Local Search

dante_casablancas · #1 (**permalink**) 05-10-2006, 11:31 AM

I have a question regarding local search and it's relevancy. As a Canadian company, we are showing up very high in Google.ca for all of our main keywords. What is the reason for this? How does the algorithm know that we are a Canadian based company? The only information stating that we are Canadian based is in our Contact Us section where we have our address.

Does having a Canadian IP address be a big reason that we are ranking high in Google.ca?

schmeetz · #2 (**permalink**) 05-10-2006, 05:58 PM

hi dante,

Having your site hosted in Canada would contribute.

Your meta could also indicate your website has Canadian content. It may say <meta http-equiv="Content-Language" content="en-ca"> ???

your site may be in some canadian only directories? I know of one directory that actually indexes your site in Google Local.

Once Google finds out you're Canadian your branded.

SemAdvance · #3 (**permalink**) 05-10-2006, 06:09 PM

Actually it is done through your DNS record if I am not mistaken.

http://whois.sc/www.lucrativedesign.com

Will give you domain information.

Lucrative Design
5455 Whitehorn Ave.
Mississauga, Ontario L5V 1V5
CA

Domain name: LUCRATIVEDESIGN.COM

Administrative Contact:
Dumlao, Lisandro Whois Privacy and Spam Prevention by Whois Source
5455 Whitehorn Ave.
Mississauga, Ontario L5V 1V5
CA

Another reason you do well in Goolge.ca is Google uses localization to force results based on query location.

I have taken two clients from the uk who were using .com URLs to sell products only available in the UK. and have transistioned them to their .co.uk address.

These has what appears to be a two fold effect, slightly better positions in the SERPs.and the more important fact

Improved Sales Conversion..

Seems Brits are loyal as always... and using that knowledge to ones advantage... has led to very good outcomes for both sites.

Hope this helps.

Peace

**incrediblehelp** · #4 (**permalink**) 05-10-2006, 08:27 PM

All of the above! Most are checked by Google:

Whois, DNS record
Hosting location through IP
TLD being .ca
Content targeting Canadians/language

murphypj · #5 (**permalink**) 05-10-2006, 10:18 PM

I have had a problem with this, just over the past few weeks. Mine is a guitarist resource site, mainly featuring songs by US and UK artists. Until recently the site featured at #1 for 'guitar chords' and at #4 for 'chords' on any google search.

Now I find that searches on Google.ie show the same positions, but switching to Google.com I drop to #7 and #6 for these terms. Being Irish, Google search always had the 'search the web' / 'pages from Ireland' option, presumably the same for Canada and all other countries.

This was, to me, a very simple and effective way of narrowing your search geographically, if that's what you wanted.

It seems that Google has now arbitrarily decided that because the Whois, DNS etc. are pointing toward the Emerald Isle, my site has less global significance, but retains it's relevance for searchers in Ireland, even though the content is global, and I feature very few Irish artists.

My inbound links are from websites across the globe, and my content is international ( at least within the English-speaking community ). Why can't Google make it's spatial decision on content, rather than hosting location?

**incrediblehelp** · #6 (**permalink**) 05-10-2006, 10:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by murphypj

Why can't Google make it's spatial decision on content, rather than hosting location?

The hosting location just helps Google designate results. I am sure content comes into play, but who knows how much or exactly how.

Paul B · #7 (**permalink**) 05-11-2006, 02:06 AM

This gets even more complicated:

Google now seems to be serving its local search site based on users' IPs (presumably).

I am in Switzerland, but always had google.com as my search in IE6 Favorites links. About 4 months ago this was suddenly redirected to google.ch. I have reset this to .com, but google keeps losing my 'preferences' and from time time goes back to google.ch.

I can also confirm a problem I had about a year ago with an Australian client who wanted a .com hosted in the USA. His site didn't appear in google.com.au, but did in google.com. We canged the hosting to Australia and it then appeared in google.com.au.

Jabber_uk · #8 (**permalink**) 05-11-2006, 04:12 AM

To make Google.com stick and stop it getting redirected you need to change your Regional Settings Location in Control Panel - worked for me anyway.

Paul B · #9 (**permalink**) 05-11-2006, 04:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jabber_uk

To make Google.com stick and stop it getting redirected you need to change your Regional Settings Location in Control Panel - worked for me anyway.

Thanlks, I'll try that. There are other ways too like entering:
www.google.com/ncr or click the link on a national google to google.com

However, the large mass of 'average' users won't/can't do that...

andy_art_trigg · #10 (**permalink**) 05-11-2006, 06:41 AM

I can't imagine how Google could even remotely rely on where a site is hosted to determine anything. Surely site hosting services are one of the best examples of a business that can be done from anywhere in the world for any one anywhere else in the world.

bigaussie · #11 (**permalink**) 05-11-2006, 10:30 AM

I'm not so sure I agree that Google is determining relevance based upon location of hosting.

We are based in Australia, but host all of our sites in USA - some East Coast, some West Coast. One of the bigger deciding factors for many of our clients is the domain extension.

For clients that "need" to be found locally, we always advise a com.au extension. Those wanting more international exposure, we suggest they register BOTH com.au & com.

What I have really noticed over the last couple of years, is the higher levels of visits from Google for our sites based in USA when compared to other sites we just manage that are based in Australia.

Google always provides plenty to talk about :p

Paul B · #12 (**permalink**) 05-11-2006, 10:33 AM

What would G use to determine what national google sites should go in?

- All TLDs ening in .de go in google.de etc?
- or the language of a site? What if they have more than one?
- or the IP address of the host?
- Maybe G reads and recogognizes addresses mentioned in the text? But how doe G decide whether 'London' is the site owner's address or where the site is recommending New Yorkers should visit?

It seems to be all of these. I found it impossible to get a .com hosted in the USA into google.com.au - other than when th URL was enetered. there were no search terms.

bigaussie · #13 (**permalink**) 05-11-2006, 11:33 AM

An example from a client that started with a dot com, then proceeded to com.au.

Into google.com.au - - Search Term:
Greater Brisbane Area

"Search the web" -
.com position 3
.com.au position 8

"Search pages from Australia" -
.com.au position 4
.com still waiting to find it

Into google.com/ncr

Exactly the same result as using "Search the Web" from google.com.au

We found an increase of visitors after adding the com.au name, but only about 10%.

We can only assume that many Australian visitors were just "Searching the web".... maybe not even realising there is an alternative. After all - if you enter your search term and hit Enter (which many users do in trials we have monitored) you are automatically searching "The Web".

The main reason we try to get clients to register .com & their own country code - eg., co.nz or co.hk

dante_casablancas · #14 (**permalink**) 05-11-2006, 11:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul B

This gets even more complicated:

Google now seems to be serving its local search site based on users' IPs (presumably).

I am in Switzerland, but always had google.com as my search in IE6 Favorites links. About 4 months ago this was suddenly redirected to google.ch. I have reset this to .com, but google keeps losing my 'preferences' and from time time goes back to google.ch.

I can also confirm a problem I had about a year ago with an Australian client who wanted a .com hosted in the USA. His site didn't appear in google.com.au, but did in google.com. We canged the hosting to Australia and it then appeared in google.com.au.

We are actually more interested in being on top most of our keywords for Google.com, instead of .ca

We are thinking of switching our hosting to a US based one. Judging from your post it worked, anyone else with any experience on this and advice.

Thanks.

bigaussie · #15 (**permalink**) 05-11-2006, 12:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dante_casablancas

We are thinking of switching our hosting to a US based one. Judging from your post it worked, anyone else with any experience on this and advice.

As I mentioned in a previous post, we have much more traffic from Google (and hence visitors) hosted in USA - assisting our clients to have a higher rank than similar sites hosted locally in Australia; I assume that same would apply for Canada vs USA. Obviously you would be trying to get .com the same as your existing .ca

If it helps at all: our webhost is NTT-Verio.com (350,000+ Domains) - - or PM me and I can give you a range of pricing to expect for quality hosting. We have been with them since 96. Tried others but Verio are innovators not followers.

dante_casablancas · #16 (**permalink**) 05-11-2006, 06:09 PM

Bigaussie...can you PM me the hosting price list if it's no problem.

Also what if you are targetting the US market? Is the .com the TLD for the United States?

miningreference · #17 (**permalink**) 05-11-2006, 06:22 PM

I have a similar problem. I have a website www.miningreference.com that mainly targets the Australian Mining Industry. My company is based in the USA and has no Australian office, so cannot even buy a .com.au domain.

I have tried for 12 months to get into the Australian search results for the Big 3 search engines, but it is really difficult without a .com.au domain. My site is indexed by the Big 3 regularly, but does not get shown in Australian results.

**incrediblehelp** · #18 (**permalink**) 05-15-2006, 11:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by miningreference

I have a similar problem. I have a website www.miningreference.com that mainly targets the Australian Mining Industry. My company is based in the USA and has no Australian office, so cannot even buy a .com.au domain.

I have tried for 12 months to get into the Australian search results for the Big 3 search engines, but it is really difficult without a .com.au domain. My site is indexed by the Big 3 regularly, but does not get shown in Australian results.

Why not host in Australia? Price?

Paul B · #19 (**permalink**) 05-16-2006, 02:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by miningreference

I have a similar problem. I have a website www.miningreference.com that mainly targets the Australian Mining Industry. My company is based in the USA and has no Australian office, so cannot even buy a .com.au domain.

I have tried for 12 months to get into the Australian search results for the Big 3 search engines, but it is really difficult without a .com.au domain. My site is indexed by the Big 3 regularly, but does not get shown in Australian results.

You'll need to get an ABN (Australian Business Number) before you can get a .com.au domain - which is what you really need for "The Premier Australian Mining Directory". But Australian-based hosting would be a help...

dante_casablancas · #20 (**permalink**) 07-05-2006, 01:10 PM

I know I have asked this before, in this same thread, but did not get a response.

What is the TLD for the United States, is it the .com?

Would switching hosting to a U.S. based company help your rankings in Google.com?

**incrediblehelp** · #21 (**permalink**) 07-05-2006, 04:00 PM

I don't think I would consider .com the American TLD, rather the world TLD. I guess there is a .us one, but I would never think that one would get precedence over the .com in American search engines.

dante_casablancas · #22 (**permalink**) 11-30-2006, 12:26 PM

Can anyone shed more light to this.

Is there any precedence of a company showing up higher in Google.com in the United States because the domain is hosted in the U.S. and all it's company information is based in the United States?