One of my sites is hosted on a server that is located in Poland. It performs pretty well in the searchresults (in Google) and its in the top 5 of all its important keywords. I want to rank higher for the important keywords in the USA, so i have been thinking about moving my site to a USA located server. This will (probably) help me to rank higher for my keywords for the USA results ( USA is my main target audience.) Does anyone have experiance in this? Does it really improve results, or will the site drop first as google detects a new ip adress for the site?
Yes, the location of the server does improve results. Logically, you wouldn't think it makes a difference but it does. Just last month, someone was complaining here that they rank well for Google Canada but not in the United States even though their technology site has nothing to do with Canada. His host was in Canada by the way. http://www.affiliatebeginnersguide.com/search_engines/location.html http://www.wizseo.com/serp-rank-and-web-server-location/ http://www.webmasterworld.com/search_engine_promotion/3342703.htm http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?t=570479
Server location does not make that much of a difference with regards to SEO. If your site targets a specific country you can specify the country in Google Webmaster tools.
If you want to rank good in US searches, then I think moving to US based hosting will help. Also set the geographical location of your site in webmaster tools to USA.
yes, it will help you to rank higher in the USA but be ready that for some weeks or even months you want rank at all. This is called a cooling period.
Hi, It wont make that big difference unless... Unless your server using spam/scam websites, you should get same rank as US server, if Google give that some kind of affect, that might be like 0.5%
To target USA host site in USA set Geo location as USA in webmaster tools consider setting a unique site up with a .com address
Thanks, i already know it does make a difference where you physicly place your server. the question really is, will it harm my search results when i move the site to a different location / IP adress? I never heard of this "cooling period" and i cannot find anything about it in google.
If your site targets a specific country you can specify the country in Google Webmaster tools. (sell cheap nike shoes: http://www.homeofsport2008.com)