That’s the question Shivam asked me when we were discussing something on MSN Messenger. (If you still didn’t understand then let me explain…you will find this search option when you visit Google India.)
I answered him quickly by saying Google might be checking whois information or something but I was not at all sure…
Now on the 2nd thought checking whois information was not a practical thing..so that thing is ruled out…
So now we were thinking of other ways to find sites within India…2nd way was the IP address of the server…but that is again not at all a practical solution…
So after thinking for a while and searching for couple of keywords..finally I managed to find the solution…
It searches within all the sites present in India section of Google Directory 🙂 So if your site is not present in India section of Google directory, it won’t get displayed in search results. it also lists sites whch are .in (because .in domains are for indian sites) and in few cases it also lists the sites which are not in India section of the directory but are hosted in India. The importance to such sites is given much more lesser than the ones present in the directory. I have explained it in bit details in this comment
http://www.google.co.in/search?hl=en&q=deep&btnG=Google+Search&meta=cr%3DcountryIN
check out !! dizerega.com is not within google directory neither an indian site. It is positioned 10th
Meta too plays its part 😉
2 thoughts….1st…displaying it because of some error…
It is not displayed because of relevancy of keyword in the page..if that was the case then it would have picked some more results from international index… (the rest of the results are still from India)
OR
on the 2nd thought…
It might be working like this….
Search for the keywords in Indian’s sites..if no relevant stuff found..then search in the world index…
But then again my first point comes up….so it is a total mess and some more thoughts by other people would make this topic interesting… haha
True !!
So Google is not only displaying the results from the directory, it pick some thing else. I can figureout some more things:
1. It checks Zip codes
2. It check the no. of occurance of search term on page
3. It checks Meta (still my darling 😉 )
4. It checks the Ip from where the querry is generated
And finally its not making a complete mess 🙂 There are few international sites which sneak in. And if you dig more, say go to page 40, u will find more and more similar sites repeated.
There is something else too it looks for. This is a interesting topic. Will watch out too
Cheers !!
Arun Tibrewal
Arun bhai kidhar jaa rahe ho….it has got nothing do with zip code and IP address or meta….
It purely gives first pref. to the sites in directory….
search for indian idol 2 in google with option search within india…you wont my find anywhere…but if you search in main google..you wll find mine…
Deep
maze le raha hoon, “Deep Sir”, Kabhi kabhi to pakad main aate ho bhai 😀
Solve karo 😀
Bomb…
This statement will prove the thing I said in main post as WRONG…
Google does check for whois information or server location (most likely IP location)
Now as example given by Arun..when you search for term deep in google and select “pages within india”
it shows the website dizerega.com on 10th position…
that website is not listed in India section of that directory…but when I checked the whois information of that site I came to know that, the site is hosted in India and the whois information contains Indian address…
But now, It is highly possible that google is ignoring whois information because registrant address is US and tech details are India…
So the only remaining thing is..IP address of the server…it points to Indian location and that is why google included that site in “Pages within India” results
But rest of the sites in the results are from India and present in google directory….
so this proves that google gives 99% of the importance to sites in Indian’s directory of google and 1% is given to the sites which are not in directory but are hosted in India.
But again this also depends upon the keywords you choose…
Technically speaking, Its crawler is getting more and more smarter. It may take some more time to localize there search, but they are working towards that. Here are few examples:
The Famous SEO challenge was “Negritude Ultramarine”. If you search pages from India using this keyword or its reverse i.e. “Ultramarine Negritude” it delivers same result 🙂 out of 3 results one is from out side India. It has omitted some important sites of Indian bloggers who were competing with this keyword.
Check it out: http://www.google.co.in/search?hl=en&cr=countryIN&q=ultramarine+negritude&spell=1
Now performing a search on General Keyword and see the differences.
Key word “Search Engine Optimization” :
It picks up result from:
1. Yahoo directory
2. Khoj directory
3. Its own directory
4. Google Groups and
5. some result from international index where Indian informations are there in Meta Tags.
Check it out: http://www.google.co.in/search?q=search+engine+optimization&hl=en&lr=&cr=countryIN&start=0&sa=N
” The Important is they are producing results related to India, no matter from where it is sourcing”
Just my 2C again 😀
Arun, touch the base..they are not and they cannot pick stuff from directories other than Google’s (or Dmoz) and if they do then they are fools…
They do not pickup results from those directories because they do not have control over them…so if xxx directory puts some site by taking money then google can’t do anything…so there is no point in picking data from directories other than google or are in google’s control or are google affiliated…
About the example you gave about “Negritude Ultramarine” it does not show other indian sites because those are not listed in google’s directory..those are also not of TLD .in, those are also not hosted in india…
So for google they are non-indian sites…no matter if the owner is from India..
Basically 90% of the search engine experts or SEOs in India fail to touch the base and run the stuff on the basis of assumptions…
Anyways to end it…..to get your page listed in “Page within India” option, you need to have a site listed in google’s directory or the domain TLD should be Indian or the site should be hosted in India.
All 3 are listed priority wise…
Regards,
Deep
” Arun, touch the base.. ;)”
Deep Sir 🙁 ye kidhar hai ????? 😀
You didnt get it…jaane do 🙂
nope 😀
“Basically 90% of the search engine experts or SEOs in India fail to touch the base and run the stuff on the basis of assumptions…”
I met around 40 SEO’s in Delhi and about 10 SEO’s in Kolkata. Even I met a self proclaimed expert, who use to spread rumors for me that I am his best student 😀 So no comments on this now 😉
Yes out of those one in Delhi is a real genious, but he wont offer SEO service too 😀 This is most Important..
Abhi meri to umar ho rahi hai bhai, isliye ek “base” pe stand karna hi padega. 😉
I strongly feel that no SEO can guarantee the listing in top 100 in google. Yes ! they can improve the site’s rankings. This is an ongoing process which require extensive knowledge and eperiance.
Above all “listing in all major directories including google” is the most important factor.
Now a days there are unethical practice is going on by some craps. They become a editor in Dmoz and remove sites of there competitors.
Google is like a arrogant kid, No one knows how it will behave next moment. 🙂
Yes I also feel that Websites Hosted on Indian server show up at top as compared to servers outside India. We offer web hosting at servers in VSNL http://www.impulseweb.net . Many of our clients whose website was in USA servers shifted to Our servers as VSNL . What we saw was that after some time may be 2 months after shifting to our indian server they started getting good results from google India. Even though there pages contains errors and were not SE optimised.
I personally dont think that google looks for whois information nor they read their meta tags. The number of visitors comming from India also depends on the ranking at google india.