Can the Geographic Location of a Web Server Affect SEO

Yes. The physical location of your web server can influence your website's SEO, although the impact is smaller today than it once was. Search engines like Google may use server location as a minor signal to help determine the primary audience of a website.

For example, if your website is hosted in the UK and targets UK visitors, hosting your site on UK based servers can slightly improve regional relevance and reduce latency, resulting in faster loading times for local users. Page speed is a major ranking factor, so geographic proximity remains an advantage.

However, server location is only one small part of SEO. Google primarily uses other stronger signals such as content relevance, backlinks, user engagement, domain settings, and your Google Search Console location targeting.

For further insight, view this Google discussion on how hosting location can influence SEO:

Watch the Google explanation on YouTube