HTTPS and server questions

[BobAnderson]

if we are targeting the US from the UK, would it make a difference if we have an https not set to any location or one registared in the US?

we are going to also use a CDN (like cloudfront) in the U.K. Would that be a good idea or an actual server in the US.

I think the issue we have is the competition is strong so we need all of our ducks in a row.

[gfiorelli1]

Albeit your answer is correct, Google itself states in its guidelines page about Multilingual and Multiregional websites that - due to the diffusion and mainstream use of cloud hosting - that the physical localization of a server is not anymore considered as a prominent geotargeting factor.

Therefore, I would consider having a server in a hosting located in the same country we are targeting, if the latency really may mean the difference between a slow and a fast website.

If it doesn't... I would not worry about its location.

[iugac]

Hello!

In terms of targeting the US, if you really want all your ducks in a row, a server located in the US would provide a lower latency than one in the UK. Of course, the CDN helps in terms of cache-able resources but you still have requests which would need to reach the actual server. So the most professional setting would be a server in the US (as close as possible to your main customers area if any) + a strong CDN which has servers as close as possible. If you go with a cloud solution as James was suggesting, make sure where you cloud solution location is set as Google, for example, lets you choose the region in which you want to be hosted.

Regarding the certificate, it doesn't matter where it is registered. You can even use a free certificate from Lets Encrypt (which most CPanel servers do automatically these days).

In terms of SEO, you would also want to make sure that you use href lang for your website.

Hope this helps!