Hi again Jane,
Here are some explanations of how Google determines regional results,
how to tell if you appear in a regional search, and what you need to
do to be listed in UK and French regional search results.
How Regional Googles Work
-------------------------
Every Google search site uses the same database, and the same method
of ranking the results. When restricting results to a specific
country, the consensus of opinion amongst webmasters is that Google
looks at:
1. Where the site is hosted (this can be done quite accurately by
looking at the site's IP address)
2. Whether it uses the country's domain extension, such as ".fr".
Others have suggested that:
3. Being listed in the appropriate regional category at Open Directory
might help, or
4. Having an appropriate physical address mentioned somewhere on your
site.
I have a USA hosted .com site that fits the last two criteria for
Australia, but does not show up in the regional Australia results, so
I doubt that 3 & 4 have any affect.
"We store all the data in one master index. Then we build a restrict
of French language pages and pages in France. Note that we don't just
consider .fr pages. Instead, we also look for .com pages which are
based in France. That's one reason why our search on google.fr can
cover more pages."
[ from an interview with Matt Cutts, software engineer, and Stephanie
Kerebel, internationalization specialist with Google ]
http://chat.abondance.com/google.html
"From all accounts, web sites are included in google's regional
sub-indices (e.g. "search pages from the UK") based solely on domain
name and IP address (ie, on where they are hosted)."
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum3/5164.htm?highlight=google+regional
Google Searching for a Domain Name
----------------------------------
When testing to see if your site appears in a regional search, keep
these points in mind...
1. A search for mysite.com or www.mysite.com brings up a result like
this, regardless of whether the search is using the entire Google
index or a country subset:
Internet Auction Secrets
"How I Made $38,450.27 PROFIT On eBay - And That Was Only ONE Of My
Auctions!", During the past 5 years, I've been quietly testing ...
Google can show you the following information for this URL:
Show Google's cache of mysite.com
Find web pages that are similar to mysite.com
Find web pages that link to mysite.com
Find web pages that contain the term "mysite.com"
2. If you place the same query within quotes, the results are normal.
This is the best way to see if you appear in a regional search.
"www.london-uk-hotels.com"
UK Regional Search - not listed
://www.google.co.uk/search?q=%22www.london-uk-hotels.com%22&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&meta=cr%3DcountryUK%7CcountryGB
France Regional Search - not listed
://www.google.fr/search?hl=fr&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22www.london-uk-hotels.com%22&btnG=Recherche+Google&meta=cr%3DcountryFR
What you need to do
-------------------
1. Have your site hosted in either the UK or France. According to a
piece of software called Sam Spade, your site's IP address is
66.39.87.40, which means it is hosted in the USA.
2. Use a domain name that ends in either .uk or .fr
As far as I can tell, the only way your site could show up in the
regional search results for both the UK and France, would be to change
your domain name to london-uk-hotels.co.uk and host it in France, or
change it to london-uk-hotels.fr and host it in the UK.
Search strategy: Personal knowledge and browsing WebMasterWorld.
I hope this answers your question. As usual, if any portion of my
answer is unclear, please ask for clarification.
Best wishes and happy New Year,
robertskelton-ga |
