A WebmasterWorld thread has several webmasters and SEOs claiming a huge increase in traffic to their country specific web sites. The first example given was a site that primarily targets Australia and has done well in Google Australia is now receiving a ton of traffic from other Google properties.
He said he has seen an uptick in traffic referrers:
- US up by 120%
- UK by 90%
- India by 380%
- Brazil by 360%
WebmasterWorld administrator, Tedster, confirmed these findings with his own web site properties. Tedster said, "I'm seeing this effect too. Something has definitely shifted in the way Google lists out-of-country websites in the search results on country versions of Google."
Some are saying this is specific to Google Image Search, while others have not yet specified.
Google has primarily wanted country specific sites to rank well in country specific Google properties. So this change is something many are taking notice to. For more history on this, see What's Going On With Google UK's Search Results? and Google UK Drop UK Country Filter?
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
