I'm going to launch new site with specified target in UK. I've domain .co.uk and content written in UK english. but not quite sure if it necessary to use UK hosting in terms to get better ranking for Google local ranking. I have many hosting in US but not in UK. Shall I use US or UK hosting? Is it worth?
Thats your answer. If your target audience is in the UK, the best is to get it hosted on a UK based Server and get backlinks from UK sites of your relevant niche and see your site doing well Regards
According to me it doesnt matter where you get your hosting from whether from US, UK or even Kazakhstan for that matter. If you are targeting customers from uk then you did a good thing by buying a co.uk domain because that does play a role in deciding your ranks in the SE for uk based results (thats when someone from uk searches for something atleast google at that time gives priority to regional specific domains. But what has hosting got to do with all this ? You are simply using their servers which can be done from anywhere.
I agree, server location does not play a big part. Google is aware alot of countrys host in the US because of the cheap infrastructure. Domain extension is most important, followed by country TLD backlinks and the use of location keywords on page.
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=Used+Cars&meta=cr=countryUK|countryGB See the second result, A domain with .com TLD can rank very well at Local UK results, Just by having a UK hosting and UK based backlinks. Hosting Does has an impact. I can sight out more such examples.. Yet again, Three Factors that can ensure success: 1. TLD 2. Hosting 3. backlinks Combinations of all the factors are important and you just cant deny anything.. Hope that helps.
I have moved a ton of sites across Aust/US/UK/Asia and European based servers with no drop in locality rankings. Google has got alot smarter with geo based results and they seem to place less importance on server location than they did 3 or 4 years ago. If you have a choice, yeah id get a local server more because it should render pages faster for your target audience because of the lower ping times.
Google webmaster tools has got a new feature (under Tools) to tell google if you are geo-targetting, which should be of some help to you
The .co.uk is a good start and hosting in the UK will also be helpful, although location isn't a major factor, every little bit helps :-0
Sweetfunny is correct, it will render faster if it is uk hosted. Also, a little tip for google.co.uk, get your inbound links from other .co.uk sites, thay result in higher serps, ceteris paribus!