How hosting location affects SEO and web design for international audiences

Have you ever thought about how hosting location affects SEO and web design for international audiences? Here’s a quick rundown of how it works.

The server location is the area of the physical data center on which your website lives. The geographic location of your website’s digital home actually makes a pretty big difference to its performance, so it’s something you should definitely think a little deeper about. 

For context, a server that’s closer to the user loads your website a LOT faster. This isn’t just a matter of convenience—it plays a big role in your SEO results, too, because Google likes fast websites. 

How does server location affect website performance and SEO? 

When a server is physically closer to the person who’s just landed on your website, data transfer from the server to their browser happens faster. This means when they click on any page on your website, it’ll load quite speedily. 

On the flip side, when someone is far away from the server, data has further to travel to get to their browser, so they may end up having to wait for your pages to load. It can stretch to anything from 3 to 10 seconds, and unfortunately, most people just aren’t going to wait that long. 
 

Latency and website speed 

Latency is the delay (in milliseconds) between the action your user takes (like clicking a link) and when the server kicks in and does the action. Quite a lot of things can contribute to this number, but the distance of the server is a big one. 

Think of this in old-school terms—like pigeon post. The further away your destination, the longer it’s going to take for your pigeon to get there. It’s pretty much the same with data—the further it has to travel, the longer it takes to arrive. 

Obviously, this slows down the time it takes to load because the user’s browser is waiting for the information to arrive so it can create the page. And if you’ve got images or videos on your page, it’s going to take even longer because there’s more data in those kinds of files than there is in plain text. 

Content delivery 

Ever been on a website where the images haven’t loaded properly? It can make the experience worse because the page looks boring, or you can’t view important diagrams, which is really a damper on the user experience. 

With most companies catering to a global market these days, choosing a server that’s close to your target audience can seem kind of impossible. Which is why CDNs became a thing. Content delivery networks put copies of your site’s important data on a bunch of virtual servers around the world, so wherever your user is browsing from, there should be a server right around the same area. 
 

How server location affects SEO rankings 

Server location makes your site load faster, and faster loading makes Google like your website more. When it comes to rankings, Google can be a little bit biased and bump up the sites it particularly likes. A whole lot of factors can sway your rankings here: 

Page load speed 

Page load speed is actually a direct ranking factor in SEO. Faraway servers slow things down, which can annoy users. Google sees this as a bad thing and knocks you down the rankings, even if your SEO is on point. 

Server response time 

This is the delay between your user doing something and the first byte of data from the server being delivered. As we’ve already discussed about pigeon posts, the more distance between the browser and the server, the more time it’s going to take for this to happen… And the lower down the page, you’re going to end up. 

Local vs. Global 

If Google notices that the person searching for something online is from a country far away from your website’s server, it assumes that your site isn’t very relevant to the searcher and lowers your rankings quite a bit. It’s a bit archaic in today’s e-commerce world, but it’s something you need to deal with. A CDN is the best way to get rid of this issue. 

Impact of hosting location on web design 

Interestingly, your host’s server location also has an effect on website design. A simple design doesn’t need a lot of data to load nicely, but more detailed designs with a lot of media have a good few more bytes involved. 

Multi-language support 

Language that works for a US audience won’t have the same effect on a South African audience, for example. Tools like Hreflang tags can improve your overall SEO by signaling to search engines which language version to display for different users. 

A well-designed site will have multi-language support enabled and keep a sleek, good-looking design without breaking anything as the language changes. Keep in mind that if some languages are read from right to left, and your audience includes people who speak those languages, your website design will need to accommodate that. 

Accessibility and user experience 

You want everyone to be able to use your site, even people who have disabilities. If people are blind, colorblind, or even hard of hearing, you might have to make some changes to your site so they can access it, too. 

A server that’s far away and causing slow loading times can really hamper people’s ability to access your site. Even if they do manage to, it might not be a smooth sailing experience and could eventually lead to some users avoiding your site altogether. 
 

Effects on international audiences 

Using a host who has local servers isn’t just for convenience. It can take a whole lot of stress off your plate if you set this up correctly from the start. 

Catering to different time zones 

You’ll need to schedule website updates, maintenance, and backups at a time that doesn’t disrupt your site’s availability in various places. This is where hosting companies with multiple data centers can be handy because they can shuffle times to suit your audience. 

Adapting to local search engines 

Keep in mind that different countries might use different search engines. Google isn’t the king everywhere! For example, Baidu is big in China, and Yandex is the main one in Russia. SEO is SEO, no matter what search engine you’re using, though. However, it’s good to know that different search engines might have slightly different algorithms. 

Handling international regulatory requirements 

Meeting international data privacy laws for each country is hugely important. And it all depends on WHERE your host’s servers are. You’ll need to be compliant with those laws, not necessarily the laws where your users are. 

Managing international payment systems 

International audiences might prefer different payment methods to what you’re used to. Make sure your hosting platform works with a bunch of different payment methods so your customers can buy no matter where they are. 
 

Best practices for choosing hosting locations

So, how do you pick the right host? First things first—nail down the information you need to know about your audience and your own business before finding a host that fits. 

• Assess your audience demographics: Figure out where your audience is. It might be just one place, it might be a few, or it could be all over the world. Knowing this will give you a good indication of where you should think about hosting your site and if you need a CDN or not. 
• Balance cost and performance: You’ll need to consider your budget versus what kind of performance you need out of a host. Choosing cheap hosting (like shared hosting) will save you cash upfront but can actually harm your site’s performance. Going slightly more expensive will give you a huge SEO and performance boost, so it’s going to be more worthwhile in the long run. 
• Evaluate host reputation: Do your homework on the hosting providers you’re considering. Don’t just stick to what the host says about themselves, either—dig a bit deeper and look into what real users are saying before making your choice. 
   

Conclusion 

Hosting isn’t just your site’s online home. There’s a LOT that goes into it, and your final choice of web host can make a big difference (positive or negative) in how your site works for your users. 

Think carefully when choosing your web host, especially if you have a worldwide audience. It makes a much bigger difference than you think. Don’t let this ruin your success from the start! Analyze your audience and decide on your budget, but don’t skimp on hosting. It could be one of the biggest factors in your success. 

About the author 
Paul Wheeler runs a web design agency that helps small businesses optimize their websites for business success. He aims to educate business owners on all things website-related at his own website, Reviews for Website Hosting. 
 

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