The amount of misinformation floating around the web as it relates to search engine optimization is staggering. It seems that 9 out of every 10 posts I read contains blatantly wrong advice. I am begininning to think that some very sneaky SEO pro’s are spreading incorrect info on purpose.
Here is a thread I came across today over at DevShed Forums – the poster is asking the following question:
Hi all,
I’m based in Australia, and looking around for a VPS host. It’s down to 2 options, local or US hosting. I’m told that if my host is in Australia, that will help my Australian search ranking, but that if my host is in the US, it will help my US ranking. Is this really true? Why would it be so? Is it some kind of algorithm that assumes added relevance if the host is local?
Some of the responses (as quoted below) were quite interesting and only added to the confusion.
“yes it is true, but it is not necessary that you need to host in particular country.”
“Server location affects the ranking in Search Engine Result Pages (SERP) but not always”
“It depends on what and where you are targeting rather than the server location”
“this is one of the factor among 1000 which affect your ranking”
“Constant work on the website will improve the website ranking on Google dot com too”
It seems like the object of the above replies was to keep the original poster as confused as possible!!