Server Location for New UK Site

Should my company host our UK site in the UK for SEO purposes?

[SEOcean]

I work for an ecommerce company in the US and we have several US sites. We recently launched a new site in the UK, but we are hosting it in the US. We have a co.uk domain, but are wondering if switching our server location from the US to the UK will result in higher natural search placement.

Has anyone tried switching the location of their server to the home country of the site and noticed any changes to natural search positions?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[IanTurner]

We always recommend having UK hosting or having a .uk domain - both will ensure placement in the UK only search results.

I have no experience as to whether hosting in the UK will actually benefit a .co.uk domain, although links from UK based sites does appear to help.

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

I understand that Google uses server location in its algo so it would be wise to locate in the UK. This can only be beneficial while for UK SEO purposes there is nothing to be gained from locating in the USA.

[Quadrille]

If the site is .co.uk and there is sufficient UK-based content, then it should do just fine in UK searches. I have several .co.uk sites, all hosted in the US, and all do well in their niches.

the big advantage of US hosting is that it costs much, much, much less than the UK and (in my experience) is more reliable too - assuming you don't go for rock-bottom pricing, which doesn't exist in the UK, anyway.

Geolocation is not important within the UK (so far), and the .co.uk is enough to tell Google which country you are in. Historically, you've needed EITHER UK hosting OR UK tld - not both. I've seen no evidence that this has changed.

[le_gber]

Just one more vote for the 'as long as it's a .co.uk domain it should do fine'. Links from UK site and UK spelling might also help - a bit :)

[IanTurner]

Agree that the UK spelling is a must - the British middle classes seem to have an overly exaggerated sense of outrage with spelling mistakes.