Using Googles "UK only" search option

[RockySpears]

Newbie here, so maybe the obvious answer is the correct one:

If I have my domain hosted on US servers, then would I be right in thinking that when users select the UK Only option for a search, then my site, having a US IP address will be dropped from the results? Does anyone know for sure the criteria behing the UK Only option? Is it looking at domain name, ie xxxxx.co.uk so includes the site, or is it simpler than that in that it looks at a sites physical location?

Thanks for any input.

 

[Edwin]

There are 3 ways to make a site show up in the UK results.

A) Have a .co.uk domain name

B) Host in the UK i.e. at an IP address that Google identifies as being in the UK

C) Have a substantial number of incoming links from UK sites (and a very high % of overall incoming links from UK sites)

They're all "or" i.e. you only really need one method (though 2 or all 3 won't hurt!) but in rough order of "certainty" i.e. a .co.uk domain is a pretty much 100% foolproof way of signalling to Google that a site is UK-related, B) is pretty reliable as long as Google knows where the IP adress is, and C) is a method of last resort that anecdotally will work, but much harder to achieve than A) or B).

Hope this helps.

 

[andydw]

You can also tell google the country you are targeting in Google webmaster tools.
Dont know quite how effective it is but the option is there

 

[ribble-valley]

You can also tell google the country you are targeting in Google webmaster tools.
Dont know quite how effective it is but the option is there

I've personally found webmaster tools to work just fine if you tell it to target UK users, but it does seem to take considerably longer than it does for my .co.uk sites.