Can the geographic location of a web server affect SEO?

October 26th, 2010 | by admin |


Lee from the UK asks: “Hi Matt, could you confirm whether the geographic location of the web host has any significant ranking factors for organic SEO?” Recorded on April 23, 2009.

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  1. 12 Responses to “Can the geographic location of a web server affect SEO?”

  2. By InnovicoSolutions on Oct 26, 2010 | Reply

    well amazon.de is hosted in dublin along with .uk and fr

    So are they doing it wrong then? ditto for anybody using amazon ec2 elastic cloud.

  3. By netandful on Oct 26, 2010 | Reply

    lol!, of course they are, please knee

  4. By GoogleWebmasterHelp on Oct 26, 2010 | Reply

    Hi macscr, Yes, this is an official Google channel. You can find a link to us from Google Webmaster Central.

  5. By macscr on Oct 26, 2010 | Reply

    GoogleWebmasterHelp: Do you work for Google? Are these official statements from google? Im assuming you do since your saying “we”, but just wanted to verify.

  6. By TruthDomains on Oct 26, 2010 | Reply

    It’s also better for your users to have a server located in the same country as the user you are targeting. As your site will often respond quicker as the connections within countries are often better than international links.

  7. By Noodles2525 on Oct 26, 2010 | Reply

    How will this affect a site served up through a CDN like Akamai? The IP address would remain the same, but it would look like it’s being hosted in every country. Would a Google bot from the UK see the site as a UK site and a Google bot from the US see it as a US site?

  8. By micrositer on Oct 26, 2010 | Reply

    Matt, I host a lot of sites at a colocation company in Phoenix for my clients all over the country. Why do you consider the IP of a site when most web sites are hosted on a servers not in a companys office but rather at a hosting company. Some may choose to host in California or Phoenix or wherever if it’s cheaper even though my site may be trying to geo target Virginia, or Boston or Florida. Not sure I agree with this ranking consideration.

    Thanks for the great videos.

  9. By rahnas on Oct 26, 2010 | Reply

    My suggestion is that Google should not care about GEO location of server. In India, cost to maintain a server is twice than a dedicated server located at US. When my target is India ( say an e-commerce ) and I am hosting in a server at US. I never want to target the site at US. But my server is still there and ranks there?

  10. By afmedwards on Oct 26, 2010 | Reply

    Such a subtle, yet vital consideration — thanks for the clear info!

  11. By ResaMichelle on Oct 26, 2010 | Reply

    What about servers within a country? If my client wants to target South Florida and my company’s server is in California, will that make a difference as well?

  12. By nnnick03 on Oct 26, 2010 | Reply

    I love the white shirt, white background and whiteboard. Very colorful!

    But on a serious note, great vid as always, thanks Matt!

  13. By almightyvegeta87 on Oct 26, 2010 | Reply

    Well, i didn’t knew that !
    Nice info if you are specific targeting a visitors from a particular country.

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