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I do not have studies with me to prove (or not) if local hosting providers influences rankings... But I want to underline that is the IP location what counts, especially if we accept the idea that for Local Search Search Engines are looking also if the website is for real localized in the country it is competing for. That means, that you can also avoid a physical hosting in the country you are competing for, but you can host your website via proxy in the local country, as very well said Richard Baxter in this comment (http://www.seomoz.org/blog/international-seo-where-to-host-and-how-to-target-whiteboard-friday#jtc132564 )to this WBF: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/international-seo-where-to-host-and-how-to-target-whiteboard-friday Anyway, the most important is the domain termination, so - whenever it is possible - try always to use the country domain name termination of the geography you want your site rank for.

You'd want to undo that old 301 and replace it with new ones.