The Internet is Watching You!

That’s right! This Halloween, forget ghosts, vampires or zombies, because the real stalker out there is the actually the internet!

In all seriousness, this blog post is about the benefits of web hosting your site in Canada, but I thought I’d wrap it in a Halloween theme. And yes, it’s true, we’re all being watched by the internet. Still don’t believe it? If you’re in Canada, just type www.google.com into the address bar of your browser. You will probably note that you just got redirected to www.google.ca. And you can type google.com over and over all you want, and you will always get bounced back to google.ca (though if you REALLY want to go to www.google.com, there’s a link in the bottom right hand corner of the google.ca search page).

This isn’t standard domain forwarding at work here. This is Google’s IP Geolocation software deducing that you’re coming to them from a Canadian location, and so they’re deciding for you that using www.google.ca will bring you the most relevant results. If we then type something into the search box; for instance, “domain name“, and click the ‘search’ button, we’ll see the list of results. Google allows you to use its geolocation software to filter your results – either by changing your geographic location, or by filtering your results to show only pages from Canada.

This is an example of searching “restaurants” being located in Vancouver:

Because geography plays such an integral role in the internet, and specifically with search engines, hosting your site with a Canadian company – with servers located in Canada – should be an important factor when choosing a host, especially if you’re trying to target a Canadian audience.

Of course, there are a number of other advantages to hosting in Canada. For instance, a Canadian Web Hosting company needs to adhere to Canadian privacy laws. We have reliable networks and internet infrastructure compared to many other countries. And finally, I can’t tell you the number of times a customer has expressed happiness/relief/gratitude to know that when they call our customer support line, they’re speaking to a Canadian. Who says Canadians aren’t patriotic?

Want to learn more about Webnames.ca web hosting? Take a look at our 100% Canadian Web Hosting plans.