Does Server location effect SEO?

I currently run my forum on a VPS based in the UK and am struggling with the server resources and looking to moving to Dedicated. What I did notice was that anything outside the UK is a lot better value.

I managed to find a Dedicated Box for the same price as my VPS, but the catch being its based in France.

My forums market is mostly UK/US based, though of course welcomes any english speaking person.

Will having the server based in france effect my SEO? For example, will Google and other search engines start putting my site down as french and lower it in UK/US searches?

Any feedback here would be great, thanks

I've checked a few sources. It seems that your domain extension would have more impact on how traffic is channeled from the various country specific Google search pages (.co.uk vs .com. etc.)

From your records, I see that you have a .net extension, and your forum does not have regionally specific content from what I can see.

The other factor to consider is that the country you would host in has a different official language than the language of your forum.

My expectation is that you will not notice much of a difference if any, although the only way you can be certain is to make the move.

If you're not targeting the UK, then you might even choose a US hosting provider if you can get better pricing.

Re: Physical location of web server and SEO

I would be interested in hearing if other customers have experiences related to this that they are willing to share.

See Is SEO affected by server location