My site was once upon a time hosted in germany (about a month ago). My google search results appeared well for google.com and google.de (Germany). However, I am now hosting in the UK. How long will it take for me to be added to the Google UK database and appear well there? Googlebot visits almost every day. I get the feeling I might have to wait until the next Google update. What do you guys think? Any ideas welcome.
On the contrary, the location of your host can affect your rankings due to geo-location. All of the major search engines give a lot of weight to geo-location in their ranking methods, even when the user does not request a country-specific search. The idea is that the closer a site is to the user, the more relevant it is. So if you have a generic Top Level Domain Name (ie. '.com', '.net', '.org', '.info', '.biz', etc.) the search engines rely on the physical location of the server that hosts the site to set its geo-location. Google will allow you to select a Geographic Target in the Webmaster Tools console, but this won't help you in the other search engines. So if your target audience is primarily in a specific country and you have a generic TLD, you should definitely use a hosting service whose servers are located in your target country. Otherwise, you'll be at a significant disadvantage in the rankings in that country.
The location of your server is one factor that google uses to determine your geo-targeting, but not the deciding one. http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/04/where-in-world-is-your-site.html http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2007/08/server-location-cross-linking-and-web.html
Hosting country is not the only basis on prioritizing your site on specific country but also the links hosting pointing to your site and other criteria.
I think hosting does make a difference. When I was hosting in Germany I came in top 3 for a good keyword in the German search. Now I host in UK i am no longer in the German search for that word. Maybe it is a balance of geo location, hosting and backlinks. I will keep you updated if or when i make it into the uk search.
Web hosting (the physical location of the website) is not that important. It is important whether your website targets any specific audience or not. Does it target German users?
Yep !! Rankings don’t depend scheduled wherever it’s hosted excluding what category of links you include pointing in the direction of your site.