UK Hosting

[Blue Cat Buxton]

Can anyone reccomend a hosting solution with servers in the UK?

I am thinking for UK focused sites and helping Google and other search engines flag them as UK based (without a .co.uk domain)

[Xander]

I can't recommend any as I've found them to be fairly expensive but am interested to know how much a difference it makes. I used to frequent webhostchat.co.uk (which seems to now be forum2.co.uk) where a lot of UK based webhosts are (sort of like WHT).

[chromate]

I'm not sure the location of the host makes any difference does it? I would have thought it's the .co.uk domain that google will use. As xander says, all the UK hosts seem to be quite expensive. I know there's a data center in the London Docklands. I think aj8 hosts his sites there.

[Blue Cat Buxton]

I'm not sure the location of the host makes any difference does it? I would have thought it's the .co.uk domain that google will use.

So to rank well in uk searches it has to be a .co.uk domian then?

I would agree that that is the best way of identifying a uk domain, but what about UK companies that have a .com domain name.

Somewhat offtopic, but will on page factors have a role to play ie "uk hosting" for a web host etc?

I also agree that UK hosts look expensive, and many of those use US datacentres anyway!

[chromate]

So to rank well in uk searches it has to be a .co.uk domian then?

No, not necessarily. I don't think that's the only factor, but it is probably the biggest. I've not really bothered to do any UK based sites, so I'm not too sure.

[incka]

UK hosts cost a fortune. http://www.easily.co.uk offer London based hosting, but you'll be paying a bomb for bandwidth...

[Xander]

The main costs with UK based hosts is bandwidth. I've heard(not sure though) that google uses IP and/or domain to work out country specific pages but have not seen it proven/disproven.

[Blue Cat Buxton]

Just searching around there is a thread on WMW that suggests hosting location does make a difference for non .co.uk domains on UK searches. The example suggests that moving from a german host to UK host significantly improved performance.

The TLD does seem to make a difference. The adventure vacation (.co.uk) site in my sig ranks much better on google.co.uk than on .com

And UK hosting does seem expensive. Very expensive! Cheaper to get a .co.uk domain I guess!

[r2d2]

Yes, host in the UK, or use a .uk domain will cause Google to associate your site with the UK.

[Mike]

I'm sure one of the members here went with oneandone.co.uk? They advertise everywhere in the UK, may be worth a try...

[moonshield]

i use 1&1 in the US and they work well for my purposes.

[Blue Cat Buxton]

Thanks r2d2, mike & thepoorman

There are some 'solid' looking uk located providers out there, they are just expensive (at the moment anyway £ to $)

It is like $6 for a .co.uk domain or $60+ for basic hosting account. Its a no brainer really.