Ooh, the age-old questions… Is it football or soccer? Is European beer better than American? Is Scotch better than Tennessee whiskey? Tough dilemmas…
We’re just kidding. Not only is it not an age-old question because America’s like four generations old, but also, it’s quite obvious to anyone with well-functioning tastebuds that you can’t compare European beer or whiskey to their American counterpart. It’s like comparing apples and oranges. Or better yet, apples and rotten apples.
When it comes to dedicated servers, however, the question is a little more difficult to answer because you can’t just rely on your tastebuds. You have to actually know a little bit about the subject in order to make an informed decision.
So, without further ado – are European dedicated servers better than USA-based ones?
Let’s find out together!
Look For A Reputable Company, Not A Location
See, when it comes to servers, the location is not nearly as important (it actually is, but just for the sake of the argument let’s pretend it’s not) as people make it out to be.
Sure, if you’re targeting a specific region, then you should go with a server in that area. But if you’re not, then it really doesn’t make “that much” of a difference.
What does make a difference, however, is the quality of the hosting company. And that, my friends, is where things get a little complicated.
You see, there are good and bad hosting companies in every country. And while it’s true that there are more bad ones in some countries than others, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the good ones in those countries are better than the good ones in other countries.
It all comes down to the specific company and what they have to offer.
So, if you’re trying to decide between a European and an American server, the best thing to do is look at the specific hosting companies and what they have to offer. Compare the features and the prices and make a decision based on that.
What’s also interesting is that you could have an American company based in Europe. Amazon’s AWS has servers across the globe, and we’re sure most folks would flock to Amazon’s solutions rather than some unknown, local company, even if that meant sacrificing a bit on latency and state of the equipment, as well as some cha-ching.
As you could imagine, big boys usually charge more for the same thing, claiming the better quality of service, more reliability, security etc. but that’s a whole different topic for a whole different time.
For now, we just want to circle back to the point we made earlier, which is to look for a specific company, not their location. And, if you don’t want to waste any more of your time looking for a company – why not give https://evoluso.com/ a try?
Location Matters, And So Do Your Customers
Whether you sell something or not, your online business has customers. Even if you’re just posting rants on a personal blog – you have customers. Some people take the time out of their day to read your content. There’s an exchange there. So, they’re customers.
And, if you’re running a business, they’re also giving you their hard-earned money in exchange for your product, which is the definition of a customer.
So, it only makes sense that you want to make sure your customers are happy, right? And one of the ways to do that is to choose a server that’s close to them.
Let’s paint a picture.
If you’re running an affiliate website or a blog that’s all about beef jerky, where are most of your customers located? Brussels? No, we don’t think so. They’re in the US – almost all of them. So, in that case, are European servers better than the American? No. Not at all.
On the same note, if you’re running an eCommerce store that’s selling vintage Premier League jerseys, there’s a very good chance most of your customers are going to be in Europe. So, in that case, would a European server be better than an American one? Hell yeah!
But why? Well, it’s the “little things” like latency, server response time, and so on.
Basically, you want to make sure your customers have the best possible experience when they visit your website or online store, and when it comes to online experience – there’s nothing that matters more than speed. And, as rules of the internet dictate – the closer the server is to your customer, the faster it’s going to be.
But there’s another thing…
Geographical Authority Is A Thing, And Possibly A Ranking Factor?
You might be confused right now because it may seem like we’re suddenly talking about SEO, and… You’d be right. We are.
Sort of.
You see, when it comes to SEO and search engine rankings, there are all sorts of different factors that come into play. But, one of the things that definitely has an impact on your rankings is your website’s “geographical authority”. It’s a term coined by us, a minute ago, but here’s what it means.
Let’s say you’re running an eCommerce store that sells whatever to Swedish customers. Both the American and the European servers promise to deliver the same speeds, reliability, latency and all that sweet stuff. Which one’s better?
Some of you would probably say the “less expensive one”, seeing how they offer the exact same thing. And, while we can’t argue with that foolproof logic, we can explain to you why it isn’t exactly foolproof. It’s because we’ve tricked you. We haven’t mentioned a major player in this equation – Google.
You see, Google, the almighty ruler of the internet, has concluded that the IP address of the server the website’s hosted on is used to establish its location, which then determines in which “versions” of Google should the website rank.
So, if you want to show up on Google.se, and therefore prove more valuable to your Swedish target audience, you’d choose servers that have a Swedish IP address, which would be European servers.
Final Verdict – Which Servers Are Better?
As you can so obviously see, we haven’t spent much time talking about the technicalities and specs of different servers based in the US or EU. Nor have we mentioned the price (even though EU servers are generally far less expensive). We didn’t do it because neither one of these things matter if they can’t be applied to your specific case.
The only thing that matters is whether or not the server can give your customers the best possible experience. That’s it.
And, based on that, we have to say that European servers are better than American ones… But only if the majority of your target audience is in Europe.
And vice versa.
Hope we made that clear.
