Changes to Google.com.au

[marketingweb]

Hi All,

Not sure how many have noticed, but Google today removed the "The Web / Pages from Australia" radio buttons from below google searches.

It now defaults to the "Australianised" version of "The Web", and pages from Australia is only accessible AFTER searching, via a new left panel with a variety of options on it.

Just thought it would be worth mentioning. Not sure what major effects on site traffic it will have.

Overall i have found in the past that for many phrases the pages from Australia and the world are similar as Google.com.au prefers to show Australian sites. Others are very different.

However say you have a travel site focused on travel from Australia to the USA, on a .com.au . It would be not too hard to get ranked on pages from Australia, but near impossible on "the web".

How this effect monitisation of various domain names some here own will be interesting indeed!

Google also has a slightly new logo - only subtly different, but I really noticed it as I must look at that logo 100 times a day!

 

[jam]

I'm waiting to see how many more impressions of adwords come from this...

Were the search options (Wonder wheel, Related Searches and so on) there before???

 

[DavidL]

Wow - this is big news. Will be interesting to see the impact

 

[Honan]

Thanks for letting us know about the Google change
"It now defaults to the "Australianised" version of "The Web", and pages from Australia is only accessible AFTER searching, via a new left panel with a variety of options on it.

Do you know how they decide if a page is from Australia?
Would it be the whois?

 

[FirstPageResults]

I don't mind the new interface... I'm also happy they got rid on the checkbox options... I always thought that was unnecessary but I was hoping the default would be the other way around.

It appears this may hurt some of my rankings in the short term especially since the 'pages from Australia' link is less obvious now

@i sold grandma - You can set the location in Google Webmaster tools and .com.au defaults to Australia

 

[Sway]

Do you know how they decide if a page is from Australia?

@i sold grandma - You can set the location in Google Webmaster tools and .com.au defaults to Australia

This is true, also I remember reading quite awhile back about host server location playing some type of role also but can't remember who by or where the article(s) was.

 

[Oz.]

yeah, webmaster tools, geo tld domain (.com.au etc), host IP address can be factors used to determine region.

From experience, I don't believe you need a host in Australia if you have at least 1 of the other 2 things going for you (preferably both).

Of course, more the better. On that note, can anybody recommend good, cheap (non windows) aus hosting providers? - Not in this thread, but here - http://www.dntrade.com.au/aus-hosting-t1416.html?p=8268! Thanks

 

[Shaun]

Yeah its really interesting that the Search Engines don't provide local results first followed by "The Web", you would think give local business and often the MOST relevant a go first, if you cannot find what you want, broaden the search to include "The Web".

Petition?

 

[DavidL]

I expect they probably did it because not many people selected 'Pages from Australia'

I don't think I used to unless I was refining a search. There's so much bias anyway towards Australian sites for Australian searches (rightly so), it was not often needed.

Mind you it was probably more useful that the "I'm feeling lucky" button - does anyone actually use that?

 

[marketingweb]

This is true, also I remember reading quite awhile back about host server location playing some type of role also but can't remember who by or where the article(s) was.

Server location does play a part. However Matt Cutts recently said that having a .com.au gives a bigger signal than server location, and they take that as priority. Where i helps is if you have a website targeting Australians but on a .com, it helps to have it on a server in Australia

 

[Max]

**They're going to keep fixing things until they're really broken... **

http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4127298.htm

**The era of depending on Google Search for website traffic is fading. If you have been focused ONLY on Google, it's definitely time to diversify. There are many other ways to generate traffic. **

 

[Data Glasses]

i think google is still very much in the mindset of many, i tried to find my sites on bing the other day with a full type in address's ......not one showed up ??

Yahoo is much more popular than google in japan

 

[FirstPageResults]

Just an update on this thread.. I've found that whilst traffic to some sites dropped right off for 1-2 weeks it's not starting to get back to where it was previously..

A sign that people are becoming accustomed to the new UI? Perhaps, but I've also noticed that the same searches I did last week now weight .com.au sites more heavily.. good news

 

[marketingweb]

I also noticed a drop off and then improvement.

I think you are right re the combination of the two. I monitor search engine rankings on a variety of keywords for several sites, and previous keywords that were only ranking well for "Australia" but not "the web" are now ranking much better on "the web" than before. So I agree the results for "the web" have become more Australia focused than previous.

Matt