www.google.your.back.yard

by Werner deBruin

Recently, there's been quite a bit of discussion around Google’s localised search extension on Google Web Master Tools (WMT). The addition allows web masters to specify if any section on their site (top level domain, sub-domain, or directory) targets a specific geo location. The location can range from country right down to suburb level.

Sound complicated? Well, Google has spent a lot of money incorporating this into their algorithm. By making use of the your (the searchers) IP address, they can accurately pin point your location down to your suburb. Hence being able to supply you relevant results for services in your community.

To briefly explain:
If you had a small locksmith service in Clapham – London, then you would only need to optimise your website for the phrase Locksmith after which you would log into Google WMT.
You would then, on the dashboard, go to “Tools” and click "onset geographic target”, then select the option “Associate a geographic location with this site”, then enter your country, city and suburb.
And you’re done - soon you will be eligible to rank on the first page of the SERPs when someone in your area searches for the key phrase “Locksmith”. Cool isn’t it?

This will also work for multilingual sections on your site. So if you were running a German version on http://www.domain.com/de/ then you would be able to specify that it is relevant to Germany. However, if you make it specific to Germany would you then still rank in Switzerland or Austria?

Currently, it’s an endless debate; with questions like:
“Will this benefit your keywords containing your location?”
“Will this exclude you from normal listings?”
 
All I know is that it won’t work everywhere. Unfortunately in a country like South Africa, we don’t have geo specific IP addresses. Whether or not it’s accurate I can’t confirm, but I’m definitely going to test it out so watch this space.

2007/11/22 | permalink | comments (4) | trackbacks (0)
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Have you looked at Analytics Geo map overlays for some of our clients?

Bellville, Bloem, Benoni.

/me thinks very specific geo-targeting will be possible with WMT in ZA.

Posted by Rafiq on 2007/11/22

You have a point there, but the information was not curtsy of IP GEO targeting, but more from using their Google Accounts...

Posted by Werner on 2007/11/23

I'm not sure it's based on Google Accounts - My gut feeling is they're using IP targeting.

This thread supports that view:
http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=9989

Posted by Twigan Berries on 2007/11/23

Your Gut feeling is correct, but it only counts for countries where IP targeting is possible.

Unfortunately in the case of South Africa, they don't have the infrastructure in place to support IP targeting. All IP's run through Johannesburg.

Posted by Werner on 2007/11/26

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