Host in the country of targeted audience, Myth or not?

I've read some stuff about the hosting. For example I am from The Netherlands and I want to target the traffic audience in this country in Google.nl.

Is it better to have the site hosted here in The Netherlands as well to achieve a better ranking in the SE of Google.nl? I know the domain extension is an essential thing, but what about the hosting? (Hosting is in The Netherlands is three times more expensive than a host in US)

 

Whether it is myth or not, I don't know.

However, even if it is true, I don't think Google gives much weight to server location.

Internet represents globalization. A vast number of webmasters host their sites overseas. I don't see any reason why Google should even look at server locations.

All my sites are hosted in US and still they do much better in google.co.in than google.com

I have a dot com site hosted in US and yet it shows up for lot of queries with the word "India".

 

I disagree.

How else is Google to know what country a site is designed to serve?

The two most important factors in determinng this are the host ip and the domain extension (e.g. .nl).

 

Yes, hosting in the geographical location you wish to rank in is an SEO technique that is successful. Also make sure to build backlinks directly from that geographical location and properly set geo-targeting in Google Webmasters Central. Using the properly cc-TLD will also improve results for that specific geographical search data center.

 

I have a question. What if you want to target several countries? Should you host duplicate sites in the different locations? Will you be hit by duplicate content penalties? What strategies should one adopt in this case?

 

I've asked this question before: Isnt it so that google only looks at hosting location if it cant determine the GEO of a site through TLD or webmastertools geo settings?

Would a co.uk hosted in the US rank any different/better in google.co.uk if you decide to move it to a UK host?

As for other countries then UK i'm quit sure it doesnt matter at all, i have .nl, .de, .fr sites all hosted in the US all ranking well in their geo location.

Another thing: Let say you have a .DE target google.de, would backlinks from none-german sites help rank in google.de or are they a complete waste?

 

Host in the country of most importance, don't use a cc-TLD, stick with *.com, *.org, etc. Build backlinks from the countries your trying to rank in geographically. You can set multiple counteries when you geo-target as well in Google Webmasters Central.

Google uses many different factors to generate relevant geographical results, I just mentioned the basic ones you have control over, not to forget that content language can also play a roll. Yes, even though you target 1 country or geographical area you can still rank very well in others.

 

so that implies all sites hosted in the US were meant for US viewers?

or

all Indian sites are hosted in India?

 

No, this isnt what i meant. www.domain.de, content german, target germany/google.de (not much use to get visitors from outside germany ofcourse, content is german)

Now, there are millions of directories/blogs etc but almost all english. Will a backlink from one of those english dirs/blogs help any bit for your site to rank in google.de. I know german backlinks would be the way to go, but its much harder getting them, so even if none-german backlinks would only help a little, it could be an option to do so.

 

To afbinter: shall we stay on-topic, please?

To all that replied; I hate it to see what you've replied! (however I am glad to know it) It's a real bummer since I thought I could use a host in the USA which cost me barely $50 a year and besides that I could have hosted unlimited domains and having hundreds of mysql databases.

Here in The Netherlands I should pay at least $30/year for just a 75mb hosting where I can host just 1 single domain, which means when I have 50 sites I want to setup I should purchase 50 hosting packages, this sounds crazy but it's true! I haven't found a hoster here that host multiple domains

Bummer Bummer Bummer..

 

build backlinks from sites in your area...which has already been mentioned
and set in the google webmaster section ans well as putting your business on google maps ive heard can help but don't quote me on that

 

Geographical location plays a role as well, to state other wise is mis-information. Proper optimization can over come the lack of one or more factors when it comes to geographical optimization.

 

Very good theme. I learned a lot bout how google rank sites in diferrent locations!

 

Not gonna ague with you, if you say so, based on your knockledge, i'll asume its true

All i am saying is that from my experience, not hosting in the country of target, didnt prefent me getting good rankings.

Maybe it helps a couple % but is a couple % worth spending a lot more on hosting? Better you put this money in to SEO or what ever.

I'm Dutch as well, so i know what it would cost to host 50 sites in the Netherlands.

 

As I stated in my post, it's one of many factors. I'm only disagreeing with the fact you said "it's not a factor" when in fact it is. i do agree that you don't "have" to host geographically to still rank properly, but results will be better if you did. End of story

 

Ok you are right, but do you know give or take how much it would differ?
Lets say i have a co.uk site (hosted in the US) ranked nr8 for X at google.co.uk.
Changing the US host for a UK one. Would this move it up a couple of places for X?
Prob impossible to say but you never know...

 

Only a Google algorithmic engineer could answer this probably; as I said based on factors it's really hard to say.

 

Ok, so i guess its safe to say that you should always try to host in the country of target but if this means you have to spend a lot more money on hosting doing so, you are better of hosting somewhere else cheap, as location is not a dominant factor in geo ranking, just one of the many.

 

Well guys, I think it's clear now to me what the best thing to do is. I assume that hosting in the geographical location is an important factor, so I will keep that in mind and try to find a good priced host in NL (if possible, everything is expensive here )