SEO and server location

[tobyhede]

Does anyone have the definitive word on the ramifications for country-based SEO and server location?

I am in Australia and need to make a call as to whether hosting in AU or the US is viable for a client focussed heavily on search traffic.

[Tea of Doom]

Are you aiming clients that are in Australia, in the US, all over the world?

[tobyhede]

Originally Posted by Tea of Doom

Are you aiming clients that are in Australia, in the US, all over the world?

Ah sorry, yeah, this is for Australian-based searches.

The domain is ".com.au". I am moving the system to a new host and need to make a call about using a local or US provider.

[dave marshall]

Hi,

I am not sure it matters where the hosting is done, although if it is for 'heavy traffic' i would ensure they have the capabilitites to handle the site.

dave

[Blueskied]

I've had to make the same decision. I've read that it's better to have the server in the country you are targetting. So Australia. Not sure about this though.

[Tea of Doom]

If your website has heavy content such as movies, heavy flash files or other downloadable goodies, I would suggest you stick with an australian server.

The same applies if you have dynamic content (php, asp, java)

This is because people from Australia would have a hard time downloading stuff that are in the USA.

Search engine traffic doesn't require that much if you have non-dynamic html pages and a database.

As for SEO, I discovered that google automatically targets a specific geographic location based on your .abreviation. (Don't know for other search engines)

The question is: could you base a .au website on a server in the USA.

But than again, why would you do such a thing when you can simply base your website on an Australian server, since it's Australian clients that you are aiming at anyway.

[JimOfferman]

I don't think that search results are tied to server location. I have a few Dutch (.nl) domains tied to a US host... as far as Google et al are concerned, those are Dutch websites.

[dave marshall]

thinking about it, it cannot matter where your servers are located, I have sites based on a us server but set my location as the uk with google.

If you click the link below, free web site builder, (although you don't need a site) click through to their forum and ask there if you like, they are very helpful,

dave

[1000feet]

If the search engine puts any real weight on the country the server is in, then it's failing in its goal to bring relevant information to the users! With the number of top hosts in the US, using one of them can't be seen as targetting the site to that market. That said, i agree with the previous commenter that the best server for australians to access is one that's in australia. That, as well as the general quality and pricing, should be your biggest concern.

[tobyhede]

You can definitely base a .au server in the US. You can host any domain name anywhere.

It has long been rumored that there are SEO benefits to not just having a local domain name, but a local IP Address -> IP ranges are geographically distributed so it is possible to work out the country a server is in from the IP.

The flip side of the issue is that hosting and bandwidth are more expensive in Australia than the states. I don't, however want to commit without clearing up the SEO stuff.

>> people from Australia would have a hard time downloading stuff that are in the USA. <<

Don't think that is really true ... if you think about it, us Australians spend a lot of out time on US servers in any case ... most hosting is done from the US.

[aussieNickuss]

Originally Posted by tobyhede

Don't think that is really true ... if you think about it, us Australians spend a lot of out time on US servers in any case ... most hosting is done from the US.

And there are a couple of whopping big internet toobs spanning the pacific that touch down in Sydney.