Webserver Location - How important is it for SEO?

Question

I am based in the UK and have two webservers, one German based (1&1) and the other is UK based (Easyspace).

I recently signed up to the UK easyspace server because it was about the same price I paid for my 1&1 server but also I wanted to see if my sites hosted on a UK server gave better results in terms of UK based traffic.

Its seems my traffic is roughly the same for both servers... however 1&1 server performance and customer service is much better than Easyspace so I was thinking about cancelling it and getting another 1&1 server.

I understand about latency issues where USA/Asia would be much slower for UK traffic but I am just wondering what your thoughts are traffic, SEO etc and if you think I should stick with a UK server or if it doesn't matter?

Looking forward to your replies.

Answer 1

My main concern is losing UK based customers if the server is located outside the UK but it appears from the comments that this is probably not the case.

However, my UK server is based in Scotland, my other server is based in Germany and is actually closer to London than Scotland?

Just to compare the speed between Scotland server and Germany server:

=== Germany Based ===

Pinging firststopdigital.com [87.106.101.189]:

Ping #1: Got reply from 87.106.101.189 in 126ms [TTL=46]
Ping #2: Got reply from 87.106.101.189 in 126ms [TTL=46]
Ping #3: Got reply from 87.106.101.189 in 126ms [TTL=46]
Ping #4: Got reply from 87.106.101.189 in 126ms [TTL=46]


Variation:                 0.4ms (+/- 0%)

Shortest Time:             126ms
Average:                   126ms
Longest Time:              126ms

=== UK Based ===

Pinging pb-net.co.uk [62.233.81.163]:

Ping #1: Got reply from 62.233.81.163 in 120ms [TTL=55]
Ping #2: Got reply from 62.233.81.163 in 119ms [TTL=55]
Ping #3: Got reply from 62.233.81.163 in 119ms [TTL=55]
Ping #4: Got reply from 62.233.81.163 in 119ms [TTL=55]


Variation:                 0.3ms (+/- 0%)

Shortest Time:             119ms
Average:                   119ms
Longest Time:              120ms

The difference is around 6ms which is not much at all.

Incidentally I just performed a ping to a USA based domain I own:

Pinging pbnetltd.com [74.86.61.36]:

Ping #1: Got reply from 74.86.61.36 in 6.4ms [TTL=121]
Ping #2: Got reply from 74.86.61.36 in 6.3ms [TTL=121]
Ping #3: Got reply from 74.86.61.36 in 6.2ms [TTL=121]
Ping #4: Got reply from 74.86.61.36 in 6.3ms [TTL=121]


Variation:                 0.2ms (+/- 3%)

Shortest Time:             6.2ms
Average:                   6.3ms
Longest Time:              6.4ms

The USA timings are much quicker considering the extra distance across the Atlantic to NY and back (9am UK time so USA are asleep - will try again tonight).

Answer 2

I have never heard of common search engines ranking sites by their response time as it is highly variable due to the nature of the internet. If a search engine would penalize you for the subnet you are on then you likely have bigger problems.

Answer 3

I get better results on google.com.au for my sites than on other flavours of google, even though the sites are not hosting in Australia. So I would suggest that the actual physical location of the servers won't matter so much and if you are wanting to be higher up on google.co.uk you might want a co.uk domain?

Answer 4

Google associates a region with your site mostly through its suffix (TLD/SLD, eg. .co.uk), but if you create a Google Webmaster Tools account you can tell it otherwise in the odd case it makes a mistake.

Answer 5

As far as the traffic is concerned the site will be loaded fast for UK visitors. I suggest using this server if most of your visitors are from UK. Server location does not have to do anything with SEO.

Stick with your UK server if you think its better.