Does server (host) location effect local search results?

[kevba]

Hey

I was wondering if the location of your server (host) effects your local search engine results?Suppose I have an e-commerce website in the Netherlands and I want to host my website in the USA or UK, does this effect my search engine results in the Netherlands?

[DougRoberts]

From Google's Webmaster Tools help on Geotargeting:

"If no information is entered in Webmaster Tools, we'll rely largely on the site's country domain (.ca, .de, etc.). If an international domain (.com, .org, .eu, etc) has been used, we'll rely on several signals, including IP address, location information on the page, links to the page, and any relevant information from Google Places."

More info here: http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=62399

I recently set the geotargeting in Google Webmaster Tools of a UK hosted .com domain to Australia and started ranking on google.au.

Make sure you've optimised for local as you normally would.