Should you factor in server location when choosing a host for your website? The answer to this question is a resounding yes. Selecting the best server location for your needs can boost the performance of your website.
You may be surprised to learn that the proximity of your server to your users has a direct effect on page loading speed. So, it’s worth it to spend some time selecting your hosting server location. Fortunately, selecting a different location doesn’t require you to pay more, but it certainly can pay dividends when it comes to the performance of your website!
Take a look at some facts on the connection between your hosting server’s location and the loading speed of your website. Plus, learn some tips on how to select the right data center as well as steps you can take to optimize your website.
How Server Location Can Affect Your Site’s Performance
No website loads instantly. Even the most highly optimized ones still take a few milliseconds, and in most cases, anything below one second can be considered blazingly fast. Naturally, you want your website to load as fast as possible.
There are plenty of factors, such as images and scripts, that influence how fast a site loads. Even a WordPress user with bloated themes and plugins can experience slowdowns. Essentially, every web page is a collection of files that need to be loaded, and the heavier these files are, the longer it will take.
But did you know that physical distance, i.e., where the server is located, plays a big role in website performance? It does! Turns out, the further away you are from a site’s server, the longer it takes for your request to be processed and the website to load. These days, this is less of an issue thanks to faster average internet speeds, but it’s still a factor to bear in mind.
How to Pick the Ideal Server Location for Your Site
Most reputable web hosts provide you with multiple options when it comes to data centers. That means you can choose where your server is located, and in most cases, it won’t cost you extra. The question is, how do you find the server location that’s best for your website? Let’s go through a short checklist of criteria to help you make the right decision:
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Consider your target audience. If most of your visitors reside in the USA, you’ll want to pick a data center located in or close to the USA for optimal performance.
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Research which data centers your web host offers. Most web hosts include this information somewhere on their site, but you may have to search for it.
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Check your data center’s performance. There are plenty of sites that will provide you with overviews of the performances of popular web hosts. That should give you an idea of whether they’re worth paying for, even if they don’t include individual data center tests.
But, what if you’ve already paid for dedicated servers that are not in optimal locations? Don’t worry, you still have options. The simplest solution is to ask your hosting provider to migrate your server setup to a better location.
On the other hand, if you don’t have the option of moving to a more advantageous hosting server location, you might consider switching hosts. All you need to do is find a provider that offers multiple data center options and determine if they offer help for new users to migrate sites to their platform.
As a note, you can always migrate your site manually, which isn’t a particularly complicated process.
Which Country Is Best for Server Hosting?
The answer to this question depends on the location of most of the people who use your website. If the majority of your users are in the United States, then the United States is a suitable server location. Your goal is to find a location offering the shortest distance between your users’ computers and the server so the signal can travel swiftly.
Perhaps the majority of your audience is situated in Europe. If so, then what is the optimal server location? The same proximity rule applies. A server located in Europe would be the optimal choice if the majority of your users are there.
Maybe you have a large number of users throughout the United States as well as countries in Europe and Asia. Where is the best server location for worldwide traffic? A Content Delivery Network, or CDN, is an option for handling widespread traffic. Instead of utilizing one server, a CDN sends information to a collection or network of servers.
How to Further Optimize Your Site’s Performance
Before wrapping up, it’s important to mention that simply moving your server to a new location is probably not enough to result in a drastic increase in performance.
If your site isn’t optimized, consider compressing your images and minifying your scripts. Taking these steps can contribute to decreasing loading speeds. Or, if you’re a WordPress user, there are plenty of plugins available to shave a few milliseconds off page loading time.
In addition, you might want to look into the option of setting up a Content Delivery Network (CDN) for your website. This type of service will set up cached copies of your site in data centers around the world. It helps in minimizing the impact distance has on website performance.
Picking the Perfect Location for Your Dedicated Server
Finally, don’t let a less-than-optimal server location drag down your website’s performance. You deserve to have the best host and server location, so your website is firing on all cylinders to fulfill the needs of your users.
Best-case scenario? You know where the majority of your users are and choose a web host that’s able to provide you with the absolute best server location. Hooray! You’ve set your website up for success from the get-go. However, if your current website would benefit from a better server location, you can always migrate to a provider that’s willing to offer you more options. Either way, you have access to the tools you need to ensure your website is functioning at its best for your users!
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