Is a site hosted in Europe or America of any significance to Google in determining its search results? (assuming relevant local backlinks)
the simple answer to your question is NO! but your site having a dedicated IP or shared IP provided by your host does matter!
It is a question of how good or reliable your hosting is and not where it is hosted. Find a reliable host.
Actually, Google does not care a bit about what you do with your site. However, the server location has some influence on your position in SERPs, as Google loves geolocation issues.
Google doesnt care about your host or server or ip or dedicated or not dedicated. U better not have downtimes that is all that matters...
Google DOES care where your site is hosted. If you site is hosted at US, your SERP ranking for google.com will be better compared to other googles like google.co.uk If your site is hosted at UK, your SERP ranking will be better in google.co.uk but worse in google.com. This is called "geo-targeting"
I have sites hosted in over 8 different countries around the world, and they have no problems ranking for any keywords in any region. So; no.
maybe google not care where, but they care what, whats the speed and whats the bandwidth. fast is always better
Google doesn't but business foes. I mean if you have hosting in the territory you are trying to target then it will be beneficial for you. Otherwise Google has nothing to do with it
lol. Such is the irony of noobs. Google does take certain levels of consideration with regards to hosting, IPs, server locations, etc.. Read: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=62399 So, your answer with the capitals NO is wrong and a false one.
Sachin410 thanks for the link- confirms what seems to be the case with my own sites http://articlemanual.com/2010/12/server-location-and-seo/ -