Hosting Location, Does It Affect A Website?

There are websites that load instantly when you click on them, and then there are those that take a long time to load. The reason behind this is the web hosting service they use, the picture sizes they use, other heavy files, and most importantly, the location of the server.

If you are wondering what server location means or how it affects your website and its productivity, you are at the right place to find all of the answers.

What is a hosting server location?

Server location means the actual geographical location of the data centre that houses your website. It can exist anywhere globally. You need to figure out where your target audience resides before you choose your web hosting service.

For example, if your web hosting provider is in the United States but your audience is in India, this will cause problems such as slow loading times and availability. Hence, you need to select a web hosting provider that is near to your potential customers.

When a visitor wants to visit your website, the request is sent to the data centre then sends all the days to the visitor’s device. So the shorter the distance between your servers and the visitor, the faster the entire process will go.

Does Hosting Server Location Affect SEO?

Absolutely it makes a difference. The main answer is that your SEO is heavily affected by the location of your web hosting server. Let’s take a look at how this works. Every website holds its own unique IP address which identifies the web hosting server that is being used.

So in case your target audience and you are residing in India, while your server is located in the United States. Search engines like Google will assume that your website caters to the US audience. The extension that you employ makes a difference as well.

There is a wide range of domains that you can select from. So it is crucial to know how domains work and their importance in this process.

You should always select a web hosting service that is geographically located near to your target audience. So you might want to assess where a web hosting provider has its servers all around the world. If your audience is Indian, just locate the best web hosting in India. In case they do not have a server nearby, you should opt for someone else.

How does web hosting services affect your website speed?

Where your website’s web hosting server is located has a huge effect on how fast or slow your website loads and performs. The nearer to the visitors your website’s servers are, the better loading time you can provide your users.

The time that the server needs to process the request after getting the command is called latency. Once the server is near to your users instead of in another country. Your latency will decrease which can help your page loading time.

How to ensure you do not have server location issues?

1. Select the perfect web hosting service

As mentioned above, once you identify where your target audience resides you should choose a web hosting service that has servers near to that location to ensure fast speed and less latency. If your target audience starts to shift over time and your current web hosting provider does not have servers in the new locations, will it affect your website?

Yes, it could. However, there is a way around it. Since the web hosting service you cost and the kind of hosting you select has a huge impact on your website and its loading time. Let’s take a look at what you can do to salvage the situation in case your servers are located far from your audience.

2. Use a CDN

In case you do not want to go through the process of shifting to a new web hosting provider, you can put the Content Delivery Network to use. CDNs boost the speed of your website and loading time by caching your site’s data on several servers across the globe.

Even though it is not as convenient as having the servers physically nearby, CDNs are the perfect alternative that you can use.

Conclusion

We have mentioned above the importance of selecting a server location that is near the target audience of your website. It can affect your website’s SEO and page ranking in a major way. In case your website’s ranking on search engines like Google keeps falling and you’re wondering why this could be the reason.

So have a talk with your web hosting provider about it. You can also use webmaster tools to help you get a grip on everything. It can help you with your geo targets and management which can assist you in your hosting location issues.

On the other hand, you should always focus on providing the best user experience. It is also important to keep in mind that web design also boosts your website’s SEO. Finally, just ensure that your server location is near to you and your audience by choosing the best shared Linux hosting in India, or use a CDN if it is not, and you are good to go.