Could anyone tell me if it is simply a case of the server hosting the site being in a particular country/area, or do they also look at whois data, the page content etc? Only I was wondering how to target different countries and whether a site that is hosted in one country could appear in another's search results, for example how to appear in "pages from Canada" on Google.ca, or "pages from the UK" on Google.co.uk. Thanks.
The ip address of the hosted server definitely has a bearing. Not to sure on the whois address details as I have domains hosted in the US on a .com domain but the whois is in Australia and the site doesn't appear in google.com.au (pages from australia)
They look at a combination of factors: - ip - domain (.co.uk for instance) - where do the majority of links come from (local, international)
To appear in the UK results you need to either be on a .co.uk (or equivalent) domain OR be hosted in the UK.
i think it's calculated with the backlinks and site language. hosted ip or domain ip is not a criteria because most of the servers is hosted in usa
If you are on a .com and want to rank in UK results you simply have to be hosted in the UK. There is no other way to do it.
Lets take an example. Search for digitalpoint in google.co.uk (pages from the UK) Its not gonna show up because one its not hosted in the UK and 2 its not a .uk country code domain. The website needs to meet one of the conditions listed above to appear in google.co.uk (pages from uk). Test the first 1000 results if you don't believe me.
The three major search engines use two common criteria in determining geo-location: (1) the presence of a Country Code Top Level Domain name (CC TLD, as in '.co.uk') or (2) the physical location of the server that hosts the site, based on its IP address. Google says they will also 'sometimes' consider the domain name registration data, but they do not say when they do so, making this an unreliable factor. But there is no other factor involved that will affect your site's geo-location in Google, Yahoo! or MSN. No amount of incoming links, <meta> tags, incantations, incense burning, or ritual sacrifices will have any effect. This information is in the Help sections of the various search engines. Its just difficult to find.