Country specific results vs main results - why the new, big differences?

[kidd]

Hello:

I've have seen a decrease in my traffic since October, and I really could use some advice.

I have a big website in spanish which users base is in Mexico, in fact my main keyword is: widget mexico.

Before October when I searched in google.com for my main keyword I was in the first place, the same happened when I searched it in the local Mexico Google.

But now when I do the search on google.com my website doesnt appear anywhere in the first 5 pages. Now when I make a search in Google Mexico my website shows in first place but only if I select "Search spanish pages" or "Search mexican pages", otherwise Im nowhere to be found.

I've made a search in google.com using site:mywebsite.com and the results are completely different compared to the same search done in the local Google.

Im thinking that there has been some kind of change in google, but Im really concerned that this might be permament.

Thanks

[tedster]

Have you researched the other sites on that same search? Have they also shifted in a major way?

[cornwall]

I am British, but I live in Spain.

I certainly find bigger differences between searches in Google.es and Google.com, than I have in the past.

Particularly if you try Google news search in Google.es, it just ignores most non Spanish references.

My guess would be that the filter on language has been tweeked, whether it would ever return to the previous filter is anyone's guess, but I would doubt it.

If you want to get more prominence in Google.com, you probably need to research whether it is worth using a US server location (assuming that you are using English as the main site language)

I would consider that the purpose of the filter must be to ensure that the user gets the best results - so if it is deemed to be mainly a Mexican site by Google, then it is deemed to be of little interest to US users

[AjiNIMC]

IMO Google is working on signals. Google algo is mainly based on user experience now, that’s my opinion and I strongly believe it.

f (ranking) = a1 x f (onpage) + a2 x f (offpage) + a3 x f (demographic user experience of the page)

a3 > a2 > a1 (a3 looks much higher than a1 and a2 now).

Search in google for <a certain competitive phrase> and see the results

<search links removed>

All three shows you different sites. The site that is #1 in India is #96 in Google.com. Similar difference can be seen. I have been watching this for almost a year.

I think f (demographic user experience of the page) is playing a big part in the complete algo. Now the big question, how is google collecting user experience, as it can't be just related to SERP clicks? Here is my opinion,

1. Google Toolbar: Privacy says, "In addition, we use log information about aggregate Toolbar usage to improve the quality of Toolbar and other Google services."
   
2. Google Analytics: Privacy says, "We may also use personal information for auditing, research and analysis to operate and improve Google technologies and services."
   
3. Adsense
   
4. Google accounts read [webmasterworld.com...]
   

Thanks
AjiNIMC

<Sorry, no specifics.
See Forum Charter [webmasterworld.com]>

[edited by: tedster at 6:16 pm (utc) on Nov. 12, 2006]

[rainborick]

This is probably old news to many people, but it seems to me that over the past year or so all of the country-specific versions of Google, Yahoo! and MSN/Live have put much more weight into their geo-targeting. Even when users do not select filtering by country, the plain searches give a great deal of weight to geo-location. So if your target audience is a particular country, you need to have a site that is considered to be located in that country. And the only two methods for doing that are to (a) have a Country Code Top Level Domain Name (CC TLD, as in .co.uk or .co.mx for Mexico), or have your site hosted on a server that is physically located within the target country (as mapped by its IP address). These are the only two factors recognized by the three big SEs for determining geo-location. And since there seems to be some occasional blips in the IP address mapping and, getting a CC TLD is the surest solution. A CC TLD also, naturally, gives the maximum flexibility in choosing a host.