When I do a search through at Google.com using the standard AOL browser my UK targetted Adwords come up. However, if I do the same search using Internet Explorer as my browser, they don't.
Anyone know what's going on?
I'm concerned that I'm not getting the full reach for my Adwords in the UK because of this. I don't want to have to target all of my keywords globally, as, for logistical reasons, many of our goods and services can only be supplied to the UK market
<duh>misread the post, didn't see you were using IE while still using the AOL dial up</duh>
[google.co.uk...]
which brings up UK ads.
My guess is that when you go to google, you use the URL:
[google.com...]
which will NOT display UK-only ads.
If you use the first URL, you will see the UK ads, no matter what part of the world you are in.
I have observed this in my efforts to promote a NZ site, which I am promoting from the US.
If this is what's going on, my question is how often do non-US users use their country specific google URL? I'm concerned that overseas users don't know to use country specific google search sites.
This is my first post, I think I have the answer though.
Google.com uses IP addresses as the best guess for the country of origin. Any search on google.com will possibly return adwords for the wrong country, see further info below.
Local google sites such as .co.uk and .co.nz will return the adverts for the given TLD.
IP Allocation & Location information:
IP's have a defined structure which allows 3 levels of block size to be allocated. Historically, very large companies were able to get an A class IP address blocks (this has stopped now and A class networks are only allocated to countries, usually), this means they can have 16 million IP's in thier block in the format 123.?.?.?
This has very bad implications for determining location. HP have such a network and as such anyone on that network will find they share a common IP address block wherever they are in the world. The smaller B and C class blocks allow less machines on a network and are easier to determine location due to their smaller size and being a subset of a reserved A class block.
All allocated blocks, no matter what size have details associated to them so locations may be determined for the bulk of that network. It is unlikely that a significant proportion a B class network (up to 65,536 machines: less in reality due to network topology and technology) will be outside the country associated to it (many such networks will span a number of company buildings). C Class networks are so small they can be assumed to be in one country (possibly one building).
So, in summary. Any company allocated an A class network or using a B class internationally may pose a problem for determining location of specific machines. This may be resolved with the introduction of IP6
Regards
Gary
