SEO impact of overseas data center

[evidentlydavidm]

Hi there,

I currently host a number of sites from data centers in the UK and Hong Kong but now have the need to develop a site specifically for an Australian audience. While our server in Hong Kong can probably provide an acceptably fast service to Australia i'm concerned that its location outside of Australia will negatively affect our local SEO efforts. Am i right to be concerned about this?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Dave

[TimKelsey]

Hey Dave,

Google has an article about this over on their Webmaster Tools blog - http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com.es/2010/03/working-with-multi-regional-websites.html

In short, yes, it does have a small impact on how Google determines where your website would be considered relevant, but they also look at country specific TLDs and your geo-targeting settings in Webmaster Tools.

In my experience, it's not something to be overly concerned about. If you can easily get your site hosted in Australia, go for it, if not, you'll probably do just fine.

Tim

[evidentlydavidm]

Hi Tim,

Thanks very much for your help. You've answered my question perfectly.

Dave

[TimKelsey]

Happy to help!