How much impact does the server location has on position for certain keywords? If I'm targeting organic traffic from US, do I realy have to get a host in US? Then again, USA is pretty big lol... Any thoughts?
It is advisable yes. If you don't do that, make sure you do get a US type extension (.com, .org, .net). If you can't get that either (though it should be easy enough), make sure you build links from us sites in your niche. That should probably be done anyhow, depending on how competitive your niche is...
It does not really make any difference for Google as Google would rank you properly no matter where your server is setup. It makes a huge difference for MSN and Yahoo. Yahoo would be very cautions indexing and ranking your site if the server is located outside the US. MSN/Live would not probably even index your site unless you have a server setup in the US. I speak from experience. I have a site setup on a server outside the US and Google sends over 5000 unique visitors each day. Yahoo - 50, MSN - 1.
i m totally agree with Kh7, i think it will not impact more but u must have Geo targeted domain to get good ranking in particular search engine data centers.
with geo targeting google take into account domain extension (e.g., .ca, .au) as well as where the site is hosted.
I believe it makes a big difference to Google if you're targeting foreign language phrases. Get your site hosted in the country where you're market is located. And of course, get local inbound links from that country. I think domain extension helps but is less important for ranking.