6 replies to this topic

[cyphix]

Hi guys..... I'm just wondering if I hosted an Australian based site on a US server..... would this affect the results in Google or Bing with regards to my position in the results when searched by an Australian user?

I've noticed Google will a lot of the time will try & show local results higher for the country you are searching from (especially when using your local Google site), even when not restricting the results to a certain country. The domain in question does end with ".com.au"; so would this be enough to alert Google that the site is Australia based? ...or should I host the site in Australia too?

I just prefer to host it in the US as I already have a server there & the US servers are a lot cheaper than over here.

Thanks for any advice!

[Mikl]

If you log into Google Webmaster Tools and have it authenticate your site, you'll see that there's an option to tell it which country you are targeting. That should solve your problem.

That said, if any of the experts here tell you anything different, they're right and I'm wrong.

[piskie]

This is similar to the situation with UK sites.
I find .co.uk (and other UK domains) sites performs equally well when hosted in the US and UK. Whereas non UK domains need to be hosted in the UK.
I find simply relying on Google Webmaster Geo targetting can be hit and miss.

[Jill]

Lots of info on this in our International SEM Issues Forum were I'm moving this.

[cyphix]

Thanks. Well after posting this thread I decided to do some searches for terms related to my field & check the location of the sites that came up on the first page..... many of the .com.au domains were actually hosted on US servers... so no worry there I guess

[Mikl]

Just to add to my previous post ...

Given that you've got "au" in your domain name, that would trump what I said about Google Webmaster Tools (GWT). I guess the same would apply to "uk" domains.

My own experience was based on a .COM site that was hosted in Canada. After I went to GWT and told it I was targeting US visitors, the traffic increased substantially.

[cyphix]

Just to add to my previous post ...

Given that you've got "au" in your domain name, that would trump what I said about Google Webmaster Tools (GWT). I guess the same would apply to "uk" domains.

My own experience was based on a .COM site that was hosted in Canada. After I went to GWT and told it I was targeting US visitors, the traffic increased substantially.

Thanks for that info!