Can hosting affect your rankings?

[SirTalksalot]

Hi all,

I've been told that server location can have an affect on your rankings. So for instance if you were aiming your web-site at a London based user-group, you may be penalised in your searchability if you use a US hosting company.

Is there any or much truth in this? I'd have thought it would be based on your domain extension. So that .co.uk would be the deciding factor, rather then where your server is based.

Or is it a combination of the both?

Thank you in advance for your advice.

[maximillianos]

I would guess there is "some" truth to this rumor. For instance if you are hosting your site in a hotspot country that is known for spam/phishing (sorry Nigerians, but you guys get a bad rap no matter what you are doing).

I host my site with a Canadian company, but my site is US based. I've never noticed any problems. Though I'm not sure if my server is located in Canada. It use to be at one point, but I think it might be in the US now.

[phranque]

a .co.uk domain hosted in the US but targeted for UK shouldn't have a problem.
a "generic" TLD such as .com hosted in the US and targeted to UK should take some additional steps.
of course relevance and links from UK sites helps but setting the geotarget in GWT is important for generic TLDs.