Google SERPs: country domains

is there somthing else besides host location?

[iInventedtheinternet]

I am getting a #1 result at google.com for <certain keywords>. However at the google country specific domain I am nowhere to be found. I am not hosted in the same country I am shooting for but my site is in the proper language. It is too expensive to host in the target country and the qualtiy and security is poor so it's not an option. I really think this is one of the poorer google ranking parameters.

All I have read says country specific domains key off the actual host location. But if this were true than why do I see the top results for <another keyword> coming from sites also hosted outside the target country. What other factors could play into the country results?

<Sorry, no specifics.
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[edited by: tedster at 7:31 pm (utc) on Aug. 7, 2006]

[opifex]

have recently noticed a "problem" that may be related to this, but am waiting out the algorithm fallout. Pages are country A specific ... High serps internationally for the right keywords except for country X where Pages occasionally disappear altogether despite the fact that Pages still have the normal amount of traffic from country X. Hmmm .. definately stange ,,,,

[rainborick]

All three major search engines use the same two factors to determine the geo-location of a site: (1) the presence of a Country Code Top Level Domain Name, as in '.uk' or '.jp', and (2) the location of the server that hosts the site, based on the IP address. There isn't anything you can insert in your page headers or content that will work instead of these two factors. You either need to host in the target country or get the corresponding country code TLD domain name.

[Quadrille]

Wot he said.

If your content is truly local, you can do OK with a .com - but local hostees and local suffixes have a Very Big Advantage.

That's why they invented local suffixes!

[opifex]

the thing i see recently is related to widget in mytown mycountry not returning the results from the page with the mycountry TLD suffix, but from other suffixes ... like I said the positions are bouncing ... almost daily,. i really don't think it's a big problem at the moment, but will wait and see. only see this happening in one cold north american country