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Can the geographic location of a web server affect SEO?

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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macscr (5 months ago) Show Hide
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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.
GoogleWebmasterHelp (5 months ago) Show Hide
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Hi macscr, Yes, this is an official Google channel. You can find a link to us from Google Webmaster Central.
TruthDomains (5 months ago) Show Hide
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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.
Noodles2525 (6 months ago) Show Hide
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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?
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rahnas (6 months ago) Show Hide
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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?
afmedwards (6 months ago) Show Hide
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Such a subtle, yet vital consideration -- thanks for the clear info!
ResaMichelle (6 months ago) Show Hide
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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?
nnnick03 (6 months ago) Show Hide
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I love the white shirt, white background and whiteboard. Very colorful!

But on a serious note, great vid as always, thanks Matt!
almightyvegeta87 (6 months ago) Show Hide
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Well, i didn't knew that !
Nice info if you are specific targeting a visitors from a particular country.

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