Ranking of the site is usually connected with its contents and so many companies try to prioritize backlinks, the quality of the content, and of course the choice of keywords. That is really important and can make SEO ranking higher than average, but how about the server location? Does the geography of your virtual server influence something?
Here in this article, we will discuss the connection between SEO and the location of the server. In case you have no clue about servers and how they work, you can review the info and even rent Debian virtual server online in a matter of seconds. But before this let’s talk about geography.
Why does the choice of location influence SEO?
You won’t get a straight reply to this question, because there are different factors which might be rather individual for each website. The most generalized ones are considered domain name and speed. These characteristics that definitely influence SEO are important for any resource online and we will discuss them in more detail.
Google announced that any online resource is equally promoted despite the location. There are no ignoring and regional-related criteria. However, the algorithms work in such a way that if your server is in Canada and you have a Canadian IP address, that means that your website will predominantly appear in the searches of Canadian users. There is nothing wrong with this and just on the contrary, you are automatically targeting the right audience.
If talking about the opposite situation and you have a web server with Netherlands’s location, but your targeted audience is in the US. In such a way, you will hardly benefit from automatic algorithms. Doesn’t that sound obvious to you?
Is there any correlation between speed and location?
Speed is really important. Every user pays attention to this characteristic, while consciously or subconsciously we notice the time during which we receive needed information or service. Except of the UX in general, speed directly influences SEO. Fast content delivery is really important for the ranking of your website. Even when you have better content than your competitors, but information is delivered at a lower speed, your resource will be ranked lower in the search.
Metrics, which is used to calculate the speed with which the information is delivered, is called TTFB. It measures the time it takes to get the needed content after clicking on it in the browser. Here the location matters the most, because if the server is geographically farther from the user, then it will take longer to get the response.
For instance, users from Europe will wait longer if accessing information from the US server. It means the farther the user is to the server location, the more data hops this specific request will go through. In such a way, the speed is influenced by location, and that changes your SEO ranking.
How to choose a perfect location for the web server?
As already discussed, the choice of the location is highly important to SEO strategy and performance of the site. Here are some recommendations that will help you will the determination of your needs.
Target Audience. Try to orient on the geography of your ideal client and once you have made some specification of where this user is located, you’d better choose a server that is closer. For example, in case the potential clients are in Italy then, it is better to consider web servers that are in this country or in the nearest regions.
CDN. For those businesses who could not specify one group of target audience, the best choice will be Content Delivery Networks. It will be easier to distribute your content across several regions without losing in performance.
Make server response testing. Prior the final choice of the server geography, it is highly recommended to perform several tests for various locations. There are lots of tools such as a free and easy GTmetrix. If your website is oriented towards clients from Europe, check response time from the biggest cities like Berlin, Rome, or Rotterdam.
Scalability. Try to search for a web provider that offers scalability for their clients. This factor should be considered even before you are paying for the server. Just imagine, that you have an extremely increased traffic from users in China and your hosting provider doesn’t have any location in the country or in the neighboring regions. In such a way, you won’t have a chance to increase performance for the new clients.
To conclude, SEO is the most important factor if you want to increase the visibility of your business on the market. The location of the server is a part of a successful SEO strategy that you’d rather remember. A good choice of location will increase the speed and also influence SEO rating.
