Hi,
I am the webmaster for a website selling clothing.  My website is end
with .com but my business is based in Australia.  I currently have web
hosting with an Australian hosting company, because the server is
often down at weekend so I plan to switch my webhosting to Hostgator
hosting company in USA.
If I change my hosting to USA hosting it means I will have to change
my IP address to a new IP address.  My question is:

Will my website ranking drop when I have the new IP address/ Hosting
from another country?

At the moment, my website is on the 1 st page of Google.com.au;
Yahoo.com.au for a number of keywords and I would not like to see my
website ranking drop.

I have also targeted customers in north America (including Canada) and
I have heard that if I have web hosting based in the countries, will
help my website rank better on google.com.  Is it true?
Many thanks in advance!

G'day stella. Welcome to the forum!

My memory tells me that the very same question was asked on SR, just a week or so back. That may be the reason that the experts haven't responded. Some differing opinions were given. Suggest you find the post and study it.

In order to be better accepted you may wish to consider the following suggestions:

*  Give yourself a photo avatar so we can see with whom we are talking.

*  Australia's a pretty big place. You might like to tell us what part you come from.

*  Respond to the posts of other members, especially when they've taken the trouble to assist you. Just like you, they don't get paid for this, ya know.

*  There is a heap of good info in the archived posts and articles, though sometimes a bit hard to find what you want. But if you keep an eye on SR every day or so you won't miss much.

*  SR can be the way in for you to a wealth of valuable info throughout the web. Check out the links in Gypsy's sig and follow other links from his sites. Get onto his FriendFeed pages and you'll find your way to the blogs of the SEO and SEM industrie's greats.

Just for interest: I'm from Bega on the NSW Far South Coast. I'm currently in Cooma on the Monaro, child minding for a couple of weeks.

Yesterday I went motorbike riding with my grandson around Lake Eucumbene and not only could we see the snow capped mountains of the Kosciuszko National Park but we rode around small, remaining snow drifts in the paddocks and among the snowgums.

Best wishes,
Laurie.

Hi Stella.

Have a look at this post: http://forums.site-reference.com/topic/ … -rankings/ It's a couple of years old but may be helpful.

As you'll see, it can be pretty involved stuff. Take note of matte's comment.

Regards,
Laurie.

stella99 wrote:

Hi,
I am the webmaster for a website selling clothing.  My website is end
with .com but my business is based in Australia.  I currently have web
hosting with an Australian hosting company, because the server is
often down at weekend so I plan to switch my webhosting to Hostgator
hosting company in USA.
If I change my hosting to USA hosting it means I will have to change
my IP address to a new IP address.  My question is:

Will my website ranking drop when I have the new IP address/ Hosting
from another country?

At the moment, my website is on the 1 st page of Google.com.au;
Yahoo.com.au for a number of keywords and I would not like to see my
website ranking drop.

I have also targeted customers in north America (including Canada) and
I have heard that if I have web hosting based in the countries, will
help my website rank better on google.com.  Is it true?
Many thanks in advance!

I would be very careful with this if your primary target marketing is the AU... one of the more defining aspects is the physical location of the website.... here's the main factors;

1.physical location (IP/hosting)
2. domain extension
3. contact information
4. inbound links (when targeting AU we want more .AU links)

One of the better ways of targeting AU and a secondary market in North America is to register a .com and host it in the AU... then once rankings take hold locally, start building NA links and grab a postal box/toll free number in the NA market.

BUT if you move it part and parcel there is every chance it will affect your AU rankings unless it is an older authority site ...

I've had my sites US hosted for many years - also after giving up on AU hosts

For the .au domains I find it has had no affect at all, it seems the .au takes care of everything when searching using google AU, which it seems just prioritises the results for those with a .au domain.

Maybe this should be used as well

<META name="distribution" content="Australia">

That said, the site has been active since 1995, so has a age factor in there as well

[I would be very careful with this if your primary target marketing is the AU... one of the more defining aspects is the physical location of the website.... here's the main factors;

1.physical location (IP/hosting)
2. domain extension
3. contact information
4. inbound links (when targeting AU we want more .AU links)

One of the better ways of targeting AU and a secondary market in North America is to register a .com and host it in the AU... then once rankings take hold locally, start building NA links and grab a postal box/toll free number in the NA market.

BUT if you move it part and parcel there is every chance it will affect your AU rankings unless it is an older authority site ...]
My website is only about 10 months old.  My concern is not only with Google but with other SE's as well,  I also posted my question to Google Webmaster forum but they (including a Google employee) did not answer correctly my questions.  I think your answer makes sense and thanks a lot for it.   One thing to ask you that if you know any good web hosting company in Australia that would  not charge a lot of money?  I would not like to switch to US hosting but because they charge much cheaper and more reliable, if we compare to AU hosting.

matte wrote:

That said, the site has been active since 1995, so has a age factor in there as well

That's the thing as I said, older established sites seem to be be affected nearly as much as newer sites...  so your situation may fall under that.....

stella99 wrote:

IMy website is only about 10 months old.  My concern is not only with Google but with other SE's as well,  I also posted my question to Google Webmaster forum but they (including a Google employee) did not answer correctly my questions.  I think your answer makes sense and thanks a lot for it.   One thing to ask you that if you know any good web hosting company in Australia that would  not charge a lot of money?  I would not like to switch to US hosting but because they charge much cheaper and more reliable, if we compare to AU hosting.

Unfortunately I don't know any AU hosting companies.... there are a few Aussies here, hopefully they will have some leads for you....

Unfortunately I don't know any AU hosting companies.... there are a few Aussies here, hopefully they will have some leads for you....

I don't either - so $#@!!! expensive and generally &^#$@!! po0r support.

Thats why I use a US host

matte wrote:

Unfortunately I don't know any AU hosting companies.... there are a few Aussies here, hopefully they will have some leads for you....

I don't either - so $#@!!! expensive and generally &^#$@!! po0r support.

Thats why I use a US host

Such eloquent language.

I completely agree...I'm just in the process of moving a clients website from smartyhost (in Aus) to Lonex right now!

Just because your changing your web host why would you have to change your IP address? I thought as long as you're in the same location using the same computer your IP address stays  the same. Am I wrong let me know.
    As far as Web hosts.   I'm using a company out of Canada I've been with them little over a year. I couldn't ask for a better host believe me I've been through some.Their not the cheapest  but in trying to build a business there is no sense being Penny wise and dollar foolish.Only wish I found them three or four years ago.They take care of everything for me.   My sights never been down not even for a minute. They pull  no punches  they you you everything right up front.
you should check them out. <edit>Moderator WS removed Dons suggestion to click on his affiliate/referral link</edit>

Don, your website IP address is where the site is hosted. However this can also change on occasions if the host changes the server your site is hosted on for whatever operational reason they may have.

This differs from your computer's IP address - unless you happen to host your website from your own computer.

Hi everyone,

I have 2 different sites and one is hosted in USA and the other here is Australia, I have just changed the main one over in Australia due to lack of service.

The company im using now is unbelievable for service, they answer emails 24 hours a day 7 days a week and normally within 20 minutes.(Australian company)

A few weeks ago I had a issue at 1.30 in the morning and they helped us for a hour to fix it.

While is isnt cheap the service is fantastic and worth paying the extra for.

Hi Annalise,
So what web hosting server do you have? How long have you been with them and how much they charge you a month? 
Thanks,
Stella99

Hi stella99 ;

Are you concerned about  your site rank dropping if you change host or the cost of hosting at  the potential host? In my opinion, changing host won't affect your rank if your content is consistent with your sites purpose and an effective marketing strategy is employed.

As for a good and cheap host, i'll recommend you try Bluehost.