Server Location
Google, ever since its beginning, has been striving to organize search results based on relevance – one of these being the location of where the search originated. In core, the results produced by a search in a particular country would firstly prioritize the websites that are located in that country.
Initially, Google was relying on TLD’s (Top Level Domain) to accomplish this task. However, they have started to use IP addresses also to determine the location of the websites. This technique has improved the quality of search results dramatically. When you change web hosts or hosting locations, it’s best to consider the location of the servers. If your site is focused on a particular country, then your host and its servers and its infrastructure should also be located there as well. If not then your rankings could be affected significantly. If you are changing to a new host who is also in the same country, then this should not affect your site, but you need to consider other factors as well.
Importance of Server Location
On websites targeting users from one country may be appropriate locate the server in that country. However, for websites which are targeted to the users around the world, server location may not appear very relevant because of the possibility of a set of a country target in Google Webmasters Tools and because of the existence of the so-called CDNs. In addition, if the website is in several languages and has a worldwide audience, it is very important to set geotargeting for each subdomain, domain, & subdirectory.
Server Quality
While changing to a new host, you need to consider the quality of their servers. This is related to not only the physical qualities but also about how they manage their servers as well. If the host has a practice of crowding their servers with many sites and you are on a shared server plan, then your site’s performance will definitely be affected.
Google considers the page loading speed when it comes to rankings. And if your page takes more than 2 seconds to load, Google will drop its rankings. While changing web hosts, you will need to look at the strengths and weaknesses of the new host carefully. Popular hosts do not always mean that they will provide quality services.
Hosting Plans
If you are changing to a new website host and considering a new hosting plan, then this could also affect your site’s SEO. Hosting plans also affect website performance. If you move up in a hosting plan, then there is a good chance that the move will affect your site positively but then, it depend on which host you choose.
Changing Country Effect On SEO Web Hosting
Choosing a server location is one of the first decisions to make before launching a website project. Changing the web host location can affect your website in several different ways. One of the main is SEO and your site’s search engine listing position. Although there are many belief that location changes have a minimal effect on a site’s SEO rankings, however, there are several points that show how the effects can be significant.