In the past, it made the most sense that Australian users would host with Australian hosting companies, but as the Internet has exploded into what is a vast and ever-expanding universe today, overseas hosting companies have enticed Australian users with various niceties such as lower prices, more storage, superior specs, etc.

Yet, over the past decade, Australian hosting has rapidly grown and continues to, and as a result of this, we’re seeing a lot more reasons why Australian users should host with an Australian hosting company, as well as reasons you shouldn’t host overseas.

Google can penalise you

So, basically, when you create a website, you get assigned an Internet Protocol (IP) address, which relates to the geographical location of your website. As, Google prefers to match an Australian user with Australian websites, but when your website is based overseas, it isn’t considered an Australian website because of an overseas IP address — even if it’s an Australian business. Sucky Google search = sucky search engine optimisation (SEO), and that means sucky business.

Aussie Benefit: Having your website based in Australia can positively affect your SEO than having it based overseas.

Tech support can fail you

I’ve come to realise while working for an Australian hosting company that time is money, for businesses at least. If a website problem occurs in the middle of the day, but your hosting provider is overseas where it’s midnight and there is little (or no) tech support on-hand, you could consider yourself losing money by the second.

Aussie Benefit: Most Australian hosting companies will have tech support that is ready at any time of day, and well, simply awake.

Time zones can be different

Wherever the web server is located in the world, is the time zone that it will be configured to. Which is okay, but will be confusing for you to understand. You can re-configure your website(s) to your correct time zone, but this will just create more confusion when it comes to checking the timing of visitors’ activities and website analytics; adding more sticks to the fire.

The difference in time zones also detrimentally affects your website(s) when the overseas web host is performing scheduled maintenance. Backups and updates like this are usually done overnight where traffic is considered to be at it’s lowest, but when you’re time zones are different, scheduled maintenance may clash with high traffic.

Aussie Benefit: Hosting in only one country eliminates confusion with times, and time-zone clashes with scheduled maintenance.

Exchange rates can fluctuate

Just when you think you’ve gotten an awesome deal with an overseas hosting provider in another currency, bam, down falls the exchange rate — what was once a cheap deal, now becomes twice the price. Although this is a potential situation, wouldn’t you rather currency stability over “more bang for your buck”?

Aussie Benefit: An Australian price will always be the same price, with no unexpected changes.