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Does server location affect SEO?

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Published on January 25, 2012 Does server location affect SEO?

Posted at 9:43 am in Marketing by

Last updated on October 30, 2018

Do you need to have Australian-based servers to rank well in Australian search engines? The short answer is No.

The reality is that what matters to search engines in determining rankings is much the same as the real world: what content is there to rank and the relative level of authority of that content or organisation posting it. This means that a speech by Bill Gates will rank just as well if it is posted on a Microsoft server in Singapore as it would posted on a Microsoft server in Seattle. Microsoft and Bill Gates are authorities in their relative areas and that’s what matters to search engines the most. It’s not less valuable to the search engines in rankings depending on where the server is physically located in the world.

The message is that what matters to search engines are two basic things: whether the content of your website is relevant to the search phrases used by users to find information on that topic, and how many other quality sites/people endorse yours as a relevant authority in your area. They do take location in to account in determining rankings, but not so much about where the servers that content comes from is located but more about where that website is perceived as being from. Australian .com.au domains have strict rules about who can have them which means that from a SEO perspective, content posted on a .com.au domain hosted in the US can rank just as well as content posted on a .com.au domain hosted in Sydney.

The exception to this rule is when the server where the content is located is so slow that the content on it cannot be indexed by the search engines or the site is so slow that it is perceived as less valuable. This is not an issue for sites that are hosted in high quality server locations.

Ozcart shopping cart websites take the hassle out of choosing a hosting provider, because the hosting is part of the product you are subscribing to. We make the hosting decisions leaving you to focus on your business. Just as when you have your telephone installed you don’t have to worry about the route the cables take from your house to the phone exchange. The phone provider takes care of that.

After extensive trialing between US and Australian providers, some years ago we decided to host all Ozcart sites in a world-class data centre in the United States, giving us the ability to take advantage of the massive economies of scale of that American data centre – where there are tens of thousands of servers in the same secure site. After these many years of US ecommerce hosting we are yet to encounter SEO based issues based on server location.

Ultimately US hosting gives us the ability to offer lower prices to customers, with Australian ecommerce support and have higher performing servers, daily backups, 24/7 hardware and software monitoring, tough security and the peace-of mind of fast response times to hardware or server issues. We can do all of that but still have all of our ecommerce support for your shopping cart software performed by Australians in Australia. It’s the best of both worlds. And no difference for your SEO.

Many companies will try to tell you that “latency” between the US and Australia will affect SEO rankings on Google, but unless you are hosting with a poor performing provider who doesn’t have high quality services, then that simply is not true.

SEO ultimately comes down to quality content and  link building. Geography is a factor but if you have a .com.au domain name you have already identified yourself as Australian. For SEO, you’re better to focus on your cart’s technology, security, shipping, payments, marekting, performance, Australian features and support than where the servers are.

 

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