Impact of server location on international SEO: What you need to know

If you operate an international website with a .com domain, such as Ralfvanveen.com, server location is an important aspect to consider. Today, the physical location of your server has less influence on your SEO performance than it used to.
However, it remains an important factor for load times, user experience and sometimes rankings in local search results. I’ll tell you about how server location affects your international SEO and the solutions you can deploy to optimize your website globally. For example, you can measure pagespeed with the Google Page Speed Tool.
What is server location and why is it important?
Server location refers to the physical place where your Web server resides. This is where your Web site files are stored. They are also processed here. When a user visits your Web site, a request is sent to the server to load the pages. The closer the server is to the user, the faster the site generally loads.
For Ralfvanveen.com, this means that a server in the Netherlands offers fast load times for European visitors. But what if you have a growing audience in, say, North America or Asia? Then a server location that is on the other side of the world for them could actually cause delays.

Google uses load time as one of its ranking factors, meaning that a slow website negatively affects your SEO performance. Although the direct influence of server location on rankings is limited, this factor does play an indirect role through speed and user experience.
How does server location affect international SEO?
A website that loads quickly offers a better user experience. That often translates into lower bounce rates and higher engagement. For international visitors, a server located in another continent can cause delays. Even an extra second of loading time results in a noticeable drop in user experience and ultimately your rankings.
Example: If Ralfvanveen.com only had a server in Europe, a user in Australia might have to wait a few seconds longer. This is frustrating for the user, but also signals to Google that the site is less suitable for that particular audience.
Google and other search engines use a combination of signals to determine in which country a Web site is relevant. Although factors such as a ccTLD (e.g., .nl for the Netherlands) or hreflang tags are more important, server location also contributes to these local signals. A server in a specific country helps build trust with search engines in that area.
Instead of focusing entirely on one server location, use a CDN to make the server location less relevant. A CDN ensures that copies of your Web site are stored on multiple servers worldwide. This means that a visitor in Asia can load Ralfvanveen.com from a server in Singapore, while a visitor in the U.S. does the same through a server in New York. They both benefit from a fast website.
Practical tips for server location and international SEO
A CDN, such as Cloudflare or Akamai, dramatically improves your website load times for international visitors. I recommend this almost by default for clients with international ambitions. For Ralfvanveen.com, we implemented a CDN, which resulted in faster load times in countries outside of Europe without having to move the physical server.
If your website serves multiple languages or regions, hreflang tags are essential. These tell Google which version of your content is appropriate for which target audience. Combined with a well-chosen server location or CDN, this allows you to improve your visibility by region.
If you find that a large portion of your audience comes from one specific region, a local server in that region offers advantages. For example, for Ralfvanveen.com, this could be a server in North America, if that’s where significant traffic comes from.
Use tools such as Google Search Console and PageSpeed Insights to monitor how your website is performing in different countries. If you see that load times are structurally higher in certain regions, an adjustment to your server location or CDN configuration is often needed.

What if you make the wrong choices?
An ill-considered server choice hurts your SEO performance in many cases. I have previously seen projects where companies kept a server in their home country while their largest market was in another continent. This led to longer load times and user frustration. By simply switching to a CDN or adding an additional server location, both the user experience and rankings improved significantly.
Although the direct impact of server location on international SEO has been diminished by tools such as CDNs and hreflang tags, it remains an important part of your technical SEO strategy. For a website like Ralfvanveen.com, it is essential to ensure both speed and relevance for international users. A smart combination of CDN technology, server optimization and monitoring will ensure that your website performs optimally worldwide.