In your experience, what steps need to be taken to get a blog (hosted at blogspot) acknowledge in a google local search (UK in this case). I took the stpes of changing the Geographic target to 'UK' in the google sitemap area. I've also started applying to various UK only directories, and am planning to submit a physical address via google maps. To confuse matters further, the blog (Horse Racing Tips), uses a custom domain, which is NOT a .co.uk address, but IS purchased from a UK registrar. Is this unlikely to be an issue, once these elements have kicked in, or do some people still struggle to get google to acknowledge the target audience for their blogs?
Around an hour after setting up a sitemap and changing the geo setting, the blog began appearing in the UK results. This appears to be ludicrously quick though, so I can only think that A) this change made the difference or B) A combination of factors resulted in the change (submitting to google local, maps etc). EDIT: No, it's gone again. Maybe it's in flux. I've check back tomorrow.
Where is the site hosted? Google is smart enough to determine by the IP where the site is located which also affects which language search engine you appear in. You can also specify it in the header.