Web Hosting Provider Locations

There are many different Web hosting providers out there to choose from, and with the globalization of the Internet, you can’t quite assume that all of those hosts will be located in the US. In fact, many web hosting providers are located in the UK, Australia or elsewhere. When it comes to choosing a web hosting provider, does location matter?

The short answer to that question is, “Yes.” Two main issues come up when you choose to use a web hosting provider located outside of the primary country of relevance for your website. The first issue is maintenance. It is not uncommon for a web hosting provider to schedule routine maintenance on its server for an off peak traffic time.

When the web hosting provider is located in another country that operates in another time zone, their off peak traffic time could actually be your peak traffic time. In these cases, your website could be shut down for maintenance just when the majority of your customers want it. While this is an unusual occurrence because such maintenance should be infrequent, it is a possibility you should be aware of.

Another issue that comes up when you choose a web hosting provider outside your primary country is search rank. Many search engines including Google give credit to where a site is located when determining search engine rank.

If a site is hosted in Australia, for instance and you are searching for something from the US, that site might be ranked lower in the SERP than if you were searching for the same thing in Australia. This is done in order to provide users with the most relevant results, and hosting your site in another country could confuse those results.

The best thing to do is choose a web hosting provider in the country where your site is most relevant or from which you get the most business. Within the country, the location of the web hosting provider is less relevant. While some will argue that the closer the provider is to the location of the majority of the users, the faster the connection will be. If this is true, the difference is negligible for now.