Software Development:
Individual Programming

Solution

Google search results depend on the location of the website and the location of the surfer. A result of the same location will likely be shown on top while results from other locations will likely be displayed on bottom. This is also true for countries. For that reason many homepage owners wish their website to run in a specific country. They say that Google analyzes the IP address of the server, finds out about the country that the domain content is related to and sorts the search result by that information.

This is only part of the truth, however. Google does sort the search result by country, but the association of country and web server rarely depends on the server's IP address.

At first Google checks the toplevel-domain. If the domain is a country domain such as .us, .co.uk, .au, .sa etc. Google associates the website with that country, in this example United States, United Kindom, Australia, South Africa and so on. It does not matter, where the server is located or which IP address it has. It is impossible to associate a country toplevel domain with a different country in Google. Even if your server was located in India while you have a .us domain name, Google would still associate your domain with the United States.

However, if you use a generic toplevel domain such as .com .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz etc., that is naturally not associated with a specific country, you can set the association yourself using Google Webmaster Tools. In that case, too, it does not matter where the server is located or which IP address it has. Google Webmaster Tools is a Google application website where you can set many important data on your website for Google searches.

Only if you neither use a country toplevel domain, nor associate your generic toplevel domain with a specific country in Google Webmaster Tools, Google will analyze your IP address and associate your website with the country where the server is located.

Opposed to the commonly mistaken opinion of many "experts", it does not matter, in which country your server is located or which IP address it has. For country toplevel domains, the server is associated with that country anyway, for generic toplevel domains you can set any association of your choice.

Overview of frequently asked questions