Match your domain name to your target country

Google
SEO hints from Google

It’s no secret that Google uses several factors to determine where a web site is “located” and thus determine its relevance to each individual searcher. But there has been a lot of debate about which factors are most important.

The two I hear mostly commonly are if the domain has a particular country code domain name and where the web host is.

Now Google search czar Matt Cutts has given us a pretty clear answer.

One person asked a question that we forgot to make a video for: “Can you list in order of importance the things that make a site to be seen by google as a site from a particular country?” Since we didn’t make it as a video, here’s the answer as a quick bonus:
  1. country code TLD (ccTLD) such as .de or .fr
  2. geotargeting in the webmaster console
  3. IP address
There may be other signals, but those are the biggies and the order that I’d put them in.

Matt Cutt’s post shows that the most important thing Google uses to determine what country your web site is in is the country code top level domain name. How this applies to USA websites or .com domains isn’t clear – is .com considered ‘USA’? Certainly hardly anyone uses the .us domain extension for USA websites.

Many thanks to DomainNameWire for the headsup.

Web Professional Offer updated

WebsiteSpark
WebsiteSpark

2020Media.com already partners with Microsoft to offer web development software at no upfront cost. Now WebsiteSpark membership has been expanded to include a membership in the Microsoft Partner Network. With Microsoft Partner Network membership you get a community of fellow members, evaluation software, expert support, incentives, newsworthy articles and announcements about products and initiatives, lead generation, sales demonstrations, and training.

WebsiteSpark provides software licenses that you can use for three years at no cost. WebsiteSpark also provides a path to get exposure and participate in the developer community (through the Partner Program, BizSpark Camps, etc.).

Datacentre

This week, the owners of the datacentre where 2020Media colocates it servers officially opened their third building on the Docklands site. In a colourful ceremony involving Japanese saké barrels and glitz and glamour, we were reminded how Telehouse pioneered datacentres in the UK, and how they have maintained their status as the key networking hub of the UK. This is important to 2020Media, as we aim to provide the very fastest connection speeds for our servers and broadband customers.

The evening was rounded off with a speech by Mike Harris about technology pioneers who came out of the blue to disrupt the incumbent processes of the day (Twitter is the most recent). It was also great to hear Tim Berners-Lee described as the inventor of the internet yet again.

Results of HTML/Text email survey

Newsletter Format Preference
Newsletter Format Preference

In our April newsletter (sign up on the right) we ran a survey asking if our customers preferred to get their newsletters in HTML or plain-text format. The results have been checked and counted by our resident bean-counters and it was a close result. If we’d had a third option we’d probably be feeling like the Lib-Dems.

56% preferred HTML newsletters

44% preferred plain-text newsletters

Internet Policy – you decide

How you can become involved and help ICANN to shape the future of the Internet

ICANN, the governing body of the internet is holding two web meetings on 20th May 2010 that are aimed at you.  The sessions will be held on Thursday 20 May at 12.00 GMT and 19.00 GMT, and will use a webinar format – all you’ll need is a web browser and internet connection to listen or participate.

If you are wondering whether a role in Internet policy development could benefit your or your organization’s long-term goals, it’s well worth joining.

In order to participate, we suggest you read the announcement here: WEBINAR: Policy Development at ICANN and sign up to join in.

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