Thinking of moving from a UK host to a US host

[zsasz24]

Will search results for my site be affected?

I found a few threads on this but the view point differs:

http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?t=280904
http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?t=271512
http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?t=268537

Anyone got experience with this or any info?

Thanks

[chromate]

Not certain. But I can say for my UK sites I host them on a UK server and give them a .co.uk just to give them every chance possible. I don't really see the point in moving your host to the US unless you really have to?

[r2d2]

My .co.uk's are on a US host, and show up fine on UK google search: http://www.google.co.uk/search?num=100&hl=en&safe=off&c2coff=1&q=house+buying+guide&btnG=Search&meta=cr%3DcountryUK%7CcountryGB (#5).

[zsasz24]

I don't have to but Hostgator have got some nice packages at good prices. I've not been able to find equivalent ones in the UK.

[Mullen]

I have a few clients sites which are .com.au's on a US host and they come up fine on the AU google.

[SEbasic]

You should never choose a host based on price. EVER.

In terms of site performance, I run all of my sites on UK hosts and pretty much own the results for the terms I'm targetting. That's on google UK and US.

In the past, when I've moved from a UK to US host I've seen my UK results dissapear and my US results stay stable(ish).

If this is really about the price of hosting, I can put you in touch with a couple of small but very good hosts I know, but you should really never base where you host your sites on price.

[zsasz24]

You're right in saying that. But feedback has generally been really good for hostgator in terms of performance as well..

Recommendations of UK hosts would be appreciated. Post here or PM me as appropriate.

Thanks

[agua]

I heard good things about the following hosts (but I have never used them)

http://www.rshosting.net/

http://www.clook.co.uk/

I did use xcalibre and recommend them, although their prices are quite high

http://www.xcalibre.co.uk/

[Mal]

Clook are very good - truely excellent ticket based technical support. They do both US and UK hosting, and both are equally good products.

I used them for a two-year period, initially for a reseller account but as my website grew, a managed server. I eventually had to jump ship to ServInt because Clook's high end managed servers were too much for my budget.

I've never seen the appeal of hosting in one country over another. I just go with the best service that my budget can cover. The Internet is a global resource and there are very few reasons to go local, only ones I can think of are where low latency is an absolute requirement, hardware access is needed or there are legal reasons like it's a gambling operation.

[SEbasic]

The Internet is a global resource and there are very few reasons to go local,Engines use geotargetting these days which has a fairly large impact on the results of a site within specific locations.

I only ship to the UK, so US traffic is a waste for me. Hence only using UK hosting. :)

[chromate]

Yep, me too. I have an affiliate site that only offers services to UK customers. No point in bothering with US or even other European traffic.

I use 2host.co.uk. Been with them for a few months now and so far I've had no problems. They don't make all their packages public, so contact them if you have specific requirements.

SEbasic, do you have an ecommerce site? If so, how's it going? I'd be interested to get a UK perspective. PM me if you like.

[SEbasic]

Ebasic, do you have an ecommerce site? If so, how's it going? I'd be interested to get a UK perspective. PM me if you like.My situation is kinda complicated...

I've always done affiliate stuff, but the content I use is always unique and totally seperate from the affiliate site, so rankings are good.

I recently brokered a deal with a supplier for one of my main products so I get around 3x more per transaction ~ which is great.

I'm now putting together an ecommerce system to use, because I'm not a big fan of any of the systems on the market.... So the anwser is yes, I run an ecommerce site, but at the moment it's not live and it's not going to be a usual site once it's complete.

Also a whole bunch of my sites were hacked a couple of months ago, which meant I went from doing £xxx a day to doing low £xx a day ~ this meant I've had to continue my full-time job until I can get everything back on track again.

It's a pain in the arse, but at least my work is related to the industry, so I'm not going nuts in the mean time.

[TheOriginalH]

My clients are worldwide, but until recently my sites were all hosted in the UK.

I do have some concerns about hosting in the US - but the value offered by HostGator (www.hostgator.com) recently tempted me to take some space there. Their service has been excellent, as has their speed - but two things still make me cautious about putting high-profile uk sites there: the rumours of ip based localisation in googles serps and the fact that the cheaper hosts tend to really fill the server. Providing they keep on top of users though, the latter shouldn't be an enormous problem.

I've used KDA (www.kdawebservices.com) in the UK for years now. It is nice to have the server based locally, less users and not least the ability to actually talk to and have some sort of relationship with the guys that own it. They are pretty damn good if not competitive with US pricing. I'm in the process currently of prioritising which sites sit where.

[john190]

I have all my .com and .co.uk sites hosted in the US. I have all of my domains hosted in the UK though.

I have done it this one as I have my domains hosted with a good company that I can trust and with my webhosting I have been with them for over 2 years for some of my US sites so I wanted to keep all of my sites with them.