Huge ranking differences google.com in different countries

Printable View

12 August 2009, 9:04 am
harold

Huge ranking differences google.com in different countries

For a certain website and keyword our website ranks very will (around 10th position) in Google.com However, the rankings seem to differ a lot between countries although I use google.com each time for the test.

For example, when looking from most European countries the website is indeed around the 10th position.

However, when I check from US (through proxies) I get totally different results. In some cases I get a position between 20 and 30, sometimes a position in around 10th spot but also in quite a few cases not even a position in the top 100!

I can imagine that results differ between geographical locations but I don't understand these huge differences even between different states/cities (assuming that this is the reason) within the US.

I also don't understand the huge difference between the rankings when checking from the US and when checking from European countries.

What's your opinion on this? Do you all experience these kinds of differences when it comes to Google.com ? Or maybe something could be wrong with our website which would result in these differences?
12 August 2009, 12:28 pm
GaryTheScubaGuy

Quote:

Originally Posted by harold

For a certain website and keyword our website ranks very will (around 10th position) in Google.com However, the rankings seem to differ a lot between countries although I use google.com each time for the test.

For example, when looking from most European countries the website is indeed around the 10th position.

However, when I check from US (through proxies) I get totally different results. In some cases I get a position between 20 and 30, sometimes a position in around 10th spot but also in quite a few cases not even a position in the top 100!

I can imagine that results differ between geographical locations but I don't understand these huge differences even between different states/cities (assuming that this is the reason) within the US.

I also don't understand the huge difference between the rankings when checking from the US and when checking from European countries.

What's your opinion on this? Do you all experience these kinds of differences when it comes to Google.com ? Or maybe something could be wrong with our website which would result in these differences?

Google reaults are based on your IP and if you are logged in to a google based server.

Geotargeting with subdomains can pacify this.

If you are in the top 10 this would be very easy to accomplish.

Gary
12 August 2009, 4:09 pm
videopokes

What is the domain tld? i.e. Extension? A co.uk will rank higher when checked from the UK than opposed to the U.S.
12 August 2009, 10:18 pm
lots0

Quote:

Originally Posted by videopokes

What is the domain tld? i.e. Extension? A co.uk will rank higher when checked from the UK than opposed to the U.S.

Not always.

Like Gary says...The geo targeting is IP based.

You also have to understand how google actually works.

There are many different independent google data centers located all over the world that are only synchronized with each other every so often. So it often happens that one data center has a different data set than the other data centers and therefor ranks some sites differently based on the different data sets.

The google data center in Dublin (that serves most of western Europe) is often the most 'out of whack' data center. So the UK results are often quite different from the other data centers.
13 August 2009, 3:41 am
videopokes

Quote:

Originally Posted by lots0

Not always.

Like Gary says...The geo targeting is IP based.

You also have to understand how google actually works.

There are many different independent google data centers located all over the world that are only synchronized with each other every so often. So it often happens that one data center has a different data set than the other data centers and therefor ranks some sites differently based on the different data sets.

The google data center in Dublin (that serves most of western Europe) is often the most 'out of whack' data center. So the UK results are often quite different from the other data centers.

I know exactly how Google and the Google dance works. 8-) Well... not exactly, no one does - we speculate based on observations. Perhaps only Matt Cutts and his colleagues truly know. SEO is all a bit of a guessing game sometimes. Trial and error - ours, or hopefully in most cases... others.

Anyhow - I was just trying to point out (for example) that a co.uk will naturally rank a bit higher when viewed within Great Britain. It's part of the algo.

Also, not too long ago - there was a furore from UK SEO guys over how the uk datacenter was including non relevant US results, this might have something to do with the original question especially if it's recently been tweaked again. Again, I have no idea - I am speculating based on what I read online.
13 August 2009, 5:24 am
harold

Thanks for the useful feedback!

We already GEO-target but currently we don't use subdomains. We redirect US visitors to a /us/ subpage. This means, however, that the Google server in the US also gets redirected to /us/.

I sometimes wonder if this can be a reason that google doesn't rank us in Google.com in the US or in any case not nearly as well as in other countries. Maybe Google thinks that it does not make sense to rank the domain root if it gets redirected to a sub page?
13 August 2009, 12:49 pm
lots0

Quote:

Originally Posted by videopokes

I know exactly how Google and the Google dance works. 8-) Well... not exactly, no one does

My god there hasn't been a google "dance" for years now... ;)

Observation and reading SEO forums will only get you so far. Test and retesting and them test it again and again... Thats how you get to know exactly how google works.

I also dispute your statement that

Quote:

Originally Posted by videopokes

"...a co.uk will naturally rank a bit higher when viewed within Great Britain. It's part of the algo."

If that were the case... why then would google give users in the UK the option to only view results from the UK? (I also have several other arguments about this.. but I thought this one would get the idea across.)

***

caffeine is going to change some things in a big way.
Geo targeting is one of those things.
Google knows geo targeting doesn't work that well in the current decaff version of google, so they spent quite a bit of time and effort trying to improve it in caffeine.
17 August 2009, 6:14 am
harold

Hi guys,

I didn't really receive a response to my follow-up questions:

Quote:

We already GEO-target but currently we don't use subdomains. We redirect US visitors to a /us/ subpage. This means, however, that the Google server in the US also gets redirected to /us/.

I sometimes wonder if this can be a reason that google doesn't rank us in Google.com in the US or in any case not nearly as well as in other countries. Maybe Google thinks that it does not make sense to rank the domain root if it gets redirected to a sub page?

Some people with an opinion on this?

Thanks!