influence of hosting geographical location for MSN

[osviweb]

Hello all
We have an italian site about a local business in tourism.
Local searches are important for us , also in MSN.

I'd like to move the vps hosting in Usa but I'm concerning about the influence of this on seo for msn expecially.

I've read a lot about it and I know that for G and Y this influence may not be crucial.

I've tried to check hosting location of first 10 sites on our local keyword (agenzia di viaggi = travel agency )and the first 8 are hosted locally.

Can you please give me a suggestion and share your previous experiences?
thanks

[osviweb]

up (hope is possible):D

[jimbeetle]

Hi osviweb.

I guess nobody here has much experience with MSN and local search. I know I sure as heck don't. But I suspect that you finding 8 of the top 10 results to be hosted in Italy indicates host location to be at least somewhat important. How important I wouldn't know.

Before making any moves I'd suggest you do the same analysis with Google and Yahoo results, then weigh the decision in light of the ultimate importance of each search engines' traffic for your business.

[AussieWebmaster]

I would keep the Italian site in Italy hosting and start a new site in English and host in US

[osviweb]

thanks everybody
On Yahoo an Google I confirm that this influence is minor but on MSN almost all the Local Serach Result I find are hosted in the same country as the requested location.
I've decided to keep the host in Italy but this is an annoying limitation.

[NewKidOnTheBlock]

Hey osviweb,

why is it an annoying limitation? I don't understand what the problem with this is. I understand its a problem for somebody who started hosting his site in the US and then finds out he should move it to a local host, but if youre already hosting it with a local host, whats the problem? The only problem I can see is the hosting cost, but hosting costs have decreased so much that you can have a decent shared hosting package for 10 bucks/month, which shouldnt be a problem if youre running that site for an actual business? (I'm not trying to be a wise-guy, I'm just curious :-)).

Also: just because you see mostly sites that are hosted in countries other than italy on Google/Yahoo doesn't mean it isn't important in these search engines. It might just be less of a criteria, or there might be another reason. Plus you never know what the engines decide to do, so it's better to have your site hosted in your local country, just in case Google decides that hosting location is a more important part in their algorithm all of a sudden. For 10 bucks or so/month I wouldn't take the risk.

EDIT: Oh and don't beat us at the world cup again LOL

[savantcreative]

I would keep the Italian site in Italy hosting and start a new site in English and host in US

That is exactly what I would do as well. It is the safest bet there is. There are so many ifs and grey areas with SEO that I prefer not to gamble.