Forum Moderators: Robert Charlton & goodroi
This has been going on for a while and is getting worse, I doubt you can do anything apart from wait for this issue to resolve itself.
In one area I look at 5 sites from the top 10 are missing, and these are big household name sites. Crazy but true.
A few days ago I searched for widget tools (my company name) and then searched for widget -tools. Not only did the exclusion not work, but the estimated total results actually went up!
I just confirmed this search and it's still the same. Sometimes you just have to wait a week or so and see if it sorts itself out. I'll report this anomaly to Google if it's still there in a week or so.
Kaled.
after some keyword checks, I've noticed it's actually only my Home page which isn't showing on "UK only" results - all other pages are unaffected....at the moment they are anyway.
when i search www.mydomain.net in normal google.co.uk, my home page is there, searching "UK only", is when the home page dissapears.
Another thing I've noticed, on UK Only searches on Aol, Netscape etc, my whole site is affected by this problem and I am 100% sure this site is hosted in the UK (even though it's a .net domain rather than .co.uk
It's no consolation I know, but the fact that big names are affected always suggests it's not some sort of penalty.
Another thing I’ve noticed is sites that rank much better on searches on google.com than on google.co.uk ("the web" searches - why by the way I think 90%+ use, people just type and hit enter to search, rather than click UK only pages - but I'd be interested if people had stats to prove me wrong.)
Back in Feb 2005 Google introduced better geotargeting, which basically moved US only sites down on google.co.uk "web" searches, which was correct, but at the time also pushed some UK, non .co.uk domain, sites down the SERPS.
Not sure whether the latest discrepancies between .co.uk and .com searches are linked to this, but does anyone else have a UK site which ranks better on google.com than on google.co.uk?
With regards to AOL, I believe their geotargeting is much less sophisticated, when you select UK pages, you just get .co.uk Domains!
yes, spot on, seems like only the 'home' pages are MIA.
Another thing I've noticed, on UK Only searches on Aol, Netscape etc, my whole site is affected by this problem and I am 100% sure this site is hosted in the UK (even though it's a .net domain rather than .co.uk
Do you mean that Google.uk resulta are actually AOL/Netscape results and not Google? Or are you talking about the sponsored listing?
Does it not stand to reason that .co.uk sites must be more relevant to google.co.uk searches
Does it not stand to reason that geographical location of server is meaningless in a globalised world?
No matter how sophisticated an algorithim is, it will always use some strong indicators for categorisation. The strongest , IMHO on the internet must surely be the localised domains
Methinks this trend will escalate , not decrease
I disagree - many very large UK companies use .com domains.
Why shouldn't they rank well on google.co.uk?
Are you saying that ba.com shouldn't rank on google.co.uk?
BA, being a giant company has the power to ensure that the disaadvantage of using a .com site in the UK is minimised
Do you compare yourself to British Airways then?
Absolutely - my fleet might be a couple short of theirs at the moment, but another 6 months and we should catch them up.
Thanks - you've just reminded me why I don't bother posting much in some of these threads..
But, i was just pointing out that a company with a net worth calculated in 100 s of millions, which is possibly the best known worldwide in its industry
Probably has the clout to influence even googles Algo, infact, they probably have a list off such companies for special treatment,
you know, authoritative sites without which a SERPS might be ridiculous
Does it not stand to reason that .co.uk sites must be more relevant to google.co.uk searches
No, I totally disagree. Most UK companies have both the .com and .co.uk as well as quite a few other TLDs.
Does it not stand to reason that geographical location of server is meaningless in a globalised world?
How long have you been doing this since you plainly do not know how Google spiders and ranks its pages? Far from being "meaningless" it is one of the most meaningful indicators to Google of the actual domain location.
No matter how sophisticated an algorithim is, it will always use some strong indicators for categorisation. The strongest , IMHO on the internet must surely be the localised domains
One of many indicators which run into the low hundreds.
Methinks this trend will escalate , not decrease
Probably, but at a snail's pace or in huge leaps and bounds..
I do wish i knew how to do quotes when replying, anyway
Indeed most serious companies , marketing to the UK, have both .com & .co.uk extensions. Its necessary. However, any search I do, scoping out my competitors in my little categories reveals , i believe that .co.uk domains outnumber .com like 4:1
In fact, the few .coms stand out in a crowd of .co.uks'
Things might be different in your sectors though,
Yes, i must admit i've been doing this in an systematic way only since May 2006, before that,,, shudder :-)
However, it is entirely possible for a French website , with a .fr extension, owned and edited by a French Canadian living in New York, to be Hosted on servers physically in South Korea, perhaps because that was a special deal offerred to them at that time. How does physical location help Google here,
It would only be relvant to ranking internation domains against other international domains, .com vs .com, .com vs .net etc,
.co.uk with the same everything else should win everytime on google.co.uk, tis the case in my sectors
I agree that there must be 100s off factors, but IMO, their weighting will be different, and even the weight will shift from situation to situation
And , I think I understated the situation, i think for highly developed local markets like the UK, the local extension will literally wipe out .com, .net etc, right now actually,
at the speed off a google algo run,,,
Being a absolute newbie, I must confess there exist a very high probabilty that all I have just said is ,,,,,,twaddle :-)
But hey tis a free web :-)
cheers
I do wish i knew how to do quotes when replying, anyway
Take out the spaces and use [ quote ] text [ /quote ]
However, any search I do, scoping out my competitors in my little categories reveals , i believe that .co.uk domains outnumber .com like 4:1
I'm not too sure what you are implying here? Of course there are many .co.uk's however 4:1...it must be a very small niche?
In fact, the few .coms stand out in a crowd of .co.uks'
I don't know your sector however I can assure you that there are many UK companies solely using .com. My .co.uk's, incomparison, do not perform as well in the Google.co.uk results compared to my .com's however I do have fantastic exceptions.
Saying that they do very well in Yahoo! and MSN, and interestingly some of my new .eu's have already cracked #1 positions in MSN...! Yep, and they're generating traffic:-))
Yes, i must admit i've been doing this in an systematic way only since May 2006, before that,,, shudder :-)
Aha...there are many here with 15/16 years of experience:-)) In the early Google days I used to spend entire weekends trying "new stuff" and G spidered immediately and I could tell how good or bad my new ideas were.
However, it is entirely possible for a French website , with a .fr extension, owned and edited by a French Canadian living in New York, to be Hosted on servers physically in South Korea, perhaps because that was a special deal offerred to them at that time. How does physical location help Google here,
You are trying to be too complicated, at the present time Google ain't interested in your hypothetical question! Think very simply, think the way a mathematician does, you have to break the elements down to their basic values, as soon as you introduce complications it creates possible result anomalies. Therefore consider two basic elements:
Q 1. Where is the site hosted?
Q 2. In which language?
In this case it's in the UK and it's in English. Without going into all the other algorithmic factors involved, it's fairly obvious that a UK hosted site in English ought to rank higher than a German hosted English language site if ALL other elements are equal...which they never are!
A good SEO'er should be able to overcome most difficulties however taking like-for-like pages site geo-hosting can become the determining factor without a doubt.
I agree that there must be 100s off factors, but IMO, their weighting will be different, and even the weight will shift from situation to situation
Doubtful, I'm pretty au fait with the G algorithm like many others here even though they may not realise it.
And , I think I understated the situation, i think for highly developed local markets like the UK, the local extension will literally wipe out .com, .net etc, right now actually,
A very big statement and totally incorrect. I won't go into it however, simplistically, there is already far too much historical value for Google to even consider promoting any domain extension above another purely because of a domain extension.
Sure as hell if I were writing the algo I would not allow it:-)
Being a absolute newbie, I must confess there exist a very high probabilty that all I have just said is ,,,,,,twaddle :-)
You have you own free opinion, you are here to learn from uber-twaddlers like me:-))
But hey tis a free web :-)
I have to pay!
