jake

here is one of the responses to the above question, join the discussion to post your answer at our forum:

The advice from Google and most respected SEO consultant is that your site is hosted in the country you are targeting but I know that hosting in US can be much more attractive than hosting in UK sometimes. To negate or reduce the potential adverse effect of hosting in US a UK targeted site, here are some of the things I suggest you do:

i. In Google Webmaster Tool, ensure you let Google know that you are targeting UK by designating it as a UK site
ii. Ensure you use a .co.uk domain name.
iii. In your text, perhaps in your footer, have your address there.
iv. In your title tag, have UK there for example: John Bull's Website - Herts UK

The above should clearly signpost your site as a UK site to search engine bots thereby eliminating or minimising the effect of hosting it in US.

I can add one more advice: register and add your company to Google maps.
Also as Jake said, you can have your address on site but If you place it in special tags it will be much easier for Google to identify your location.
<adress>Company address</adress>
Company address must be in 4 lines:
1 - Name of the company
2 - Postal code, City
3 - Street, house, apartment
4 - Country