Hi,
Does it matter the location of the hosting server?
For example, if I have a wensite in english, but the hosting server is in Spain, and I want target users from UK, USA, Canada; is it better in search engines to use a server from these countries?
Also, the search engines check the server location, or it matters in Page Rank?
From a SEO perspective, it does not matter where your website is located. But if the majority of your clients/visitors/users are located in the US for example, I would recommend getting a server in the United States.
- Daniel
Search engines will look at your domain name extension - .co.uk, .es or whatever, to try to establish where your target audience is located. You can also set your geographical preferences from within Google Webmaster Tools. The server location is not really relevant for SEO purposes, but a server closer to your target audience may help in page load speed.
The location of the server shouldn’t dramatically impact your SEO ranking, unless you’re hosted in an area with extremely poor connectivity, as the speed of your site does matter. So I wouldn’t hosting your site in some crazy location that doesn’t have a whole lot of bandwidth.
The primary beneficiary with the location of your server are your visitors; choose a location closest to them, that way the number of hops and latency are kept at a minimum.
This is especially true if your target audience is on another continent; an European server might easily ping at least 2 times slower than a US server (if you’re already in the US or Canada).