Hosting question..something I read..not sure?

Hi there,
I have recently read that you should have a host in the country you are aiming/selling to as it could effect you coming up in google results of the country you are aiming for. Can anybody fill me in on this.
My site is for the UK but I am with bluehost since a long while back (for other reasons too long to go into) But as I am about to know create a website and register a domain (not with the host I know) should I change my host at the same time to a UK one?
If so, anybody recommend one?

Where did you read that? I have clients in multiple countries and none of them have problems with rankings that I know of. They've been clients for years.

You do have to keep in mind time differences but my clients know what time zone I'm in and it's never been an issue.

Glennette Goodbread
http://www.premiumwebdesign.com/

I have also heard from Guru Bob (30 Day challenge/Ed Dale) that if you are really trying to target locally (i.e. for the UK) it is a good idea to have a UK host. I have heard 1+1 are pretty good in the UK...


Suzi

Yep that's what I heard to! thing is if I am going to sell physical affiliate products (not only but mostly) I have to focus it locally, well ie;Uk as I would assume if someone from the USA came across my site they would not buy affiliate products that are UK based right? cause of shipping issues I mean...or is there a way to to please both markets somehow on this one? I mean places like Amazon sell in uk and USA... any thoughts anyone? I hope Lynn might be able to shed some light on this..can you sell to both UK and USA with physical products from say,amazon? afterall an english speaking site CAN get traffic from other english speaking countries or people and you don't want to lose any potential customer/sale so we? :)

I haven't ever heard that before. There could be some wisdom in that though!

I've heard it about Canada before - but I can't point to an authority on it.

As far as I know, the only way to "please both markets" is to sign up as an affiliate with Amazon.co.uk as well as Amazon.com. and offer both links for each item. I asked a friend of mine in Canada about Amazon, and she said while she *can* but through the .com site, she doesn't. The shipping takes longer, the currency has to be converted, and she has to pay customs fees. If she comes across a site that offers something she wants, instead of just buying it, she goes to Amazon.ca and buys it there. I'm not sure there's any good way around that, unfortunately.

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Originally Posted by jamel

Yep that's what I heard to! thing is if I am going to sell physical affiliate products (not only but mostly) I have to focus it locally, well ie;Uk as I would assume if someone from the USA came across my site they would not buy affiliate products that are UK based right? cause of shipping issues I mean...or is there a way to to please both markets somehow on this one? I mean places like Amazon sell in uk and USA... any thoughts anyone? I hope Lynn might be able to shed some light on this..can you sell to both UK and USA with physical products from say,amazon? afterall an english speaking site CAN get traffic from other english speaking countries or people and you don't want to lose any potential customer/sale so we? :)

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It doesn't matter where your host is located so much as the domain. If you are targeting Canadians yous should have a .ca or if you are selling in the UK then have a co.uk. But this for the products you trying to sell. The country where your host is located should not affect your ranking.

As Cindy mentioned Amazon.com and Amazon.ca are very different. Amazon.com sells many more things and will not ship a lot of products to Canada- and those they do ship will have custom charges. And the reverse is also true.

I have created a packabook.com and a packabook.co.uk site which are mirrors of each other. The products are all from amazon - and I am signed up to amazon associates separately for each country. That way, if you buy something from my .co.uk site, you will receive the products from .co.uk and if you buy from the .com site, you will receive the products from amazon.com

It means you have to treat them as separate sites, and add everything twice.

I have them both hosted at the same host in the U.S., because I didn't want to have to pay two lots of hosting fees at this early stage. I understand that there is some advantage to hosting locally, but having a local domain is the most important thing.

Suzi

thank you for all the replies! ok so it seems it the domain that is important, or the end of it should I say ie; .com or co.uk...
Suzi do you find it worth while (moneywise) to have two sites so as not to miss any of your market? as it does seem you now have double the work but if it's twice the sales then maybe that makes sense? and do you find your rankings are ok with your US host? if you don't mind me asking.
I am already with bluehost now you see, so would it be best I just continue to use them as my host and just register a domain name elsewhere now then?

Thanks again for your imput it really helps.. I am going to be setting on the path of wordpress this week so anybody with any recc on a nice (poss free theme) that is EASYish to customize as I don't want it looking over bloggy..your comments will be gratefully recieved.

smiles to everyone :)

My sites are very new and so I can't judge yet. But I certainly wouldn't want to miss out on either the European or the US market, so that's why I have both.

Suzi

The only way this will affect your rankings is based on speed - if the webpage is slow in the target country it will probably suffer in the rankings, otherwise this is complete baloney