How did google.co.uk know my .com is a UK site?

[Tablet of Wax]

I just checked my .com site against its optimized key
words on google.co.uk with the UK only switch.

My site came in at position 1 and 2 for that search.

Now this site is a UK based site, but is a .com

Interesting thing is that my US and German competitors
did not get listed.

Using the same keywords on google.com then I get position
3 with my US and German friends getting position 1 and 2.

So google.co.uk seems to know that my particular .com
is British.

How do they do that?

I do have the same domain name as a .co.uk which then
links thru to the .com, but this link requires the user
to activate it, it's not an automated java link.

[nicebloke]

is it hosted in the UK?

[Shak]

they know everything :)

only kidding as NiceBloke points out it is quite certain that it is to do with your hosting.

Shak

[IanTurner]

Being hosted on a UK IP address is the key to getting a .com in the Google.co.uk index.

As the previous posters have intimated but not quite said!

[Tablet of Wax]

We have our own server, but it is located on a UK
based web farm. However the web farm is using the
end prefix .net

Pretty sure that we are not in any DMOZ regional
listing.

[jmccormac]

We have our own server, but it is located on a UK
based web farm. However the web farm is using the
end prefix .net

The UK webfarm is in UK IP space. Google recognises the IP of your website as being a UK one and thus groups it with UK sites even though it is a .com.

A simple lookup on the website will generate an IP and it is fairly simple to check if that IP is in the UK by doing a whois lookup.

If you need to do a lookup on who owns a European IP then the URL below should be of use:
[ripe.net...]

Regards...jmcc

[mr_tim]

what if you have a uk site with a .com name and it's hosted outside the uk? any tips other than change hosting?

i'm no.1 in google.com, but google.co.uk doesn't feel the same:(

[IanTurner]

Unfortunately I think that changing hosting or changing to a .co.uk domain name are the only guarantees.

A UK DMOZ entry might work - I have no evidence for this though.

[hitthedeck]

"A UK DMOZ entry might work - I have no evidence for this though"
Unfortunately a UK DMOZ entry wont work. I have been bounced in and out of the .co.uk version because of uk hosting problems(a uk based company switched to a u.s ip) and my regional uk listing didnt help.

[IanTurner]

Thanks for that hitthedeck - good to get solid info on that one.