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How do UK IPs Fare abroad in terms of search?

September 17th, 2010

You should not be penalised in other countries but search engines may feel that your pages are more relevant for the UK than other countries depending on a number of settings and rules.  Search engines estimate how the website is relevant for a particular country and they determine it by the following factors:

- IP address on hosting
- Where hosting company is located
- What are the contact details on the website
- TLD domain – e.g. .co.uk / .com etc.
- Where they get their inbound links – from UK websites, USA websites and other global websites
- Language of the content
- Settings in the Google Webmasters Console

So, for instance, for some combinations of these factors you won’t be able to rank in the USA – e.g. if you use a .co.uk domain and host on an IP within a UK network. If, however, you use a .com TLD but host with a UK hosting company, you will be able to appear in the US but will be at a slight disadvantage. However, you are able to set your preferred location in the Google Webmasters Console, so you can pick whether you are more relevant for the USA or the UK, which should alleviate any problem.

Obviously if you move to host in the USA, you may face similar problems with ranking in the UK and other International markets.

On top of all these issues, the website should be optimised for the relevant search engines and to ensure all the normal SEO rules are followed.

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