how does Google determine country of site

[clyde_114]

Hi,

I imagine this is extremely simple - what factors does Google use to determine the country of origin of a website, for example when 'pages from Australia' is selected for a search

thanks for your help!

[nippi]

where site hosted(if in AU)
.com.au or not(for australia)

dmoz regional listings may help
hosting dns in australia(with site still hosted overseas) may also help

[Leosghost]

Hi clyde_114
Welcome to WebmasterWorld
The server address is contained in the server URL ( the real identifier/locator is a number IP not the name )..eg 216 ( followed by anything ) is USA ..so even if the page is written in Hindi ..google knew from when it crawled the page that it was actually served from a machine sitting at a USA address ..

They use the same thing ( your IP number )to know where you are when you ask your query ..this may or may not dependent on the search engines policy at that time decide what they show you and where it is from ..

where I am it's late so someone else can elaborate ;)

[clyde_114]

thanks for the responses so far. The site i have in mind is hosted in the US but we are creating an Australian version .com/au - how can we get around this without .com.au or the ip address residing in Oz?

cheers Clyde

[au_sammy]

If you are making an Australian version, you would surely want a .com.au? so not sure why you would want to 'get around' that .... The .com.au domain names come with a lot of policy attached ... so might be a little bit tricky for a non-aussie resident to get... not too sure though...

and if you want it to appear in "pages from Australia" then yes you need to have the website physically hosted within Australia... no way around it!

[milanmk]

>hosting dns in australia(with site still hosted overseas) may also help
Hello nippi,

Could you please elaborate on this one.

I would surely like to do this if i can use Indian DNS for my website hosted in USA.

Thanks.

[Leosghost]

Wont make any diff at all ..DNS host doesn't count for geo targetting what counts is searcher location and site ( or more accurately "page host" location .per keyword / search term ...think doorways/search term bear traps /portal pages .. hosted in one area ie: OZ to feed main money pages hosted in US or wherever ) ..