Tips to Choose the Right Location for Your Dedicated Server

With high speed internet and modern servers to support your business, things like geolocation seems to be very trivial nowadays. This is because data transfers across the net so fast that location may not be a prime consideration for the business owners any more. VPS or shared hosting servers may not need a fast speed or performance, but when it is about your dedicated server, then most clients demand reliability, speed and performance.

But despite the high speed of servers, users still experience lag when they try to access data from great distances. This situation arises when a lot of data exchange takes place between the server and the user. In many cases, it is a good idea to have servers in various locations close to the user so that the time taken to transfer the data is minimum. But the fact is that even the fastest connection and the best equipment cannot offer the best performance unless the right location for your dedicated server is chosen.

Is the Geo Location of a Dedicated Server Important? Why?

Slow websites are really very frustrating to the users and often create a negative impact on the business. About 53% mobile users abandon a site if the page takes more than 5 seconds to load. Since every second counts, one potential means to make your website faster is to choose a server’s physical location that is near to your audience or target market.

How Can You Select the Best Location For Your Dedicated Server?

Find Out Where Your Users are From?

The first thing that you should consider is to locate your audience and to observe the different traffic patterns across the network and also identify the high demand regions. Choosing a provider based out of the location can make it a hassle to change hosting to a new location within the provider’s network.  Routing traffic with a great infrastructure will help to create a positive experience. Since distance plays a great role in the performance of your website, choosing a dedicated server that is close to the location of your audience will benefit.

Is Your Data Center Close to the Internet Exchange Point (IXP)?

The closeness of the dedicated server to the user can create a great impact on the performance of your website. But this will have very little difference if the distance between the IXP and the data center is too great. The infrastructure through which the internet passes, the IXP serves as a crossroad or branding points that offer multiple paths through which the data can travel thereby reducing the bandwidth. Data centers that are located far from the IXP often suffers greater latency as the data has to travel a long distance.

Consider Your Data Centers Performance:

The ideal location of your server will not offer value if it lacks proper infrastructure for the users. Some hosting service providers offer outdated hardware with few provisions for backups and security. The data center may also suffer from inadequate ventilation, fire protection, power and etc. Besides checking the location of your dedicated server, it is also important to consider the infrastructure and if it is worth paying the charges.

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The geographical location of your dedicated server is important as it ensures that your visitors receive the fastest response time to your visitors by hosting the data close to the location of your audience.