Google, DNS Geo-Location, Delisting, Moving Servers, SERP, Blind Mice And I’ve Run Out Of Patience

Robbie Burns wrote:

“The best-laid plans o’ mice an’ men Gang aft a-gley,
An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain
For promised joy.”

Which means, if he was Australian and not Scottish: “Struth!  The bloody pub burned down, mate! Now what are we gonna do?”

I’ve been happy enough to talk on this blog, in a number of articles, about how writing content for my own websites propels them rather nicely into at least page one, if not in the first few results of page one, on Google painlessly and consistently.   So it’s only fair that I also talk about the converse – the opposite – when it happens. I’m referring to the sickening lurch that’s began just over a few months ago on Google.  Hard to spot because at first it’s not across the board.  It’s been slow, gathering momentum since April, into May and then the BOOM! in June.  What am I waffling on about?

Geo Location – Why Your DNS IP Address Suddenly Became A Liability

All of a sudden it was across the board – and getting worse from my perspective.  Keywords, even product named URL’s, became second class citizens in the US directory in particular.  Given that most of the worlds population of Internet buying persons are located in the USA this is a disaster.

It wasn’t just my sites either, so it’s not Google punishing me and others for some other reason – nope the slap down is because we’re “foreign” in respect of the US Google TLD.

Google clicks into my sites have dropped by over 80% from the USA, the UK and elsewhere.  But here in Australia they are massively up – which doesn’t help an ISV at all.  From what I can tell Google is ranking thus in the US Google TLD:

1. USA DNS
2. UK DNS
3. EU DNS
4. AU DNS (Australia and S.E. Asia and Pacific)
5. All the rest.

Now Google has used the geo location of the DNS IP for  a long time.  But all of a sudden this seems to have become the first consideration, then relevance as opposed to the previous relevance then geo location.

Google shares zero information on any of their changes, we all know that.  Instead we are left to run around like blind mice and it’s really made me lose my patience, for what it’s worth, with Google.

Due to the fact the Australia dollar had dropped 40% against the Greenback in January this year and because the economy was looking fouler than a chicken with no head I took the decision to move my websites to an Australian hosting company.  After my appalling experience with MoneyTemple MediaTemple late last year I decided to forgo my aspirations of hosting on a VPS till later as Linux guru I am not!

I’ve been delighted with my webhost CrucialParadigm in Sydney.  They are helpful, friendly and offer a good solid service.  For the first time I even have hosted clients on the server, which brings in another problem as those clients actually benefit from Google’s geo location dyslexia in that they target the Australian internet market directly.  But for my software sites, and even this blog, it’s not so good at all.

This week I made the painful decision to move my software site hosting back to the USA.  Happily CrucialParadigm have a US data centre.  Given it’s another server move I bit the bullet and ordered a Linux VPS.  While SliceHost is very appealing my afore mentioned Linux ignorance meant I needed a GUI to get things rolling.  So I’ve paid the extra for WHM and CPanel.  It was still tricky, Apache scripts for me are akin to black magic – especially when they mysteriously fail to apply and retain their edits.  But, the server is up and running, configured with some domains I don’t use in order to test and the painful process of moving everything across has begun.

Today is Saturday July 4th in Australia – we don’t celebrate independence day here, but Happy Independence Day to USA readers!!  So if you’re reading this just after it’s posted this blog is still on the Australian server.  However by Tuesday I’m hopeful it will be back in the USA.

Because of my Australian clients I have to keep the Australian server open, lest I create a whole new problem for them.  Given I only have a few clients this is an expensive proposition.  Gee – thanks bloody Google!

On the positive side I’ve learned a lot about configuring Linux servers, VPS’, WHM, CPanel, CNames and NS’ in the space of only a few days.  Which means, as interesting as that is, that again I’m not coding and it’s really getting my goat!  Thanks again Google, I hope this geo location makes you some money, as it’s certainly cost me enough by having to compensate for it.

Across on her blog, Sue Pichotta has a nice article on a fix for a bug in Firefox for sites that don’t always show the scrollbar in the browser.  It’s a simple fix too – Check it Out By Clicking Here.

Scott Kane

Quote of the day:
Life… is like a grapefruit. It’s orange and squishy, and has a few pips in it, and some folks have half a one for breakfast. – Douglas Adams

Tags: best laid plans, blind mice, boom, business of software, class citizens, converse, developers, dns ip address, e asia, gley, Google, grief, isv, lurch, Micro ISV, misv, mISV software, momentum, nought, patience, promised joy, relevance, robbie burns, software, starting an, Starting an mISV, tld, website, wordpress, worlds population