For small businesses, good SEO is essential for ensuring websites are visible in search engine results.
However, a range of factors can affect SEO. For example, regular updates to search engine algorithms mean that websites have to keep up with the latest developments if they want to remain visible against their competitors.
For any website to thrive, it also needs to have a decent hosting provider. And finally, everyone knows that the choice of web host affects the speed a website loads at. But does server location affect SEO?
How does server location affect SEO?
The location of the physical server hosting your website will affect its SEO capability and this is something you need to consider when you’re choosing your host. Don’t choose a server location based on price alone. If you do, your SEO will suffer in the long term.
It doesn’t matter what your domain name is or what extension you use; the physical location of your website server will affect the SEO of your website.
Unfortunately, many businesses overlook server location as a factor when they’re planning their website and SEO strategy.
Server location is one of several off-page factors that will impact SEO and could potentially derail an otherwise strong SEO campaign.
How does location affect search results?
Page load speeds are a key factor in determining SEO scores; anything you can do to ensure your page loads as fast as possible will keep your SEO score up. Choosing a solid hosting company with a decent infrastructure will go a very long way to maximising your website’s speed and security. If the host offers servers in multiple locations, you should choose the location that makes the most sense for your business.
When Google is assigning websites an SEO score and ranking them in search results, one of the things it considers is location relevance.
This is broken down into several components, each of which will contribute to a website’s relevance to users in Google’s eyes. If you want to know does server location affect SEO, understanding exactly how Google determines a website’s relevance to users in specific locations is essential.
For example, one of the key signals Google looks for in determining a page’s location relevance is whether a location is mentioned in its title. Another example, a website advertising services in the UK is more relevant to users based in the UK. Businesses can take advantage of this to make pages on their website more visible outside of the areas they operate in and target surrounding locations as well.
Similarly, if the website lists an address in the footer or even just on the main contact page, Google will consider what locations the website is most relevant to. Google will usually apply this to the entire website unless specific pages seem to target other locations.
Finally, if a business has a Google Business Listing associated with the website, Google will link them both to the same address. This is a real boon for businesses targeting the local market and means both the listing and website are more likely to appear to users searching in your local area.