Hosting for a site targeting US market

[cc976a]

I have only ever really developed sites for a UK audience before but would I be right in assuming a site I am targeting for a US audience (and Google.com) should be hosted on a US server?

Anyone any experience and success with this - or any recommended hosts out there?

 

[matmat is verified member.]

hostgator should be fine if your not looking for anything special!

 

[cc976a]

Cheers Matt - I'll take a look

 

[Aegean]

You are correct and actually its a much more common mistake than a lot of people realise. I've even seen some quite large companies doing it, usually because of a centralised server contract. Your website should be hosted in the country you are targeting.

 

[Blossom]

Yeah, I've heard it a lot and it's a generally accepted view.

I have a site targeting the US at the moment, it's hosted on California servers but it's actually doing better in Google UK than it is Google.com. I have a feeling it's because of the market size, demand and competitiveness though.

I use Dreamhost - been with them nine years and I've actually broke even with hosting and domain name costs due to their great affiliate program.

 

[360360]

Where do you think would be best to host a .com if you are looking to market to Europe / USA / Australia / NZ etc.. no specific country to target just the world!

 

[Blossom]

I would personally go for US. It's cheaper than most other places (especially when you factor in quality and features), and I think it's still more favoured.

 

[360360]

Thanks Blossom, will be looking at USA based hosting companies for Wordpress hosting this afternoon...

 

[harryhamlin]

Where do you think would be best to host a .com if you are looking to market to Europe / USA / Australia / NZ etc.. no specific country to target just the world!

BlueHost should work good for ya...

 

[Gal]

If you are targeting a specific country you can set the geographical location in google webmaster tools. doing this would mean you could host it anywhere. this option is available for generic top level domains (.com .org etc) not country specific domains such as .co.uk which are automatically geo targeted.

but it would be best practice to set the geo target in google and host it in the same country.