I’ve been posting a bit more lately on a few SEO forums and figured, “why don’t I post some of my own content on my own web site”. Baring I don’t mean copy and paste, but I was answering some pretty basic but repetitive questions so I figured I’d post responses with a bit more detail here on the blog. So for the next couple weeks, and perhaps sporadically through the future, I will be posting quick answers to some of the basic and most frequent questions posed aspiring SEO/business webmasters.
Without further ado here is the first question:
Q. What is the Importance to SEO Regarding Local Hosting
Usually the question is posed because someone is looking to rank their web site higher for a specific geographic location. The short answer is YES. It DOES help to pay attention to your hosting requirements/location when thinking about targeting geographic areas. At this point the STRONGEST element to help you rank locally (regionally/geographically) is to place your physical address in a prominent location. This helps Google pick up your location and figure out your geographic market themselves.
Having said that, remember SEO is a game where every bit counts and there are multiple variables contributing to how well you rank. Here are some other aspects, albeit of smaller importance, that DO help in ranking your site for a specific target location.
If you want to target a particular geography / country then you do MULTIPLE things to give yourself a competitive advantage. Consider getting a country specific TLD (that means if you focus on America a .com, in the UK co.uk, in Canada .ca, etc.
Next, think about the where your hosting company’s boxes are located. You rent space on a hosting computer somewhere out there. You’re job is find out where that box is located (because your IP will be considered regionalised in specific country depending on the host box.) Because a web hosting company in Australia may physically have its boxes in America, be sure to find out before signing on. Pick a host with boxes in your target geography.
At this point there doesn’t appear to be precedent given to web sites of particular States (if you’re targeting closer to home). In this case go back to the first important point: an indexable contact page with the address of your company in that region. This becomes crucial especially for very localized businesses.
All combine and are necessary to help target locations.