I have an internet promotion company based in Salzburg Austria. When you look on the map, Salzburg is just at the German border.
At some of them, I would like a geographic target
"Austria and bavaria", because they have typicall 2/3 of customers from Austria and 1/3 of Bavaria.
Before I set their geographic target on Austria, I would like to know more about this new feature. This because 10% more visitors from Austria, but 50% less from Bavaria would be a disadvantage.
Setting your site's location information to Austria will help ensure that it will be returned in results for "pages from Österreich" searches. If your site is currently being returned for "the web" searches on google.de, it will continue to do so even after you've set your site's location information to Austria.
> Setting your site's location information to Austria will help ensure > that it will be returned in results for "pages from Österreich" > searches. If your site is currently being returned for "the web" > searches on google.de, it will continue to do so even after you've set > your site's location information to Austria.
This isn't personal, Jonathan, but you (collectively at Google) haven't got a clue.
There are many places along the German/Austrian border that are actually served (mail, etc.) from the other country because it's geographically much more practical. I think there are also such anomalies in North America, between Michigan and Canada?
It's actually worse in the South Tirol - Bolzano-Bozen - which is part of Italy but speaks something vaguely similar to what most of us might call German. Sending Italian-speaking sites there might be counter- productive. And all around the Swiss border ...
It's common to see maps, globes, etc., stating that they have no political significance. This is one of many reasons.
There are essentially two types of business involved here, though there are gradations. Intangibles (software delivered via download, MP3 tracks, etc.) have no geographical ties - but fast food does.
At the end of the day, basing geolocation (as desirable as it might be) on convenient political boundaries doesn't quite hack the problem. Although it is a vast improvement.
I have seen in some cases in addition to "Pages from X country" also "pages in Y language" offered as an option. Maybe the language can be added to the geo option. And/or the continent ... And/or the hemisphere ..... LOL - kind of kidding.
The things is probably the ideal way woud be to allow a user to specify several countries, or regions, and languages.
And then watch those who complain that Lichtenstein or Monaco don't fit anywhere properly ;)
> > Setting your site's location information to Austria will help ensure > > that it will be returned in results for "pages from Österreich" > > searches. If your site is currently being returned for "the web" > > searches on google.de, it will continue to do so even after you've set > > your site's location information to Austria.
> This isn't personal, Jonathan, but you (collectively at Google) > haven't got a clue.
> There are many places along the German/Austrian border that are > actually served (mail, etc.) from the other country because it's > geographically much more practical. I think there are also such > anomalies in North America, between Michigan and Canada?
> It's actually worse in the South Tirol - Bolzano-Bozen - which is part > of Italy but speaks something vaguely similar to what most of us might > call German. Sending Italian-speaking sites there might be counter- > productive. And all around the Swiss border ...
> It's common to see maps, globes, etc., stating that they have no > political significance. This is one of many reasons.
> There are essentially two types of business involved here, though > there are gradations. Intangibles (software delivered via download, > MP3 tracks, etc.) have no geographical ties - but fast food does.
> At the end of the day, basing geolocation (as desirable as it might > be) on convenient political boundaries doesn't quite hack the > problem. Although it is a vast improvement.
I have seen in some cases in addition to "Pages from X country" also "pages in Y language" offered as an option. Maybe the language can be added to the geo option. And/or the continent ... And/or the hemisphere ..... LOL - kind of kidding
These are great ideas but Google could go a step further. All they need to do, is extend their satellite capability and issue every PC user on the planet with a GPS beacon. Then we could have a GPS meta tag, no country or language boundaries, ideal local search. They may already be working on it (don't mention Gphone).
> I have seen in some cases in addition to "Pages from X country" also > "pages in Y language" offered as an option. > Maybe the language can be added to the geo option. > And/or the continent ... > And/or the hemisphere ..... LOL - kind of kidding.
> The things is probably the ideal way woud be to allow a user to > specify several countries, or regions, and languages.
> And then watch those who complain that Lichtenstein or Monaco don't > fit anywhere properly ;)
> On Nov 2, 6:59 pm, Phil Payne wrote:
> > > Setting your site's location information to Austria will help ensure > > > that it will be returned in results for "pages from Österreich" > > > searches. If your site is currently being returned for "the web" > > > searches on google.de, it will continue to do so even after you've set > > > your site's location information to Austria.
> > This isn't personal, Jonathan, but you (collectively at Google) > > haven't got a clue.
> > There are many places along the German/Austrian border that are > > actually served (mail, etc.) from the other country because it's > > geographically much more practical. I think there are also such > > anomalies in North America, between Michigan and Canada?
> > It's actually worse in the South Tirol - Bolzano-Bozen - which is part > > of Italy but speaks something vaguely similar to what most of us might > > call German. Sending Italian-speaking sites there might be counter- > > productive. And all around the Swiss border ...
> > It's common to see maps, globes, etc., stating that they have no > > political significance. This is one of many reasons.
> > There are essentially two types of business involved here, though > > there are gradations. Intangibles (software delivered via download, > > MP3 tracks, etc.) have no geographical ties - but fast food does.
> > At the end of the day, basing geolocation (as desirable as it might > > be) on convenient political boundaries doesn't quite hack the > > problem. Although it is a vast improvement.
> I have seen in some cases in addition to "Pages from X country" also > "pages in Y language" offered as an option. > Maybe the language can be added to the geo option. > And/or the continent ... > And/or the hemisphere ..... LOL - kind of kidding
> These are great ideas but Google could go a step further. All they > need to do, is extend their satellite capability and issue every PC > user on the planet with a GPS beacon. Then we could have a GPS meta > tag, no country or language boundaries, ideal local search. They may > already be working on it (don't mention Gphone).
> On Nov 3, 12:08 am, webado wrote:
> > I have seen in some cases in addition to "Pages from X country" also > > "pages in Y language" offered as an option. > > Maybe the language can be added to the geo option. > > And/or the continent ... > > And/or the hemisphere ..... LOL - kind of kidding.
> > The things is probably the ideal way woud be to allow a user to > > specify several countries, or regions, and languages.
> > And then watch those who complain that Lichtenstein or Monaco don't > > fit anywhere properly ;)
> > On Nov 2, 6:59 pm, Phil Payne wrote:
> > > > Setting your site's location information to Austria will help ensure > > > > that it will be returned in results for "pages from Österreich" > > > > searches. If your site is currently being returned for "the web" > > > > searches on google.de, it will continue to do so even after you've set > > > > your site's location information to Austria.
> > > This isn't personal, Jonathan, but you (collectively at Google) > > > haven't got a clue.
> > > There are many places along the German/Austrian border that are > > > actually served (mail, etc.) from the other country because it's > > > geographically much more practical. I think there are also such > > > anomalies in North America, between Michigan and Canada?
> > > It's actually worse in the South Tirol - Bolzano-Bozen - which is part > > > of Italy but speaks something vaguely similar to what most of us might > > > call German. Sending Italian-speaking sites there might be counter- > > > productive. And all around the Swiss border ...
> > > It's common to see maps, globes, etc., stating that they have no > > > political significance. This is one of many reasons.
> > > There are essentially two types of business involved here, though > > > there are gradations. Intangibles (software delivered via download, > > > MP3 tracks, etc.) have no geographical ties - but fast food does.
> > > At the end of the day, basing geolocation (as desirable as it might > > > be) on convenient political boundaries doesn't quite hack the > > > problem. Although it is a vast improvement.
> These are great ideas but Google could go a step further. All they > need to do, is extend their satellite capability and issue every PC > user on the planet with a GPS beacon.
It will come.
Most of us already carry tracking devices. They're called GSM mobile phones. Mast triangulation can locate any UK mobile to within about thirty yards.
We already have the technology for me to whip out my handheld browser and search for "taxi". My position resulting from mast triangulation could be used as a locus for a search of taxi companies not just inthe same county of city, but within the nearest few streets.
"Italian restaurant within 10 minutes walk" is entirely feasible with current technology.
"Italian restaurant within 10 minutes walk" is entirely feasible with current technology."
Feasible yes but thinking in practical terms takes me back to your post on Chinese rather than Italian. I wondered if Google had sent you a free plate warmer?
> > These are great ideas but Google could go a step further. All they > > need to do, is extend their satellite capability and issue every PC > > user on the planet with a GPS beacon.
> It will come.
> Most of us already carry tracking devices. They're called GSM mobile > phones. Mast triangulation can locate any UK mobile to within about > thirty yards.
> We already have the technology for me to whip out my handheld browser > and search for "taxi". My position resulting from mast triangulation > could be used as a locus for a search of taxi companies not just inthe > same county of city, but within the nearest few streets.
> "Italian restaurant within 10 minutes walk" is entirely feasible with > current technology.
> Feasible yes but thinking in practical terms takes me back to your > post on Chinese rather than Italian. I wondered if Google had sent you > a free plate warmer?
It gets worse. As we advance, Google's data structures must approach the structures of life itself.
If I ask for an Indian restaurant in the UK - odds are 99:1 the staff will be Bangladeshi. There are actually VERY few genuine Indian restaurants in the UK. Do I then fill in a spam report?
I agree, targeting a region that covers multiple countries can be tough with a single site. I have seen similar issues with local Swiss sites that try to cover the German and Austrian markets as well. Google Webmaster Tools however now makes it slightly less tough :-). I don't know the domain which you are going to use so there's one thing I would like to mention first: this will only work if your top level domain name is one of the non-country specific ones (in other words, it would work for a .com, .net, .eu, etc domain, but not for a .at, .ch or .de domain). In order to target multiple countries, you just need to create subdirectories (with appropriate content of course) for those countries. After that, you can verify each of these subdirectories within your Webmaster Tools account and individually adjust the geographic targeting. Keep in mind that it will take some time for the targeting to take effect.
So I could imagine a file - discovered in the same manner as a sitemap, via an entry in robots.txt - conatining coverage lines. One per country using ISO 3166-1 country codes:
GB: US:
Subdivisions would be by adding the ZIP code, postcode, Postleitzahl, whatever down to whatever resolution was required. So if I ran a small plumbing service, I could preferentially state my part of Sheffield:
GB: S13;
You need a specific delimiter like ; between areas because some codes have embedded spaces - I'm actually:
GB: S13 7PZ;
You could then deal with the Swiss/Austrian/German/French border issue by coding up:
AT: DE: CH:
And adding the closest areas to the borders to each of the lines.
It would be up to each search engine to implement as much as they choose - some might go only to the country level, some to finer definitions.
> So I could imagine a file - discovered in the same manner as a > sitemap, via an entry in robots.txt - conatining coverage lines. One > per country using ISO 3166-1 country codes:
> GB: > US:
> Subdivisions would be by adding the ZIP code, postcode, Postleitzahl, > whatever down to whatever resolution was required. So if I ran a > small plumbing service, I could preferentially state my part of > Sheffield:
> GB: S13;
> You need a specific delimiter like ; between areas because some codes > have embedded spaces - I'm actually:
> GB: S13 7PZ;
> You could then deal with the Swiss/Austrian/German/French border issue > by coding up:
> AT: > DE: > CH:
> And adding the closest areas to the borders to each of the lines.
> It would be up to each search engine to implement as much as they > choose - some might go only to the country level, some to finer > definitions.
