Is it true that your site will rank better in the country that your website is hosted ? For example my .com.au (Aussie) website is hosting on US servers. How will that affect my SERPS in those particular countries? Obviously my Australian domain name will do well in Aussie google but what is the story on the country of hosting? Has google stated this anywhere ? Or is it just a legend..... ?
The com.au is the most important thing for google.com.au , however it is a handicap for ranking on google.com ( the .au ) The place of hosting is only important if the domain is not country specific e.g if you are trying to rank in google .com.au with just the .com or .net TLD ( eg mysite.com rather than mysite.com.au ) You may get a boost locally if you host local and have other factors in place .There is quite a bit of debate on this you may have seen the thread on seochat.com . I have a quote from a Google insider on this point ( somewhere)