Can Google Tell Where you Are?

I thought I posted this last week, but can't find it, so I'll try again. Is Google able to tell what area you are in and slant its results for you? I know I've seen some evidence of this with Adwords campaigns -- I've been concerned that my ad wasn't showing, but it was explained that it didn't show for me because I wasn't in that location.

How does it know? And is it true that when you are optimizing for specific keywords pertinent to a business in a certain locale, it's unecessary to optimize for say, Raleigh web design. You just need to optimize for 'web design' and people in Raleigh will see your site if that's where you are.

If this is true, what's the mechanism? How is a site designated to a specific locale? We're asking because we have a site for a business that's in a suburb outside a large city, which is surrounded by dozens of suburbs, all of which we can serve. Do we still need to mention somewhere all of those many place names, or will Google know when it's relevant to list our business?

Yes it is and Google Activly biases local based search results.
Adwords has nothing to do with the Organic Google search algorithm. If AdWords are not showing for you in your area it is probably set within the campaign to a specific region.

You should also note that Google biases results per user so if you are logged into a Google account it will give different results to someone else that is or isn't logged into another Google Account.



Your IP address gives away everything. The only way to get around that is to view through a proxy server - which will cost you a bit.




To an extent yes, but that assumes you have done a lot of other GEO-Targetting specific things first. It doesn't happen automatically.



Again, IP address gives away everything. There are a lot of specifics involed in GEO-Targetting depending on exact requirements, server location, TLD and target market as well as the structure of your site and also some other content speicfic issues.

Some points to note about location based search

ANY web user has an IP Address.

You use TCP/IP to request a file

A web server has an IP address

An IP Address is resolveable to a specific location. This can be very precise.

Thanks for the reply. I guess I have some boning up to do with this. For now, I have sa atellite connection, which I understand gives me an IP address that changes. Not sure how that figures in here. So, the ISP that I'm using, in this case Hughes satellite, has my address attached to it, and that is discernible? That doesn't seem right, it would violate my privacy and create all kinds of security risks, so it must be just city/state that's discernible?

So how does one go about all this geo-targeting? Are there any resources you could recommend?

Google does not use your "earth" address. Your IP address just indicates in which country you are located. And by analysing the route (different gateways used to reach your target) it is possible to determine a specific area (region or city) in the country. That does not really represent a threat to your privacy.

For companies or for servers, it is different: the "whois" gives much more informations.

Thanks for the reply, Keiros.

So that tells me how Google knows where the user of the site is located, but how does it determine what geographical area the company the site is representing is in? If our server is in Houston or who knows where, but our business is in DC, how is that communicated other than just spelling it out in so many words on the site?

BTW, Keiros, my username relates to the geo-specific origins of my forbearers. Does yours?

Keress

Definitely no. That's a ancient greek word (often writen Kairos) which means "the right moment" or "the time in between".

My grandparents were from the other side of the Aegean, Croatia, though I think the name came from Hungary, where it means "quest" or "search." Every Hungarian dynamic site has a "keres' button.

Still, are there any resources I can study on how to optimize a page for its geographical service area?

I googled "optimizing for geographical location" and this came up at http://www.v7n.com/forums/seo-forum/77230-optimize-website-geographic-location.html



Does this seem to be good advice?