Server location

[sesertin]

Based on google statement it will. If you target Canada you would like to host there, not in Canada. But I think if you are targeting China than google is not your primary seírch engine to take into consideration

[NeilTompkins]

I understand, however my question is if the server was hosted in Singapore, Hong Kong or China, or Japan would it make much of a difference ?  Or in the future when we launch a website in the German language, would it make a BIG difference if the server was hosted in Germany or say Austria as a example.

[sesertin]

The phisical location of the server matters, as if you have a hosting in Germany google assumes that webpage content is for Germany. With the rising of international hosting companies thid factor carries less and less values but it does have affect according to several posts. I personally have never tried to change my hosting to improve rankings

[NeilTompkins]

How about hosting a site in Singapore, for users in China ?

[sesertin]

better than hosting in Europe

[J.Lair]

Just as a point of reference I have a Canadian site hosted in the USA and I can not see any noteable improvement in US traffic. That said the domain is a .ca which I feel plays a big part in that.

[AlanMosley]

Geo tags are next to useless

google looks at ip number, (so location is impportannt)

Also TLD, .au .uk. ca

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JD0y0Jk-zzQ

A side point if you have duplicate content on 2 TLD's you be be ok.

[seoug_2005]

"if you have duplicate content on 2 TLD's you be be ok" Would it be o.k if 2 TLD's ( say .com ) are a ) Targetting different countries b ) same country

[AlanMosley]

I am not sure. This is where i got the info

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ets7nHOV1Yo

[katemorris]

The server's location can help but it's not the end all, be all of location targeting. There are so many hosting companies in the US. There are many sites hosted in the US that rank fine internationally. With that said, hosting in or near that country is a signal that your site is targeted to that country so it can help, if just a little. As to where, get as close as you can naturally, but I don't think it'll create a giant difference. Like I said, it's not that big of an indicator, so specificity is just another part of it. Worry more about keeping the content real and written by natives than where the site is hosted.

[BlueprintMarketing]

Just to let you know I am German by birth and I moved to United States a young age however return their quit frequently. to get your point though if you use a content delivery network such as Akamai, limelight, Max CDN, go to http://builtwith.com you will see plenty of fantastic content delivery networks http://trends.builtwith.com/cdns to be honest I would recommend price wise Max CDN is very competitive. A company like high wind specializes in having your server wherever you want it and still getting that perfect time  plus location information geo-tagged where you need it so your network runs perfectly. Here's their link.

http://www.highwinds.com/network/index.php

I will say this and I may be a little biased however German companies tend to doing extremely thorough job. I am proud to say I think SEOmoz has done that type of job here.

I hope this is of some help,

Sincerely,

Thomas Zickell