Implications of hosting country versus actual trading country?

[PH292]

Unbeknown to me our web developers have hosted our UK e-commerce site (and only serving the UK & outer islands) on a US based server.  Can this impact our SEO efforts?  My further concern is when it comes to sending out emails and opt-in regulations - I am right to be concerned about this as well?
Thanks

[PeterM22]

In short, Yes it can have an effect on your SEO. You may find it more difficult to show up on google.co.uk, even if you have a .co.uk domain name if you use a US host!

[Goetzman]

I agree with peterm22, but I'd also wanna know where are your targeted customers?

[Andy.Drinkwater]

Google uses the IP of the server hosting the site as one way of delivering that content to the correct target areas. So in short, yes, this is a problem and one that you need to resolve.

It is an SEO tactic that is used if you are country specific and want to target other locations.

Regards,

Andy

[MaryAnneG]

To address the other half of your question: I'm quite certain that if your site is hosted in the US and your host were to receive a spam complaint, they'd be obligated to address it according to the laws of their jurisdiction, which means you would have to abide by the US CAN-SPAM regulations.   I'd definitely run this by your company's legal counsel to be on the safe side.

[PH292]

Thank you Peter for your helpful and prompt reply - this has worried me a lot and you only confirm my fears.  (What makes it worse is that it is for a client).  In migrating to a UK server are there any things I should be aware of.

[PH292]

Thank you for confirming Peter's comments - confirmation always gives strength of resolve.  The target customers are the UK.

[PH292]

Thank you Andy - I had believed this to be the case so that is great to have it confirmed.  In migrating it to UK servers is there anything I should be aware of.  The company involved have done other things that have caused me all sorts of problems.

[PH292]

Thank you MaryAnne - I was pretty sure that this was the case so as yet have not implemented an e-marketing campaign.  For a variety of reasons I had assumed it was hosted in the UK so was pretty shocked to find it wasn't.

[Andy.Drinkwater]

It sounds to me like you need to move away from them ASAP! Is the site a static HTML site or are there databases involved as well? In bringing the site back, you need to make sure that everything comes back over and the transition is not messed up for you.

[perfectweb]

Aside from problems to do with the geo-location of the IP, hosting on US servers instead of UK servers will have a page load performance hit on your site, which in theory could affect your sites rankings.

I host half of my UK sites on Germany based servers, and the other half on UK servers, and I notice no real difference.

[PH292]

Thank you Gary - another interesting factor which I appreciate.  Just goes to show you have to ensure that every I is dotted when dealing with developers - especially when they claim to be experts!!  Coupled with other emerging errors this has been costly in terms of time etc.

[PH292]

Hi Andy - I wish I could move away from them, but seem to be locked in.  Yes, there are databases involved. Thank you.  I am now looking into hosting in the UK.  You live and learn - but sometimes at a price.  Thanks again.