Forum Moderators: Robert Charlton & goodroi
Background info:
Our site is a 2 year old .com, hosted in the UK on a UK IP address. The site is targetted to the UK market. It has several really good backlinks, from both the UK and the rest of the world.
The problem:
The site ranks no. 12 in google.com for our key phrase. However, when searching in google.co.uk (using 'search the web', not 'pages from the UK') for the same phrase, we're ranked no. 107.
The solution:
?
Several possible causes have been presented, including that we may need more strong UK backlinks. However, the strange thing is that if you search for 'key phrase UK' (without the quotes), we're right up at no.8 in both google.com and google.co.uk, so I presume that Google knows we're UK-focused!
if you search for 'key phrase UK' (without the quotes), we're right up at no.8 in both google.com and google.co.uk, so I presume that Google knows we're UK-focused!
Exactly the reverse, I suspect.
If Google only delivers when you add 'uk' to the search term, that suggests the site is NOT well focussed on the UK, at least in Google's eyes.
Look first at your content - then at contact details, and be sure the UK-centric nature of your site can be found.
For interest sake, I'd also suggest you look at some of the other UK-based sites in your niche who ARE doing well on UK searches.
Also consider buying domain.co.uk - if the UK really is your key audience - and 301 from .com to .co.uk
But much, much, much better to deal with the problem 'on page'
We do own the .co.uk version of our domain, but chose (for offline marketing purposes) to use the .com as our main domain, so unfortunately that's not changeable.
From a human's point of view, I'd suggest that it's incredibly obvious we're UK-focussed. We have a London head office (with address and contact details on the site) and all our satellite offices are in the UK, with their addresses prominently displayed. We never mention any other countries in any of the text, as our business is solely UK focussed and based.
Thanks for the suggestion of taking a look at other sites doing well in the .co.uk space. I'm going to do that now and will try to find out their balance of .co.uk/.com links. We have a lot more content than all our our competitors, so I don't think that content quality comes into the equation.
The 'key phrase UK' thing could be down to link text, try a few allinanchor: searches on both Gs and see what turns up.
Since your site is performing poorly in Google.co.uk, Google apparently has not recognized your site's geo-location as being within the UK. There are two likely reasons for your problem: (1) the server that hosts your site isn't truly located in the UK. At least one prominent UK hosting service has servers that are actually located in Europe. Run a location check on your site's IP address using an online IP Address Location checker. There are lots of them on the web. (2) Unfortunately, Google has been having problems this year identifying some IP addresses in the UK. This originally cropped up around the first of the year, but it has come back a couple of times.
In either case, the solutions are to either change hosts to one that is truly in the UK, or use the .co.uk domain by setting up sitewide 301 redirects from the current .com domain.
Our site ranks well in Google.com searched from the UK IP address, slightly lower (but still good) SERPs when searched from the US, or other then UK IP address. Similarly, we have very good results on google.co.uk, however once you select an option "pages from the UK" we are nowhere to be found.
My take is that as our main domain name is a .com one AND the site is hosted abroad (not UK), therefore we aren't recognized as a UK site. However, as most of our links are form the UK, Google recognizes it and places us higher in searches done from the UK IP (both on google.com and .co.uk)
I don't know exact figures, but I don't expect many people selecting "pages from the UK", so I am not inclined to move the site to UK server or change the domain to .co.uk one.
I hope that helps
yep thats my problem as everything is in the UK - and looking at a few other sites that are also not showing well on G.co.uk seems this problem is widespread
AGIAN!
>I don't know exact figures, but I don't expect many people selecting "pages from the UK", so I am not inclined to move the site to UK server or change the domain to .co.uk one.
If I'm searching I always tick result from the UK
Hi Tigger, do you or anyone else came across any statistical data about the usage of UK search option?
I think it cannot be a big proportion, after all it requires one to make an extra action, extra click... but still, it would be interesting to know how many users actually select that
If your host's servers aren't recognized as being in the UK for whatever reason, I don't think it makes any sense to wait for Google to repair the problem. The safest option is the .uk domain name. Failing that, you need to change hosts. Changing hosts has the advantage of avoiding the rankings dips while the search engines begin to absorb the 301 redirects. But I know that finding affordable hosting in the UK is tough, so the domain name switch may be better for some people. The key is to stop staring at the SERPs and take immediate action to fix the problem.
nope sorry, I've been looking but can't find anything, but just about everyone I know ticks the "uk only results"
>If your host's servers aren't recognized as being in the UK for whatever reason, I don't think it makes any sense to wait for Google to repair the problem.
problem is finding a host that G does recognise as UK
Check it and see what is says.
Unfortunately, Google has been having problems this year identifying some IP addresses in the UK.
Yep, I can confirm this too, G decided to relocate about 20 of our sites to South Africa and they now appear at the top of Google.co.za results!
Interestingly we've had some good enquiries from there:-)
but I don't expect many people selecting "pages from the UK"
Why not? I always do when I'm searching for UK stuff and I know a lot of other people do. What's the point in searching .com when the results are not relevant for one's query?
Unfortunately, Google has been having problems this year identifying some IP addresses in the UK.
Yup, this must be the problem we're having, as our hosts are definitely based in the UK- the Docklands in London, to be specific! And when checking the IP from a geolocation site, it shows up as a UK IP.
As using the .co.uk domain name isn't an option for us, I guess we'll have to change hosts.
same for me I'm number one in G.ca nowhere to be found on .co.uk! very annoying
I have a brand new .com domain for a UK site. It is indexed properly but is not showing up in google.co.uk. It is on a UK IP. Is there something definite I can do to indicate that it is a UK not an international site? I know there is the 'Submit a reconsideration request' option in the Webmaster tools, but is this going to do anything on this particular issue? Someone else suggested submitting to Google maps and having a UK address on the front page, but would these help?
Many thanks in advance for your help.
I apologise if there was a solution found for this. I have searched and only found threads saying 'wait and see', mostly from August '06 and January 07.
[edited by: tedster at 1:33 am (utc) on July 13, 2007]
[edit reason] moved from another location [/edit]
