.ie & US hosting

[bucks]

Hey all, if i was to register a .ie domain and used hosting in the US what sort of effect would this have on google search engine rankings ?

Is it better to have a .ie and Irish based hosting for a site aimed only at the Irish market ?

Cheers,
John.

 

[mneylon]

Is it better to have a .ie and Irish based hosting for a site aimed only at the Irish market ?

In short - yes

 

[bucks]

In short - yes

Thats all the info i need, cheers mate.

 

[davidbehan]

I thought it was that for google (and the likes) to know you were an irish site, you needed to be either:

- a .ie domain, OR
- had it hosted in ireland

Is that not the case? I think I read that on redcardinals website but can't be sure.

I'd recommend hosting in Ireland anyway if you are based here - you'll be much better off!

 

[gary.b]

Yeah - it's an ie domain OR an IP that resolves to someplace in Ireland.

But having an ie domain and being hosted in ireland might be a bit better than having an ie domain and being hosted someplace else.

 

[mneylon]

If your target market is Ireland then hosting here makes sense

Pinging this site from my desktop - 21ms

Pinging $random Irish site in the US - 110ms

Bit of a difference

 

[RedCardinal]

If your target market is Ireland then hosting here makes sense

Pinging this site from my desktop - 21ms

Pinging $random Irish site in the US - 110ms

Bit of a difference

To us maybe, to the average Joe not an issue IMO.

I host all the .ie's I work with in the US. I have a couple of decent reseller accounts that are far better value than anything I could get here.

My view - as long as you fulfil ccTLD OR IP location is suffcient for country filtered/specific searches.

 

[mneylon]

I would, of course, disagree

 

[Arch-Stanton]

Yes, this question has come up on both the seoroundtable and webmasterworld forums. The general consensus is that Google does a combination of both IP and secondly the domain extension to establish the geographical location of domain. (IP address primary, extension secondary)

It makes sense really to categorise domains geographically for Google, as their main income is derived from adwords, therefore their search algorithm is designed mainly for those who use adwords campaigns and choose a geographical location as to where those adwords are displayed, and this can only be done through an IP address.

.

 

[mneylon]

It also makes sense to support the Irish economy....

Designers get very upset when companies use Indians etc., why should hosting be any different?

It's not as if it's expensive these days to host in Ireland

 

[Arch-Stanton]

It's not as if it's expensive these days to host in Ireland

Yes agreed, I see both blacknignt and 365 have a hosting package and domain name for circa the 50 buck range.

These days 50 bucks wouldn't even cover a half decent night on the town.

 

[Gavin]

The past couple of sites I started with a cheap U.S. host and slowly migrated the sites to the countries that I am targetting.

Recently I move my SEO blog to Blacknight hosting, 50 odd Euros it cost me. Setup was very easy and I am loving the control panel.

 

[Sparks]

Yes agreed, I see both blacknignt and 365 have a hosting package and domain name for circa the 50 buck range.

Including a .ie domain name?

 

[mneylon]

Including a .ie domain name?

No

You might, however, be interested in this:
IE Namespace - We Need Personal Domains!

 

[ziycon]

From previous advice and experiance i have found and maintain that having an irish hosting package for a .ie domain helps its rankings on the likes of google.ie!