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Hosting in USA of AU Domains - any experiences out there ?

shags38

Top Contributor
Does anyone have AU domains hosted in the US - if so is it having any adverse effect that you know of in SERPs when searching pages from Australia in Google?
Supposedly hosting outside of the country of the domain (other than dot com) reduces google juice (au domain hosted in AU gets more juice than same domain hosted in USA for example - how much less Google aren't saying).
Cost is the reason I ask - $15/month gets ostensibly unlimited domains hosted in USA - call it 15 domains = $1 each.

So.......... anybody have personal experience / comments ??

cheers,
Mike
 

djuqa

Top Contributor
A lot of .au Domains are hosted in USA
Including Most of my number #1 ranked sites
However as a Major percentage of the traffic to these sites is also from outside Australia that could be seen as an advantage.

Most aussie domainers still treat the internet like a 2nd Hand Car sales yard in suburban Sydney or Melbourne.
Stop thinking Dodgy Motors selling Clapped-out Holden Barinas to BOGANS in your local area.
Start thinking GM selling Cars to every part of the World.

.AU domains do and can attract Excellent Traffic from every corner of the world, so why do you still treat them as if they are the Poor idiot cousins of the internet.

Start giving the .au namespace the respect and attention it deserves and stop selling them DOWN.
 
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shags38

Top Contributor
A lot of .au Domains are hosted in USA
Including Most of my number #1 ranked sites
However as a Major percentage of the traffic to these sites is also from outside Australia that could be seen as an advantage.

Most aussie domainers still treat the internet like a 2nd Hand Car sales yard in suburban Sydney or Melbourne.
Stop thinking Dodgy Motors selling Clapped-out Holden Barinas to BOGANS in your local area.
Start thinking GM selling Cars to every part of the World.

.AU domains do and can attract Excellent Traffic from every corner of the world, so why do you still treat them as if they are the Poor idiot cousins of the internet.

Start giving the .au namespace the respect and attention it deserves and stop selling them DOWN.

Thanks for your comments Djuqa - I agree with your sentiments however in some cases I am particularly interested in the local market for specific reasons so in some cases it is more than just a simple dollars per month cost factor hence my query as to what level of juice is lost :D
 

djuqa

Top Contributor
hence my query as to what level of juice is lost :D
I personally do not subscribe to the "Link Juice " concept.
More the "User Satisfaction" concept", after all the website is supposed to be for USERS not Search engines.
and to answer your original question. USA Hosting and Local traffic (users) still seem to work OK.
However a Highly Locally targeted website could benefit from a locally hosted solution, but be aware some "Supposed" local hosts use off-shore server farms.
 
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DavidL

Top Contributor
Nearly all my sites are hosted in US and target Australians and don't seem to suffer. I did move a big one over to AU hosting as a kind of test but it didn't seem to make any impact on ranking (although perhaps speed was slightly better which is good for user experience)

I think when it comes to a ranking factor, it's kind of a Yes/No rather than a scale. Is it a .au domain - if yes, ranking boost for Aussie searches. Is it hosted in Australia, if yes ranking boost for Aussie searches. IOW i don't think you'll get a double boost for hosting an .au domain locally.

Djuqa, my AU websites hardly rank outside of Australia... Can you share the stats of any of your sites - proportion from o/s etc?
 

djuqa

Top Contributor
Djuqa, my AU websites hardly rank outside of Australia... Can you share the stats of any of your sites - proportion from o/s etc?
Example sites

Articlesite.com.au - Majority of traffic is from USA (36%) & indian subcontinent. Aust. (1%)
Minisite.com.au - majority is US / Canadian.
 

FirstPageResults

Top Contributor
From Google Webmaster Central Blog:

Does location of server matter? I use a .com domain but my content is for customers in the UK.

In our understanding of web content, Google considers both the IP address and the top-level domain (e.g. .com, .co.uk). Because we attempt to serve geographically relevant content, we factor domains that have a regional significance. For example, ".co.uk " domains are likely very relevant for user queries originating from the UK. In the absence of a significant top-level domain, we often use the web server's IP address as an added hint in our understanding of content.

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2007/08/server-location-cross-linking-and-web.html

From JohnMu, Google employee:

Yes, we do try to find context from these two factors (I think this article is being updated to be a bit more clear though :)) -- however, if your site has a geographic TLD/ccTLD (like .co.nz) then we will not use the location of the server as well. Doing that would be a bit confusing, we can't really "average" between New Zealand and the USA... At any rate, if you are using a ccTLD like .co.nz you really don't have to worry about where you're hosting your website, the ccTLD is generally a much stronger signal than the server's location could ever be.

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Webmasters/thread?tid=2e61e49baa5a6eaf

JohnMu again:

Hi w1ckedsick
Apart from SEO, I would look at it from a user's perspective. If your site is hosted in France and your users are mostly in France, then chances are they're going to have a great connection to your server (high speed, low latency). If your users are mostly in New Zealand and your server is hosted in France, chances are that their connection to your server isn't going to be the greatest. Google - and other search engines - assume that you thought about this and have located your server in the rough area where you expect your users to be, which is why we use the server location as an aid in determining the geotargeting of your website.

That said, we know this is not always possible and sometimes local hosting companies aren't up to the task of hosting a high-powered server with great internet connectivity. This is why we provide the option in Webmaster Tools for websites that use gTLD domain names (.com, .net, .org but also .eu and .asia).

So if you are using a ccTLD (like .fr) then you generally do not need to worry about the rest (outside of making sure that your users are happy :)) because it's pretty clear where the users you are targeting are going to be. If you are using a gTLD, you can either use the server location or the setting in Webmaster Tools to give us this information.

Hope it helps!
John

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Webmasters/thread?tid=47f5a80425881a1b&hl=en

Bottom line is Google understands it's not always possible to host in your target country for whatever reason. You just need to give them an indication of the location in 1 or 3 ways.

Although as David said, speed is an important factor.
 

shags38

Top Contributor
Nearly all my sites are hosted in US and target Australians and don't seem to suffer. I did move a big one over to AU hosting as a kind of test but it didn't seem to make any impact on ranking (although perhaps speed was slightly better which is good for user experience)

I think when it comes to a ranking factor, it's kind of a Yes/No rather than a scale. Is it a .au domain - if yes, ranking boost for Aussie searches. Is it hosted in Australia, if yes ranking boost for Aussie searches. IOW i don't think you'll get a double boost for hosting an .au domain locally.

Djuqa, my AU websites hardly rank outside of Australia... Can you share the stats of any of your sites - proportion from o/s etc?

David - thanks for that. Interestingly you mentioned SPEED - that is in fact the specific aspect that Google assesses as being a factor in hosting offshore (for any TLd) and that is validated in some fashion by it being a reporting criteria in Webmaster Tools. Also interestingly the latest algorithm adjustments, Panda, put an emphasis on supposed quality of a site (page) which is as I alluded to in another post somewhat ridiculous - however having said that SPEED of loading of a site is now apparently going to have more "juice" or influence attached to it as it can be quantifiable as a "quality" factor for user experience.

cheers,
Mike
 

snoopy

Top Contributor
Hosting in the USA the load times will be significantly slower for Australian visitors (everything else being equal), would be trying to host in Australia.
 

shags38

Top Contributor
From Google Webmaster Central Blog:



http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2007/08/server-location-cross-linking-and-web.html

From JohnMu, Google employee:



http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Webmasters/thread?tid=2e61e49baa5a6eaf

JohnMu again:



http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Webmasters/thread?tid=47f5a80425881a1b&hl=en

Bottom line is Google understands it's not always possible to host in your target country for whatever reason. You just need to give them an indication of the location in 1 or 3 ways.

Although as David said, speed is an important factor.

Excellent input not last page ......... good to see some meaty responses - that really covers my query 100% - many thanks.

cheers,
Mike
 

James

Top Contributor
It depends what type of site you are running.

If you are running a small site then It would only have a very small impact.

Yet if you are running a ecommerce site it is advisable to host it where your user base is. Matt Cutts released a video recently confirming it is a factor.

From my tests, I feel it is worth it hosting in Aus if your site is a .com.au =)
 

shags38

Top Contributor
Hosting in the USA the load times will be significantly slower for Australian visitors (everything else being equal), would be trying to host in Australia.

Spot on Snooper ..... problem is that you cannot get "everything else being equal" - unfortunately the hosting in Australia is both expensive and archaic from a user self management online of domains is concerned = user CP - so very, very antiquated by comparison to some of the very smik ones in the U.S.

I have only recently transferred a truck load of dot coms from an Australian Registrar to GoDaddy and I wish I had done it ages ago - it really is like going from the horse and buggy to a motor car as far as the user domain management experience goes - there is nothing a user cannot do themselves very simply, and it is as cheap as chips to boot. (yes I am a happy chappy :D )

cheers,
Mike
 

shags38

Top Contributor
It depends what type of site you are running.

If you are running a small site then It would only have a very small impact.

Yet if you are running a ecommerce site it is advisable to host it where your user base is. Matt Cutts released a video recently confirming it is a factor.

From my tests, I feel it is worth it hosting in Aus if your site is a .com.au =)

Totally agree if the site is an e-commerce site, absolutely. If just a feeder or a monetized site then it appears it should be OK from what I have read so far.

cheers,
Mike
 

snoopy

Top Contributor
Spot on Snooper ..... problem is that you cannot get "everything else being equal" - unfortunately the hosting in Australia is both expensive and archaic from a user self management online of domains is concerned = user CP - so very, very antiquated by comparison to some of the very smik ones in the U.S.

I have only recently transferred a truck load of dot coms from an Australian Registrar to GoDaddy and I wish I had done it ages ago - it really is like going from the horse and buggy to a motor car as far as the user domain management experience goes - there is nothing a user cannot do themselves very simply, and it is as cheap as chips to boot. (yes I am a happy chappy :D )

cheers,
Mike

Yes it is generally more expensive. Personally using Ventraip at the moment. If the site has reasonable revenue it is likely worth paying more for hosting. I think there is plenty of Australian hosts with similar services/features to US based hosts, I think it is just a price difference.
 

GGroup

Regular Member
Spot on Snooper ..... problem is that you cannot get "everything else being equal" - unfortunately the hosting in Australia is both expensive and archaic from a user self management online of domains is concerned = user CP - so very, very antiquated by comparison to some of the very smik ones in the U.S.

I have only recently transferred a truck load of dot coms from an Australian Registrar to GoDaddy and I wish I had done it ages ago - it really is like going from the horse and buggy to a motor car as far as the user domain management experience goes - there is nothing a user cannot do themselves very simply, and it is as cheap as chips to boot. (yes I am a happy chappy :D )

cheers,
Mike

Generally speaking, I used to feel the same way regarding US vs. Aus hosting. But, recently, I think VentraIP has been bridging that gap.

I'd recommended anyone to give them a try. The more who become VentraIP customers, the more the economies of scale will tip in their/our favour (I would hope).
 

neddy

Top Contributor
But, recently, I think VentraIP has been bridging that gap.

I'd recommended anyone to give them a try. The more who become VentraIP customers, the more the economies of scale will tip in their/our favour (I would hope).

Agreed! I find them excellent to deal with; and if you can get in on one of their occasional super specials, then it is even better! :)
 

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