Does hosting location matter?

[elbowroomjon]

Hello all

My first site, comparebestcasino.com has been up and running for about 3 months now and while I have prepared myself for the long haul, I'm still a little frustrated at the lack of traffic.
I know it's early days and I know it's going to take time but I have just discovered that my site is hosted in Germany and I wondered if that will work against me at all? My site is English language and I suppose hence focused on the English speaking market.
Can anyone enlighten me as to whether this can be a major problem. Does it matter at all, or am I just searching for excuses?

Cheers

Jon

[Chalkie]

Hosting is an important factor and i would suggest that hosting an english speaking site should really be done in the UK or US if possible.

If at all possible i would have a de. sub domain hosted in germany with the site in german and relocate your site to hosting in us or uk for the english version.

[bonusbeast]

Hosting Locations definitely matter, as chalkie said if this since this an an English based site I would search for hosting in the US or UK.

[alexpratt]

I have 100% agree with everyone - Hosting will definitely affect your rankings, not just location but their reputation as well.

With reputation - Think of it as a street - You wouldn't want to put your beutiful shinny mansion in a street with criminals, trash, noise all night, etc - Its the same with hosting and your website

[bbonline]

Hello all
Can anyone enlighten me as to whether this can be a major problem. Does it matter at all, or am I just searching for excuses?

Jon

As an alternative way, you can do mirror site in the UK and US if you want to target English visitors. Mirror sites helps you in a way your targeted audience
understand the content of your site. But most of the time mirror sites are only applicable for large company that holds multiple websites.

[Aaron@32Red]

Hi Jon,

Agreed, hosting location is important and something you should change.

Something else you should definitely do, and may help while you change server, is to make sure you select the appropriate target location in Google webmaster tools. This way Google knows where to display your results more accurately without relying on tell tale signs like language and the location of your site. If you need help with this then drop me an email or ping me here.

All the best,

Aaron
32Red Affiliates.

Note to all: Don't forget to login to the new 32Red Affiliate center (https://affiliates.32red.com) to check and update your details and get new links.

[GaryTheScubaGuy]

Yes I agree but will also add that you can use Geotargeting on the German subdirectory (if you have one), or if you are going to use geotargeting as was previously suggested - I would put unique English content on a subdomain and set geotargeting to the US or UK and leave the primary un-targeted.

The reason is that English makes up a higher overall number of searches (when comparing global language-based searches) and currently a .com with or without a subdirectory and geotargeting turned off will hold the most weight with Google - although if the site is just 90 days old it may not make much of a difference.

At 3 months old in your target market you should be doing things like creating new contennt (such as via wordpress or an onsite blog/forum).

Certain directories like Yahoo ($299) will give you a nice PR6-7 link and I would continue to obtain links - this is your best 'quick-win'

GaryTheScubaGuy

Ps. Whilst hosting location DOES make a difference - its currently a very small one - everything else being the same. Your primary issue is going to be that the site is so new

[elbowroomjon]

Thanks to all of you for your helpful replies, it's taken a while but based on all of your feedback I have finally bitten the bullett and have moved all my sites to UK hosting.
That's one more excuse for my lack of traffic out the window.

Thanks again

jon

[Aaron@32Red]

Hi Jon,

Positive that will help, mate. It's still worth changing your target location in the webmaster tools console though. It's a 10 second job, as long as you have an account setup. Drop me a line if you want me to go through it with you.

Cheers,

Aaron

[elbowroomjon]

Cheers Aaron, I set up the target location in the webmaster tools as soon as you recommended it. Should have all bases covered now.

jon

[GaryTheScubaGuy]

You might also look into doing subdomains and using geotargeting for non-primary countries.

If done right you can rank for both in certain countries that may have a less saturated market. Example;


You may also want to read this geotargeting article about subdomains and geotargeting.