Knowing which web hosting to choose can be difficult. There are thousands of web hosting companies out there providing the same product at similar prices. When considering your options for a web host, should you be concerned about the server location? Is it possible that it could also be affecting your SEO and your pages ranking?

Server location is the location of the data center, where your website is hosted. This location can be anywhere in the world, regardless of where you are based. whether server location has an impact on SEO is a debatable topic.

But what we know Server location does affect website speed which Google takes very seriously!

Google relies on several factors. If the website has a country code domain name such as .cy, .uk, Google will automatically assume that this website is located Cyprus or the UK.

But when a generic domain name is involved such as .com, .org, Google bases itself on the IP address of the server. This indicates the country where the server is located. Furthermore, Google also considers several of the elements in the content of the website, for example contact details, back-links, etc.

Google will always try to give you the most relevant result regarding your request, on the basis of your geographical location. Search engines will base their rankings on the servers location using the information from your IP address. As a result search engines will rank your website higher over other similar websites, when your server and user are located in the same place.

In other words, if a person in the UK is searching the internet for the products you provide, you will rank higher in search engine results if your server is also located in the UK, compared to websites that offer the same service but their server is located in a different country.

However, what if you are targeting a global audience?

A quick loading time is important for your visitors user experience regarding your website. Google does not want its users to have a bad experience. So the faster the loading time the better your ranking will be.

It is easy to forget about the journey data goes through to reach the end user, since we’re all used to accessing whatever we want instantly. But when it comes to website speed, it’s important to take into account the geographical location of the data center being used. If your website page takes more than a few seconds to load, Google will simply lower your rankings. Hosting far from your target users will make your web-page load time higher. This doesnt only rank your website higher, but also keeps the visitor keen to continue browsing your site.

Usually the closer the website visitor is to the web server, the fewer networks the data passes through. Say your target audience is in the United States and you have a United Kingdom server and IP address. The data has to travel a large amount, so latency and speed will be a bit slower than if you were closer to your target customer base.

Ultimately a slow loading time of more than a few seconds can prompt Google to lower your page rankings in the SERPs.

To conclude, when you host your server can have an impact on SEO and page ranking, as far as page load speed is concerned. It is important to host your website in a way that gives your visitors ease of use. Therefore, make sure you choose good quality web hosting, it is essential for you and your users experience.

Contact us at HostingB2B and find out more how we can assist you with you website and hosting!

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