Many of our advertisers have been confused by our 'Location Availability' field; set when submitting or updating a resource. Most feel that since they are submitting a website, they would be limiting their coverage to select anything else other than 'Available World Wide'.

This is quite untrue, as this submission field serves to allow our site's visitors to find resources that are specifically available to them.

An explanation of the 'Location Drill Down' feature

Instead of approaching this explanation from a technical angle, as I usually would, I would like to simply state how a user of our site might use this feature.

You will notice at the top of any of our search results or categories pages, a 'Drill Down' tool. By default this is set to 'Any Country'. This means that the search results are unfiltered.

A user, may elect to change this setting to further filter their results. They do so by selecting a country name from the drop down list; the name of the country that they are in, or the country that they are interested in (for example, hotels for an upcoming trip to a specific country). This has an obvious impact on categories such as 'churches', 'plumbers' and 'accommodation', but a lesser impact on categories such as 'web hosts', where only a few matches may be removed (those resources who choose to limit their customer base to a specific country).

The user may then filter down further, to their area of the country, and then their city or town, if desired.

The confusion for advertisers

Some advertisers feel that if they specify that they are only available in their city, then they will miss matches from areas close by. But this depends on how far a visitor to our site drills down. Most people will only drill down as far as makes sense. Therefore, if they are looking for an ISP or webhost, they will usually not drill down further than their own country. They will probably not Drill Down further than their state or region for things like 'Wedding Photographers', but they will probably drill down right to their own city if looking for a church or singing tutor.

The main thing to remember is that if you are only available to people in a specific town, then you are also available to a subset of people in that town's region and country. Therefore, your listing will be included on all appropriate drill down results.

The next biggest confusion is easiest explained by our most common scenario. So many churches point out to us that they are an international church and available to people anywhere. But if someone on the other side of the world was looking for a church in their own town, it would be less than helpful to include your resource in the results. In fact, all churches (except online churches) have a very small area of service; yes people sometimes do travel reasonable distances to go to church, but they do not often cross states or countries each Sunday.

Another confusion makes itself apparent depending on what an organisation does. If a travel agent sells trips to many other countries, but this service is only available to customers living in one particular country, then that resource's area of availability is 'My Country'. The same mistake often happens with mission organisations who might have a website specifically offering volunteer opportunities to citizens of the organisations home country. Yes, those volunteers may end up anywhere in the world, but the service that is being offered is only available to people from that particular country. A similar problem happens with 'receiving organisations'. If a local mission organisation, serving people from a particular community, has a website advertising their services and what they do, then that organisation's area of availability is that particular community. If a visitor to our site is wanting to look for a mission organisation in a specific area, or available to volunteers from a specific area, you have a much better chance of being discovered if your 'area of availability' is correctly set.

Some submitters do not want to limit their area of availability, because they feel that their service is of interest to all people. For example, sites discussing legal and accountancy aspects of one particular country have an area of availability of 'My Country'. If a foreign visitor to our site wants to find this sort of information out about your country, you have more chance of your site being discovered if your 'area of availability' is correctly set.

What is your resources area of availability

You should choose a setting that will be of greatest help to your potential visitors. Many online sites appear to be available to everyone, but how frustrating, once you have filled your shopping cart, and nearly completed your order; you arrive at the shipping page, only to find that delivery is only possible in one particular country. You may believe that your service is available to people world wide, but is it really? You would be better off, and cause much less frustration to visitors sent via our site, to specify the minimum/usual area of availability.

This might not always be clear and may differ between your services. The best way of deciding the best setting is by choosing your main, or primary, service and then the most appropriate and representative (not what you would wish for) area of availability. For example, if a bookshop only sells books to people from the same country, but has reviews and other information on their site which may be of use to people everywhere, then that resource's area of availability is 'My Country' as the websites main service is to sell books.

Here are some examples of usual areas of availability:

• World Wide - Internet information services with no shipped product. Sites whose products can truly be shipped anywhere in the world.
• My Country - ISP's. Country specific information services including accounting, legal, government, etc. Mission organisations.
• My State/Province - Locally available services with a customer base covering the whole state/province. Plumbing services. Photographers. Builders. etc.
• My City/Town - Anything only available in your own town/city, or where people have to travel to you for service, or where service is only available within your shop/building. Accountants. Lawyers. Churches. Bookshops. Mechanics. etc.

Upcoming changes

Currently you can only specify an availability of 'World Wide', 'My Country', 'My State/Province' or 'My City/Town'. We do have plans to make this more flexible so that you can include you complete and actual geographical area of availability.