Implications of hosting country versus actual trading country?
-
Unbeknown to me our web developers have hosted our UK e-commerce site (and only serving the UK & outer islands) on a US based server. Can this impact our SEO efforts? My further concern is when it comes to sending out emails and opt-in regulations - I am right to be concerned about this as well?
Thanks -
Hi Andy - I wish I could move away from them, but seem to be locked in. Yes, there are databases involved. Thank you. I am now looking into hosting in the UK. You live and learn - but sometimes at a price. Thanks again.
-
Thank you Gary - another interesting factor which I appreciate. Just goes to show you have to ensure that every I is dotted when dealing with developers - especially when they claim to be experts!! Coupled with other emerging errors this has been costly in terms of time etc.
-
Aside from problems to do with the geo-location of the IP, hosting on US servers instead of UK servers will have a page load performance hit on your site, which in theory could affect your sites rankings.
I host half of my UK sites on Germany based servers, and the other half on UK servers, and I notice no real difference.
-
It sounds to me like you need to move away from them ASAP! Is the site a static HTML site or are there databases involved as well? In bringing the site back, you need to make sure that everything comes back over and the transition is not messed up for you.
-
Thank you MaryAnne - I was pretty sure that this was the case so as yet have not implemented an e-marketing campaign. For a variety of reasons I had assumed it was hosted in the UK so was pretty shocked to find it wasn't.
-
Thank you Andy - I had believed this to be the case so that is great to have it confirmed. In migrating it to UK servers is there anything I should be aware of. The company involved have done other things that have caused me all sorts of problems.
-
Thank you for confirming Peter's comments - confirmation always gives strength of resolve. The target customers are the UK.
-
Thank you Peter for your helpful and prompt reply - this has worried me a lot and you only confirm my fears. (What makes it worse is that it is for a client). In migrating to a UK server are there any things I should be aware of.
-
To address the other half of your question: I'm quite certain that if your site is hosted in the US and your host were to receive a spam complaint, they'd be obligated to address it according to the laws of their jurisdiction, which means you would have to abide by the US CAN-SPAM regulations. I'd definitely run this by your company's legal counsel to be on the safe side.
-
Google uses the IP of the server hosting the site as one way of delivering that content to the correct target areas. So in short, yes, this is a problem and one that you need to resolve.
It is an SEO tactic that is used if you are country specific and want to target other locations.
Regards,
Andy
-
I agree with peterm22, but I'd also wanna know where are your targeted customers?
-
In short, Yes it can have an effect on your SEO. You may find it more difficult to show up on google.co.uk, even if you have a .co.uk domain name if you use a US host!
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Questions About The Right Hosting
Hi All, I have a few questions about the right type of hosting that I should be using. I understand that many people say we should be using the best hosting that we can afford. However, when I have a website with just 650 pages / posts is it really worth worrying too much about where I am hosting. I am UK based so at the moment I am using a UK host along with a CDN. I have a unique IP address and on a server that has a limited amount of websites on it. The main question is there really any need to be looking at anything else. The truth is I have used cloud hosting before and the website loaded slower around the world with that than it does with my current setup. Thanks
Technical SEO | | TTGUK0 -
Is it better to have hosting that specializes in performance or have the host closer to you physically?
I am looking to change to a new hosting company. I am debating between taking a company that specializes in Wordpress and performance but is situated far from my users or a local company that might not be as good from a performance/speed point of view. Which do you think I should go with? My users are near Europe and the Wordpress hosting that I am considering is in the US.
Technical SEO | | JillB20130 -
Moving site between hosts over short time scale
Hi Does anyone know if moving your website between hosts & server location 3 times in a relatively short time frame (say 2 months) can have a negative impact from an seo perspective ? Cheers
Technical SEO | | Dan-Lawrence
Dan0 -
Redirecting domain to the main domain (hosting cost?)
Hello Everyone, I have the following situation. There is main domain and a secondary domain that is related to the page on the main domain. I want to integrate the content of the secondary domain into the page on the main domain and redirect the secondary domain via 301 to that specific page. As i understand I can do it via .htaccess using rewrite mechanism. http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/redirection But the question is does it mean I have to keep paying for the hosting for the secondary domain? Because htaccess has to be located on the web server so I would need a hosting plan for it? Is that true? Is there any way around it? P.S. to avoid any confusion - I am talking about hosting plan - not domain registration fees
Technical SEO | | SirMax0 -
I was googling the word "best web hosting" and i notice the 1st and 3rd result were results with google plus. Does Google plus now play a role in improving ranking for the website?
I was googling the word "best web hosting" and i notice the 1st and 3rd result were results with google plus. Does Google plus now play a role in improving ranking for the website?I see a person's name next to the website too
Technical SEO | | mainguy0 -
Can changing a host provider impact search rankings?
I was wondering if changing my host provider would impact my search rankings on the major search engines?
Technical SEO | | bronxpad0 -
Is there actual risk to having multiple URLs that frame in main url? Or is it just bad form and waste of money?
Client has many urls that just frame in the main site. It seems like a total waste of money, but if they are frames, is there an actual risk?
Technical SEO | | gravityseo0 -
We're working on a site that is a beer company. Because it is required to have an age verification page, how should we best redirect the bots (useragents) to the actual homepage (thus skipping ahead of the age verification without allowing all browsers)?
This question is about useragents and alcohol sites that have an age verification screen upon landing on the site.
Technical SEO | | OveritMedia0