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The code should definitely go into the websites root directory's .htaccess, however .htaccess can be weird, a few days ago I ran into a similar issue with a client's website, and I was able to remedy the issue with a variation of the code. index Redirect RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]{3,9}\ /([^/]+/)index.(php|html|htm|asp)\ HTTP/ RewriteRule ^(([^/]+/))index.(php|html|htm|asp)$ http://yoursite.com/$1 [R=301,L] If you give me the URL for the site I will take a look at it and let you know what would be feasible.

Although web hosting location is one factor that the search engines will look at for localisation, they will also look at domain registration contact info, published contact address on your website and other signals that may provide a clue of 'where' you do business. I had a Canadian client a while ago that intended to do business primarily in the US. Despite the fact that their site was hosted on a US machine, the site was suspiciously ranking low for some key phrases despite their good optimization efforts. After further review everything about their business (domain contact info, business address) would lead you to think that they do business in Canada, not the US (They showed up page 1 for Google.ca searches).  It wasn't until we went into Google Webmaster Tools and set the geotargeting to the United States that we saw their key search phrases jump up into page 1 for Google.com searches. My opinion... although server location is a factor, I've seen other factors have a bigger weight.

I think most of the responses addressed the question as if it concerned signatures on the SEOmoz forums. I believe Daniel was asking about signatures on forums in general. I can share two observations regarding links in signatures: some sites disable the links completely. If that is the case, you will know right away and there is your answer. some sites allow the link, but add a "no follow" tag. It depends on the site preference and the software they use. You can always view the page source code and see if the no follow tag has been added, then you will know the answer for that site. The topic is a double-edged sword. You want quality contributors to receive credit for their work. Then again, by allowing these links you will attract some poor quality responses.