Awarded at Toronto "Ultra Advanced SEO Symposium" Nov. 2005.

Google Search In South Africa ...

Seoza News February 2nd 2005 Number 503 ... Difference between Google SA and Google.com

If a person was to use Google.com (ie default, normal or USA version whatever you prefer to call it) and search for pond pumps then my site http://www.practical-water-gardens.com is number 9 today (and this can change frequently) out of about 700,000 competing pages. Now if I select Google.co.za as the search property for pond pumps I DO NOT find this site anywhere.

I do find a highly ranked site called http://www.superpumps.co.za which is my site too but even if I searched all day i would not find my main site http://www.practical-water-gardens.com . By the way you will notice only about 1,700 competitor pages for the pond pumps search on Google.co.za.

So What's Going On ...

Google South Africa is deliberately targeting South African web sites .... it does this mainly (BUT NOT ONLY) by checking two things

What are the domain name characteristics?

Where is the domain located?

Since my main website does NOT meet Google South Africa's criteria it cannot easily be found using Google South Africa searches. For this reason I have created other websites that meet the specific criteria for getting found and MORE IMPORTANT for getting ranked highly on Google as well as Aardvark and Ananzi.

Do You Want To Succeed On South African Search or International Search? If So Come To Our Workshop ...

The knowledge about how different search engines work is important and can be used to your great advantage. This knowledge is critical if you ever want to beat your competitors either locally or internationally. It is a subject we cover in far more detail in our comprehensive and practical workshops which you can learn more about below

advantage. This knowledge is critical if you ever want to beat your competitors either locally or internationally. It is a subject we cover in far more detail in our comprehensive and practical workshops which you can learn more about below

We are ethical South African search engine optimization practitioners based in Johannesburg, Gauteng. Internet marketing efforts in South Africa are still in their infancy. Search engine marketing and search engine positioning is built around 3 basic concepts - organic search engine optimization, optimizing for PPC (pay per click) campaigns and site functionality. All three areas must work together to succeed.