Why your server's location affects your website's speed
The distance between your server and your visitors adds delay to every page. Here's how to choose a location.
When someone opens your website, their browser sends requests to your server and waits for the answers. Each request travels physically, through cables, to wherever the server is. The farther away it is, the longer each trip takes.
A single trip between Pakistan and the United States takes far longer than one within Pakistan. And loading a page isn't one trip: the browser makes several, one after another, to fetch the page, its styles, scripts and images. The delay adds up.
Why it matters
- Visitors notice. Slower pages lose visitors, especially on mobile connections.
- Search engines notice. Google uses page speed as one of its ranking signals.
- Shops notice. Every extra second at checkout costs sales.
How to choose a location
Put your server close to most of your visitors, not close to you.
- Visitors mostly in Pakistan: Karachi.
- The Gulf and Middle East: Dubai.
- The UK and Europe: London or Frankfurt.
- North America: Dallas or Toronto.
- Southeast Asia and Australia: Singapore.
What if visitors are everywhere?
Pick the location nearest your largest group, then add a CDN (content delivery network). A CDN keeps copies of your images, styles and scripts in cities around the world, so visitors fetch them from nearby. The page itself still comes from your server, but most of the weight doesn't.
You choose the location for each plan when you order, so a business with customers in two regions can host each site where it's needed.