Server Location: Is it a significant ranking factor?

[Aeolus]

Hello! :)

Is the server location a significant ranking factor for Google?

I do understand that speed is very important and the closer a user is to the location of the server, the faster the site will load. But taking that off the table for consideration.

If we have a de. domain that's currently hosted in Germany and we wish to move it to a hosting provider in South Africa, will this impact on our rankings with the assumption that there is no change in load speed.

Thank you for your assistance in advance.

Kind regards,
Marvin.

[NickMNS]

Here is an answer from Google:
[webmasterworld.com...]

[Aeolus]

Many thanks! :)

[robzilla]

Short answer: no. And speed is not "very important" either, in terms of ranking factors.

[Brett_Tabke]

> And speed is not "very important"

Where is there anything authoritative on that? It's been my belief that speed is important for mobile based sites.

[Kendo]

I have a website that is content and image rich and all pages come flying at you. Yet GiggleJuice rates it as slow pagespeed.

But most keywords and their associated pages are ranked #1-4. Is that authoritative enough?

[RedBar]

Is the server location a significant ranking factor for Google?

Significant, I do not believe so, however I do feel it may have a possible deciding influence on like-for-like pages.

A much more important factor, for my widget industry, is location ownership and Google's "assumption" of one's target country market(s) in their G.com SERPs. In the past we have seen G being neutral and then overtly demoting non-USA companies trying to target the G.com results.

I thought they had mostly resolved this issue but it has returned with this lastest iteration.

Where G usually does ok is with its localised SERPs, i.e. .de / fr / it / etc and especially so if the site language is in that ccTLD, but it still inserts totally irrelevant US results in many English language ccTLDs such as .uk / in / za / au etc.

From the later 90s I used to target about 12 different language markets with their own ccTLD's hosted and registered in those specific countries however it became a mammoth task as sites grew and started changing / updating more often ... In those days it was much easier to influence the SERPs!

Why are you moving from Germany to South Africa, are you using that much space and bandwidth?

[robzilla]

Where is there anything authoritative on that? It's been my belief that speed is important for mobile based sites.

Confirmed: Google Site Speed Is A Teeny-Tiny Ranking Factor [seroundtable.com]

Of course, assuming the .de domain is intended for a German-speaking audience, moving the server from Germany to South Africa doesn't seem like a wise move. It will add nearly 200ms of latency, slowing everything down quite significantly.

Unlikely to affect your rankings, certain to negatively affect the user experience.

[Sissi]

At the .com extension is the best alternative wherewever your servers are
And with .de there is always a risk that a German layer find an issue with tve impressum or whatever to let you pay a „fine“.

[RedBar]

At the .com extension is the best alternative wherewever your servers are

In my experience if one is targetting a specific country then a ccTLD invariably does better in its national SERPs and G has, and mostly succeeded, in doing this with its localised results.

Without a doubt if one wants to target the US market then .com is best, not essential but preferable to most others.