[Louise]

Can someone confirm whether the following I've been told is correct in terms of the effect on google.co.uk ranking?

.co.uk site hosted in US targeting UK market is generally ok
.com site hosted in US targeting UK market is not

Or is it generally the case that all UK sites targeted UK traffic should be hosted in UK?

Thanks in advance

Louise

[RedEvo]

Google is your friend

d

[Louise]

Originally Posted by RedEvo

Google is your friend

d

Thanks - I did a google search but found so much conflicting advice (and some of the discussions on the subject were quite dated) so thought I'd double-check. The US hosting company I contacted yesterday gave me the general advice I outlined above, but just wanted a second opinion. No worries - will do more reading.

[Tigglet]

Or is it generally the case that all UK sites targeted UK traffic should be hosted in UK?

I am under the impression that this is the case but I am sure someone will confirm this shortly.

[Mike]

Originally Posted by RedEvo

Google is your friend

d

man, that is my pet hate! these kinds of responces! grrr

That would be true of most questions asked on here!

[Carbon Neutral Copy]

Louise, I don't have the definitive answer but I can share with you what I was advised when I was looking around for green hosting (most of which seemed to be US-based) and that was not to host a UK site with a hosting company based in America.

Hope that is of some help!

Vicky

[OldWelshGuy]

Here is a definitive answer:-

items that affect your ranking are
1. Domain extendion .uk is best for the UK
2. PHYSICAL LOCATION. now this is the one that causes the problems. A server can be LOCATED in a telehouse on canary Wharfe, but physically located in ANYWHERE in the world! The physical location is the country to hich the IP ownership resolves. Most cheap hosting companies will tell you they are phycially located in the uk when they are not, as they confuse physical location with whre the server is
3. In bound linking pattern, if you get lots of UK only links to a com located in the US, it will rank.
4. For google. Web master Tools country setting. Go into WMt set your home country for the site to Uk and you are sorted with Google

It might sound arrogant for me to say definitive reply, But I know the above to be true beyond question.

[Case]

It certainly makes a difference when people do a "pages from the uk" search on google.

I have a site hosted in the US that ranks top of Google for its main keyword when you search "the web" on google.co.uk

Change the search to "pages from the uk" and the site disappears.

Hope that helps

[Louise]

Brilliant, thanks so much everyone. Really appreciate your replies.

Case: your point about not ranking for the 'pages from the UK' search is especially interesting (I always tick this in my own searches). Thanks for sharing.

I'll definitely use the google webmaster tip, but think I'll keep it simple & stick with UK hosting (obviously making sure it's the server rather the company itself which is located in UK - thanks for that tip OWG )

[nass]

Just to confirm, owg is spot on with this