Does hosting matter?

**Spectrum** · 02-21-2010, 06:26 PM

Originally Posted by kschweick

I know this thread is a little old, but there are posts saying both that location does and does not matter for Google and I want to clear that up: Google does use the IP address to figure out where the server is, and that is important for a real estate website because you are likely to show up in local results. That being said, if you sign up for Google Webmaster Tools (just Google it) you can set your location to anything you want regardless of the IP address.

Another thing to think about is if your server is far away then expect the load times to be at least slightly affected by the physical distance between it and the client.

Agreed. However local hosts have problems .e.g if you are in the UK you will find a local host will charge a lot more than the popular hosts in America. Also you will find you aren't getting anywhere near the same deal for your money and that the tech it is hosted on isn't up to the same scratch. Webmaster tools is the way to go.

**homefish** · 03-08-2010, 05:25 PM

I host off of dreamhost, because it's easy enough to setup - and I host a private git repo that is over 3 GB. I plan on switching to a VPS if my site gets successful.

That being said, you are probably better off starting with a VPS if you know how to set it up, as your site will have better availability, guaranteed cpu, and you can run anything you like.

I've had good experiences with slicehost, but I dont hear bad things about any of the linux based vps's.