When looking for hosting should you sign up with a Website Hosting Company located in your country or just look for the best deal?

Will location of your web server affect the speed your site loads and will it affect your search engine rankings?

Firstly if you are located in a country and intend to use a domain related to that country (such as .au or .co.uk) and target users in that country you should use a website hosting company in that country. With some country domains it is possible to host elsewhere but there is little benefit in doing so. Using a local website hosting company will give your visitors the best possible service and you will get the best search engine positioning.

If you are targeting multiple countries and using an international domain (such as .com or .org) then location of the website hosting company is less important. If your target market includes the US  then it may make sense to host your site there. In any case you are unlikely to see a great difference in speed if the site is with a website hosting company based in another country (provided of course that there are good internet connections).

Search engine rankings are significantly affected by the domain. In UK, sites using a UK extension will have preference but elsewhere they are unlikely to appear high in the search results. The location of the server is known to the search engines but Google says “we try not to rely on the server location alone” so it is not of great importance in determining search engine ranking.

In summary if you are using a country specific domain it is best to host it with a local website hosting company. If you are using an international domain and targeting the world it does not make a great deal of difference where the website hosting company is located but, given the size of the US market ,you are probably best locating there.

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