Last year, Urbanspoon changed its category for us from Melbourne to Victoria.

Replying to disgruntlement about the ramifications of the change, an Urbanspoon spokesperson posted the following:

There is an SEO perspective which we considered – however, we were expanding the geographic range far beyond the city of Melbourne, and so we felt that “Victoria” was a more accurate designation.  Expanding the neighborhood list (click “See all” under Top Suburbs) breaks down the restaurant distribution into subgroups that include Melbourne City neighborhoods, and suburbs by general area.We aren’t locals, and could well be missing local nuances (let us know!)  We want to reach the most potential diners for obvious reasons.  So far, our site traffic has more than maintained pace in our Australian metros – in fact, Victoria is our second-most trafficked metro, trailing only New York City (which has more than 3x the number of restaurants).  Victoria also ranks fifth in total blog posts.

Blimey – even I’m surprised!