What impact does server location have on rankings?

Rob Lewicki from Toronto, Ontario asks:

"What impact does server location have on Google rankings?"

• Category

  Science & Technology

[Afreekdusoet]

This is terrible. So don't host outside your target audience's country or risk negatively affecting the pagerank??

I know the target audience can be set using the webmaster, but what if the target audience is a certain region, say europe or southern africa?

[Winger4u]

Clear answer but please Google keep in mind there are people that are targeting for example Germany and have a server of blog etc. running in the United States or another country combination... Server location does not say a lot really.. :) Thanks for answer though...

[Finn Skovgaard]

I live in France and had my site with AMEN, a French web host, about ten years ago. After just a few months, the site started going down all the time, and when I had measured a 10% downtime in a month, I got fed up and moved everything to Jumpline in the US. AMEN simply couldn't be bothered to improve things, a very French attitude - the customer is always wrong. The site is about France, and I never dreamt that Google would take server location into account in an international world.

[Ravindra Joisa]

How can server location be considered ? The reason why I'm asking is .. I have a tech blog and have my domain .COM and hosting registered with GoDaddy, India and the servers are in Singapore. will the server location matter.. b'coz mine is a tech blog where I write about How-To

[aaaarrrgggghh]

same here, I live in Italy but would NEVER host in Italy. Also I would NEVER use dot it but use dot com only. This is because dot com are a billion times more flexible than dot it. To buy a dot it domain I have to fax letters, wait weeks, ask for permissions, beg to move dns, pay more money, it is a nightmare.

[aaaarrrgggghh]

I find what you say on this video quite difficult to believe. Simply because I trust Google to be better than others in bringing me GOOD, RELEVANT results.

Imagine Italians are searching for the best tires for sale in Milan. If the best shop in Milan has a website that's hosted in the USA, simply because it is cheaper to host it there, then what is google going to do, NOT give the best results?

[aaaarrrgggghh]

I have 4 sites about INSURANCE and they rank reasonably well. I have launched another site about insurance. Will it hurt if I interlink various articles between these various sites?

Linking up all the articles will improve the content, keeping the users within my "wing".

But by doing this I will be "voting" my own sites. How is this seen by google? In the doubt, I avoid linking to my own sites, just to others (!?)

[abelahora]

This is only if you don't use the Google Webmaster Tools....

Look at this Youtube Google Video "Setting a geographic target for your site in Webmaster Tools"

[justgivemethetruth]

good god how long-winded and non-specific can you possibly be?

[ballad anna]

Great idea adding subtitles, makes it all easy and quick to digest, even with such a small amout of info. Well done and Thank you!