Switching Hosting Company - bringing hosting closer to our website

[TruvoDirectories]

Hi,
we are a Belgian company running .be websites and our current hosting company is based in Norway.
Is there any SEO benefit in transferring our .be websites to a hosting company based in Belgium?

[Modi]

Biggest benefit is lowest latency time - however its in micro seconds which can improve user experience if your traffic is mainly from Belgium

Also, A minor experience of slight increase in SERP has heard of from couple of my business associates who have migrated there hosting to there own country - though no direct co-relation of gain in SERP Rankings been heard of.

[ClaireH-184886]

I am based in the UK and i am always being told to use a UK hosting company as it will be better for the site, seo and speed, but the problem i have is finding a good company in the UK that can do everything that a company in the USA are doing.

If you can find a good hosting company near to your home then i would go for it.

[AlanMosley]

I say no, I believe mat cutts has said the same. its the tld that is important .be.

Having said that site speed is important for ranking in search engines as well as conversions and user satisfaction.

I recommend Microsoft Azure for hosting, both windows and Linux, well priced and easy to use, and great performance.

[TruvoDirectories]

Hi Alan,

tx for your answer.

I checked one off matt cutts' videos, and this particular one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keIzr3eWK8I states that location of the webhost has some significance for ranking. Is it this you are referring too?

[AlanMosley]

No, I have seen those videos and that was my belief up until a year or 2 ago, when I saw this contradicted, either in a video or a article, now with cloud hosting many people host outside there own geo area. I cant find the video/article but I was led to believe that the TLD is the important thing. That video is 2009.

[AlanMosley]

Just to add.

I believe the advise was, if you have a .au, .uk or in your case .be, they its not a problem. but if you have a .com then server location may be used. that's just from memory.