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Head of department at -
22 February 2007 21:14pm
Hi all,
Please can anyone advise as to whether the location of hosting effects a website's performance in terms of seo and speed?
The company I would like to go with is in the US, but the website I'm creating will aim for a predominantly UK audience. Does the location of hosting affect SEO performance or is it just the domain I should consider in the hosting package?
Speed is a slight issue too, does anyone know of the effects of hosting a UK website in the US?
Thanks
Jack
Managing Director at True Clarity
23 February 2007 07:30am
Jack,
You may want to consider data protection issues if your hosting your customers data in the US.
I'm no expect but I'm sure there are some issues.
Regards,
Andy.
Commercial Director at Fathom Business Solutions Limited
23 February 2007 08:06am
Jack,
More than likely speed won't be an issue. But SEO will.
The search engines work on a logical basis; if a site is hosted in the uk and has a .uk domain name then it's most probably a uk site - so will score well on, say, google.co.uk. If the site has a .uk domain name but is hosted in the US it may not do quite so well as the evidence the search engines have is less apparent. Finally, if the site is hosted in the US on a .com then the evidence would point to it actually being a US site, so might not show on UK searches at all.
The point you need to consider is why would you build in an SEO handicap from the very beginning? The UK offers some very good hosting providers so there isn't really a need to go to the US, unless you're particularly worried about saving a couple of £ every month. But, if that affects the SEO then any gain in your hosting cost would be lost because the site just wouldn't feature anywhere.
As has been pointed out there is also a data protection issue here. Depending on what data you are storing on your site, the Data Protection Act 1998 may apply. It states:
"Personal data shall not be transferred to a country or territory outside the European Economic Area, unless that country or territory ensures an adequate level of protection of the rights and freedoms of data subjects in relation to the processing of personal data."
The US has a checkered history with respect to data protection and if there were an issue with your site and the data stored on it, you would have a much stronger defense case if you were hosting inside the EU rather than in the US.
Regards
Malcolm
Head of department at -
23 February 2007 08:30am
Manager at Skillsite.co.uk
26 February 2007 10:47am
Our website moved to a US hosting company back in August and since then we have been deluged with speed problems. In terms of SEO, we haven't been effected on one of our main sites for Google but have hit problems with MSN, Yahoo etc. I would recommend you talk to UK hosting companies first as you'll find your pay more in the long run! I hope this helps.
Ben
On 21:14:58 22 February 2007 JackWallington wrote:
Technical Director at NCC Group Web Performance
28 February 2007 13:24pm
I can't comment on SEO impact, but there is certainly a risk of speed variation based on geographic location of servers. There's a practical round trip time for packets across the Atlantic, in addition to the likely increase in the hop count for UK users by hosting in the US.
If you have a preferred supplier we, Site Confidence, could certainly run some tests for you. Just drop me an email if this would help.
SEO Director at Guava UK
28 February 2007 13:28pm
It's really only an SEO issue regarding 'Non Regionally Specific' domains. .com .net and .org. In which case definitely host in the UK. Then again Google can still get it wrong, however hosting them in the UK is a good start.
If an ISP or hosting company claims they use UK IP addresses do not take that as evidence your website is actually in the UK or that Google will think the website is in the UK. We have just been working with a developer that got caught out like this. Check the IP using RIPE and a range of geo-location services first to make sure there's nothing odd in its history or records that might make them place it somewhere else.
I actually had a chat with Matt Cutts at Google about this because it's been a bit of an ongoing technical issue. He said he'd ask Vanessa Fox whether she could build something into Webmaster Central to fix it.
regards
Teddie
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Neutralize (*\*)
Search Engine Marketing Services
T: +44 (0) 8700 630707
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Head of department at -
28 February 2007 14:24pm
If I host the site in the UK, is it still best to use .co.uk over .com? I have both domains but am unsure which will serve me best over time.
I always think that .com is easier to remember, but perhaps it isn't an issue if I own both and use .co.uk as the primary domain?
Commercial Director at Fathom Business Solutions Limited
28 February 2007 14:28pm
That depends on your market. If you are aiming for a UK audience, use the UK as it will perform better on the search engines. If you are aiming beyond the UK, use the .com.
Head of department at -
28 February 2007 14:54pm
Okay, great thanks. I'm aiming for predominantly UK to begin with - if the site gets anyone else, great; but it's based and aimed at the UK. Thanks for your help everyone.