Server location - Web Hosting

[Cocoonfxmedia]

Does it matter where your web hosts servers are located? For example you're a UK based company and your web hosts servers are in Belgium.  Does this effect rankings ?

[KevinBudzynski]

Yes, it is a factor in which countries SERPs you show in (from Matt Cutt's video).

[Cocoonfxmedia]

hummm still not convinced by his video... Do users really select the search location or is it only geeks and SEO's

[MonicaOConnor]

Google selects the location for SERPs based on the IP address of the searcher. The only detriment to having your site hosted in another country would be if they are in what could be considered spammy locations. For example, my company is in Wisconsin, my server is hosted in California. No harm no foul. If my server were hosted out of India, it would be considered unnatural and spammy. I think UK to Belgium is reasonable and wouldn't be considered unnatural.