadlessChicken]

I would host the website in the UK, and also set you geo targeting to the UK in google webmastertools

[graeme_p]

It is automatically set to UK: Google Webmaster tools sets a .uk to UK and does not allow you to change it.

Is the hosting location a probably factor or a well established factor?

[indyank]

No it isn't. Having the right TLD is enough. But we never know what Google is up to these days as I see results all over the place.

[johnhh]

We used to be in Germany with a well known hosting company when they moved their datacenter from the UK to Frankfurt - didnt make any difference

Suggest you put a UK address in an about/contact us type page

[HuskyPup]

I would host the website in the UK

I'm 99.99% sure that is not necessary now, probably the last couple of years or so, prior to then I would have agreed.

I have several different ccTLDs and all rank extremely well, mostly #1, in their respective Google.ccTLds and Google.com.

but UK traffic has been virtually static

Yep, I would agree there, I'm seeing traffic growth everywhere else.

[Leosghost]

If your German hoster has a domain name that adds up to 2 then they are probably hosting you in the USA anyway ( where it is way cheaper for them to do so than it is in Germany or the UK )..whatever they may have told you on sign up..

trace route your site to be sure

[graeme_p]

@John, worth arranging a UK address just for that?

@HuskyPup, so its not just me then. I wonder why. From the end of last year for you as well?

@Leosghost, I did that: in fact I chose them over a UK hosting company that has its servers in the US.

[graeme_p]

@Leosghost, I am actually using a Swiss hosting company that has its servers in Germany!