Virtual server in target country

[eoinoc333]

Hi,

the location of your server's IP is important from what I understand, in that a server in Germany with a web site targetted at a German audience will be given higher weighting by the search engines compared to servers located in other countries.

Are there services out there that allow me to host my sites on my server in the UK, for example, but assign them a German IP address, while registering a .de domain name?

Regards,
Eoin

[jmccormac]

The ccTLD is more important than the IP. The IP is secondary though it is more important when it comes to gTLDs like .com/net/org/biz/info etc. Search engines still give priority to the ccTLD and for a country like Germany, it is insane not to have a .de when marketing a site there. Get the .de first and then worry about the IP (if you actually need it).

Regards...jmcc

[eoinoc333]

Thanks jmcc. I have read that as well as the domain name, the "server location" is still important, especially if you're targetting people in a specific geogrpahy.

I guess I'm still wondering how it would be done though.

[steakaphagus]

I may be missing a point, but why not use a German-based host? I know that for example [a web hosting company] have their servers based in Germany, so that would put your mind at ease (if you're happy to use [a web hosting company] that is!)

[edited by: phranque at 9:20 am (utc) on Oct. 4, 2008]
[edit reason] hosting specifics [/edit]

[eoinoc333]

steakaphagus, yes that's an obvious point. However, we may have to target multiple countries for multiple clients, so setting up hosting accounts with different hosts with various environment configurations would get messy.

[Susanne]

eoinoc333,

I think it makes a difference only in this case:
When a user in Germany makes a search (in Google for example) and chooses "Seiten aus Deutschland" (pages from Germany) your site's hosting IP must be in Germany to appear in the search result.