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Hosting in NZ
An aspect overlooked by many site owners is the importance of server location to your site rankings, traffic
and consequent sucess.
The problem here is the "decentralisation" of search - the way in which the major search engines have split their indexes up into country-specific search opportunities. Google (and other SE's) know where you are because of the IP Address allocated to your PC or server. They know this because IP addresses are allocated in numeric blocks or ranges, by country. There are significant impacts on both searchers, and on businesses, of this search decentralisation process. This is both a blessing and a curse, depending on where you are, where your site is, what you offer, where your customers are, and whether you are a searcher, or a site owner.
Local search means you are effectively competing on a far more even terms with sites from your own geographic "web space" than previously.
However, if you have a focus on delivering products or services within your own specific geographic region, it's essential that your site's IP address be within the specific Country's IP Address Range.
This means that your site should be physically located in a server in the target market web space. If you've opted for cheap hosting on a server located in the USA, or Asia etc, you have effectively shot yourself in the foot, and severely prejudiced your chances of attaining top search engine rankings in your preferred web space.
Conversely, for a business located in the United Kingdom, Australia, or New Zealand, with a focus on delivering products or services in another specific geographic region, you should have your web site physically located on a server in that country to gain the most traction in your search engine rankings.
Break LTD has servers hosted locally here in New Zealand and the USA, by default your site will be placed on our NZ server, so please advise otherwise if you wish it to be in the USA.
Ben Kemp, aka The SEO Guy (nz) is a free-lance search engine optimisation practitioner, and "road warrior" who splits his time between NZ & Thailand. He shares his work and leisure experiences via The SEO Guys Blog along with lots of free SEO articles and web design tips. Web Address: http://www.comauth.co.nz
