Hosting your website on servers in Canada is advantageous for several reasons. For starters, you can get faster page loading speeds for Canadian site visitors. Secondly, Canada’s privacy laws mean that you and your data can’t be seized or placed under mass surveillance by international security agencies. Lastly, if you’re targeting Canadians, storing your site on a server in Canada will give you a Canadian IP address. As a result, you will rank higher in search engine results for searches performed by Canadians.
Canadian Hosting Companies vs. Hosts with Canadian Servers
Contrary to what you might believe, just because a web hosting provider is located in Canada doesn’t mean they have servers in Canada. Case in point, Bluehost is a Canadian web hosting company that uses servers in the US. Consequently, you wouldn’t get the benefits of hosting your site on Canadian servers if you chose them as your provider. Therefore, you must always double-check to make sure that you select a host with Canadian servers and not simply a Canadian hosting company.
Advantages of Using a Host with Canadian Servers
When you choose a web hosting provider, you’re also deciding where you’ll be storing your website’s data. This is important because the location of your data affects how quickly your site loads for a visitor, how well your information is protected, and where your website ranks in search engine results.
Therefore, if you’re targeting a Canadian audience, you should seriously consider using a host that offers Canadian servers. Let’s delve a little deeper into the reasons why.
Page Loading Speeds
It’s been proven that the longer someone waits for your website to load, the more likely they are to bounce off your site and never return. Additionally, load speed time is essential for your site’s SEO.
When it comes to page loading speeds, a significant factor is the distance between the server and the computer that is attempting to load the site. In other words, the closer your server is to your target audience, the faster your website will load for them. Therefore, if you’re targeting Canadians, hosting your site on a Canadian server would benefit you.
Search Engine Ranking
If you’re targeting a Canadian audience, you can significantly improve where you rank in searchers performed by Canadians by using servers in Canada. By using a server in Canada, you will get a Canadian IP address. As a result, your site will come up when someone in Canada searches your keyword. This is because Google prioritizes sites that are near where the searcher is located. Therefore, if you were to use a Hosting service with servers in Canada, like GreenGeeks WordPress hosting, for example, you would increase ping, speed, and Canadian traffic to your site.
Data Privacy
Servers in Canada fall under Canadian law, which means the data they contain is protected by the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). This means that, unlike in the United States, the Canadian government doesn’t have the legal right to monitor your communications, access your information or prevent you from accessing your data.
Why You Might Want to Choose a CDN Over a Server in Canada
A CDN or content delivery network helps deliver website content to site users who are not near the website server. It’s consists of a group of servers spread around the globe and functions by quickly transferring the assets necessary for loading internet content. This includes HTML pages, javascript files, stylesheets, images, and videos.
If your web host uses a CDN, they don’t need a data center near your target audience. Consequently, you will have more provider options as you won’t be limited by the criteria that they have servers in Canada.
To Sum Up
Bluehost does not have servers in Canada. This means that if you want to target a Canadian audience, you’re better off choosing a host that has servers in Canada, as this will increase site speed, offer better data privacy, and enhance your search engine ranking. However, there is another option. If you choose a provider that provides a CDN with their hosting packages, this will ensure that no matter the distance between your audience and your servers, site users will experience fast loading speeds.
