Hi guys,

Long time no talk! Been busy relocating my business so have not had time to keep up but have all podcasts in iTunes so will get back up-to-date with SEO 101.

Anyway, I recently relocated from the US to Canada so my default Google search is now google.ca instead of google.com. Will this affect my SEO efforts as I check current rankings of my US-based clients in the Canadian flavor of Google? It gives me 2 options:

1. Search the web
2. Search pages from Canada

Will the first option show me the same results as if I was based in the US? Should I recommend my new Canadian clients be hosted in Canada or the US in order to appear and rank in google.ca?

Thanks a lot, guys!

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Paul Mycroft
Professional Web Design

Try using this tool, it should answer your questions:

Top 100 Rankings Position Check many countries Google search engine results position (SERP tool) SEO web tools

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Ostensibly yes, but I've never trusted it as I've seen some varying results (I'm in Montreal). If you want to get 'real' US results go to Google

(edit)

Woops. I didn't know that WPW automatically parsed URLs into hyperlinks. That should read 'google.com/ncr'. Just add the http: etc before...

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As you know, users of the "Google.CA" interface get the option of seeing results only from sites Google thinks are "from" Canada.

Google's various methods for determining this seem to get tweaked over time, but I've found that the use of a '.CA' domain trumps the IP geo-location ... which may be Google's first-pass factor.

All domains we've hosted on U.S.-based servers have been reported as being "from" Canada when we've employed that TLD.

(These domain also often have .COM incarnations.)

Steve

This is slightly off topic, but it may explain some things in the process.

I'm a netepreneur, & I only realized last year that the SEs & some classified sites are NOW controlling our searches.

We no longer have the option of where to search & this is terrible.

I now have to get someone in the US to search for me every time I need US results, as 95% of my clients are in the US, so that's pretty well 98% of the time unless I'm looking for personal things I need to buy.

I wrote to Google & they didn't care saying there is no other option.

IMO it doesn't matter if you use .com or .ca or which radio button you click on, although there might be a slight difference.

The ONLY results I get are from Canada, & anyone who knows anything about Canada knows CND business owners suck when it comes to the net.

I end up getting UK results b4 I get US results. I think I even got AU results the other day & while I deal w/ the UK some of the time, normally I don't since they are too expensive for me. I never really deal with AU.

It's been very upsetting to me & no one seems to give a damm.

Even those classified sites refuse to let me post in .com b/c they are reading my IP address.

Long gone are the days when the Internet erased all lines in the sand & allowed us to do biz worldwide. We are NOW being controlled by the SEs & classified sites, being told where we can search & post to. I really feel like we are being held hostage here.

Anyone want to start a petition? I'm sure I'm only one of a few who cares about this (that I know of) since while there are a few netrepreneurs from Canada out there, hardly any are visible, so I have no idea what they do, maybe they only have CND clients, who knows.

Thanks


Michelle

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Basically you should know three things:
1. In most cases Google .ca will have different results the main index
2. .Ca index includes sites with .ca or hosted in Canada and/or any site in the main index results though these seem to be weighted differently then in the main index ie: the .com etc. site often places lower than it does in the main index
3. If you are working with Canadian sites understand the .ca index is default and so if your clients are targeting local then it is more important to place high in .Ca index then the main index. Use the main index as the target but don't sweat it as much as .ca index.

I managed to get Google to default to .com but... can't remember how I did it.

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Can't you go directly to different datacenters for Google and query them directly? I remember doing that during one of the updates a couple of years ago. It was my first 'pagerank' for a site of mine and I was looking at different datacenters and finding some showing my site ranking high in my search terms, and others not so high for the same term. If I could do that then to see which sites had updated and which hadn't, couldn't you do the same now to get results as though it were a US customer searching?

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It is real easy to switch to Google.com from Google.ca. Simply go to the Google.ca home page and to the right and under the "I'm feeling lucky" button you can use a link to take you to the Google.com home page. Once you are there set it as your default homepage and you will always be searching from Google.com and not Google.ca.

This should be the case for any geo-Google home page.

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Each and every Google Data Center can be directly queried via its IP Addresses.

For a an overview of the locations of the current 36 DCs, see Royal Pingdom » Map of all Google data center locations .

For location specific information, see Wayfaring Map - Google Datacenters .

Note that there is but a single DC, numbered 20 on the referenced maps, in Canada, that being in Toronto.

To view rankings across multiple DCs simultaneously, try Google Data Center Multiple IP Address SEO Research Tool .

Additional info. & tools can be found at google data centers - Google Search .

You can separately query any given DC by going directly to one of its IP Addresses via your browser's Address Bar, rather than to Google.ext .

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What's so difficult about changing ca to com?

I'm located in Brazil and I have google.com as my home page. When I have to go Google brazil I just click the link that says Google Brazil. I'm sure you can do the same in Canada.

Besides that, SEO is the same. Just make sure you check in the right Google,.. (i.e. .com or .ca depending on your clients location.)

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Datacenters are not location related. If you hit a data center directly on its IP it will check your location and automatically go for that country.

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Each DS will still return different results. And, as the average user does not specify the DC to be queried, one cannot rely on that particular DC which is most likely to be queried from ones own machine to be representative of the results seen by the target audience.

For example, as search for 'tomato world,' w/o quotes, shows the thread of that name here at WPW to be in either 5th or 6th place depending on which DC is queried. While, in this example, the difference is small, for those whose goal is to be on a specific page or higher, this 1 place difference could translate into a difference of 1 page.

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This is an area which always provides me with a lot of confusion! I often hear people in the UK say (especially when discussing rankings over the phone) "we must be looking at different datacenters". But, looking at the map which is linked above there is only 1 Uk DC; london. So does that mean that everyone in the UK is looking at the London datacenter or will we be routed to DCs further a field when the London one is busy?

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If you want to make google.com default page, supposing you use IE, set as default page as next:
"http://www.google.com/ncr"
without quotes.
I'm using this so i'm satisfied with search results.
All the best!

Hi PaulMycroft,

While you can always change the country code in the querystring, it's a backwoods way of doing things and I'm not convinced that one actually sees the results they're looking for. In looking for a solution, I came across a slick tool I'm sure you'll love.

Google Global Firefox Extension V2 is a FireFox plugin that adds an item to your context menu so you can see only the Google results from the country you specify.

Perform your Google search as usual, then right click to select "Search Google Global" from the context menu, then pick the country you want to see results for. Additionally, you can add/edit and delete countries as you see fit.

Detailed usage instructions are located on the download page.

Enjoy!

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Top Tool man!

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Maybe, but it has nothing to do with the original question, so why bring it up?

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The OP's question, as worded, is insufficiently precise so as to rule out its relevance.

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Question 1) Ans : You should try to use Proxy server to check rankings from Google.com *( US). Google can display different rankings when Google.com is accessed from New York and Texas. Therefore make sure you are using the right mode.

Another option is to use specific I.P addresses. For example Google New York can be accessed as Google

Similarly you can try using proxy or specific I.P addresses.


Question 2) Ans : If your canadian clients host their site in Canada then they will gain preference in Google.ca.

Along with this they will gain rankings on Yahoo + Msn.ca. This could bring more traffic from these search engines as well.

However if your Canadian clients have their website already hosted in U.S then it wont be much beneficial to suggest a hosting change. This could be a mammoth activity if website is a large e-commerce store.

You can try setting the geo target location for your website within Google account. Read more about Google geographic targeting at Google Geographic Targeting

I am sure it will help you

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Thanks David. That was exactly the answer I was looking for!

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All the best,
Paul Mycroft
Professional Web Design