I've started a new forum recently. But am having issues with a webhost i've used for years. However they've been having alot of downtime over the past month so have been looking for possible getting a dedi or VPS for my hosting needs. But I was wondering. The new forum would be the main website on there, it is a .co.uk although we also have .net and most of our users (200 or so so far) are from the UK. Would the server location, or the IP Address of the server matter? For example if i had a French IP address, would it really matter search engine wise and user wise?
http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=62399 There are a few things Google looks at when considering location, and IP Address is a secondary. In your case, with a .co.uk (country-coded TLD), that will be considered before IP Address. Your .co.uk will automatically geo-target your site to the UK and the IP Address will be ignored as a deciding factor. If you end up using the .net, the IP Address is one identifier that Google can use to geo-target your site.