UK based users

[cludgie]

Shortly, I may be looking for a new Host.
The site is a Photo Gallery, This will be Coppermine or Gallery2.
I have a Parked Domain and a Addon domain (this is a blog with Word Press)
- its not a busy site -

As a UK based user, is Host Gator a good choice?

My current host is based in the US and unfortunatly over the past while got somewhat slow, looks like we cant resolve the issue.

What do you think?

Regards,
M

[Serra]

Originally Posted by cludgie

What do you think?

HG has many UK users. With the limit choices of hosts in the UK, looking to the US is a good idea. However, because of the distance, access can be slow at times, due to traffic issues. Overall, I'd say you'd be happy, but with the 30 day guarentee, I'd say just do it and see.

[Zorinea]

I have recently paid for HostGator although I havn't got my account yet. I literaly mean recently within the last couple of hours. I come from the UK, I can't give you personal information about HostGator but I have done a lot of reaserch and found HawkHost and HostGator to be the best for my requirements and for being in the UK (if this counts as advertising on HawkHosts behalf just remove it, if not remove this). HostGators space and bandwidth won me over along with excently replys to my pre-sales questions.

[Loget]

Im UK based and hostgator has a truly amazing service

[PaulUK]

I'm UK-based and aside from the current billing issue, I've been happy with Hostgator. I had an EU-based host previously and site load times were nowhere near as quick. It is definitely one of the better shared hosts.

[GillR]

I have no experience of any other paid-for hosting but chose HG after reading lots of reviews and am perfectly happy with them. With the money-back-offer you'd not lose anything by trying them out.

[Keith W]

I am UK based and have used Host Gator for some time now for various different projects and I have been very happy with the service.

Also using a UK based company and servers does not always guarantee you a good service, I have use a few UK companies in the past and the service has left a lot to be desired to put it mildly.

[mosusea]

I know hostgator was talking about getting a UK based server they were beta testing it a while ago

[Keith W]

Originally Posted by mosusea

I know hostgator was talking about getting a UK based server they were beta testing it a while ago

Any reason for the thread necrophilia?

[GatorMikaelN]

Originally Posted by Keith W

Any reason for the thread necromancy?

Fixed that for you. ;P Well.. depending on the intention..

[cmcspace]

How does hosting in the US with co.uk affect things like search engine ranking results etc and seo as a whole?

There is a lot of UK hosts however a lot are not as well experienced as some of the ones i have seen from the US that show much more professionalism and know how in the field of hosting.

I am currently hosted in the UK and barley just cover the cost of renting my VPS server which Im considering downgrading to a reseller account however the resources that are available in the UK are nothing to what hostgator can provide.

The main concern is the loss of rankings, someone told me that the US IP ranges would mess things up.

[virtvir5]

Provided that site "down time" is avoided or minimized, there should be no significant negative impact on SEO rankings. There are some helpful tips on switching site servers here and here .

[Radpower]

Originally Posted by virtvir5

Provided that site "down time" is avoided or minimized, there should be no significant negative impact on SEO rankings. There are some helpful tips on switching site servers here and here .

Thanks for the links, interesting read

[virtvir5]

You're welcome. Perhaps this direct quote from Google's own webmaster central will provide the strongest reassurance:

Switching hosting companies or changing IP address

As long as your URL stays the same, your site's listing in Google shouldn't be affected if you switch hosting companies or change your IP address. We recommend migrating a site to a new IP address with the following steps:

1. Bring a copy of your site up at the new IP address.
2. Update your nameserver to point to the new IP address.
3. Once you see search engine spiders fetch pages from the new IP address (typically within 24-48 hours), it's safe to take down the copy of your site at the old IP address.

[virtvir5]

@errnoi1: Multiple spam posts reported. Smooth move, idiot.

[tobywhite7]

Originally Posted by cludgie

As a UK based user, is Host Gator a good choice?

Yes, I have been with HG for several years and am also based in the UK - can highly recommend them!

[GatorTimC]

If you are concerned about speed for visitors outside the US, you may want to consider utilizing services by one of HostGator's newest partners, Cloudflare.

Cloudflare caches your site's contents on all of its servers around the world. For instance, if you have a visitor from India, that visitor will download your site content from the nearest Cloudflare server instead of from HostGator's servers in the United States. This can increase site loading times and decrease resource usage.

You can read more about our partnership with Cloudflare here: http://support.hostgator.com/article...-is-cloudflare