Forum Moderators: Robert Charlton & goodroi
we have a site that is very strong for several commercial keywords, on both Google.co.uk and Google.com, except that the .com SERPS on Google.com global are TOTALLY different to .com in the States.
the example I'm thinking of has us at a strong #1 for "fancy widgets" on .co.uk, fluctuating #1 / 2 on .com Global but using gl=us or the adwords preview tool to check from the States, not only are we not number one, we don't even appear in the top 500.
its been like this for a good while, so its not datacenter discrepancies or anything, plus traffic from the US is also trickle by comparison to the UK.
I know there are SERP differences everywhere but is it usual for there to be such an extreme differences between .com Global and US .com SERPs?
A non-country specific TLD (.com, .net, etc) hosted in the US will have the best chance of ranking in Google.com (all other variables being the same).
Selecting United States in Google WMT at Dashboard -> Settings -> Geo Targeting will help you rank better at Google.com but then your rankings at Google.co.uk will likely take a hit.
You should decide if you want to rank primarily in Google.com or Google.co.uk and react accordingly. I think peeps usually do this based on where their customer base is located.
If your customers are primarily in the UK, then configure your hosting in the UK and use a domain name w/ the .co.uk TLD. And set geo targeting in WMT to UK.
If your customers are primarily in the US or worldwide then configure your hosting in the US and get a domain name with non-country specific TLD. Configure geo targeting for US or don't select any.
When i search google.com from outside US i am quite well placed, however when i search via an american proxy, the queries for which id earlier rank first, now im on page 2 and later.
I tried changing my geo targeting in WMT and waited a couple of weeks, it didnt make any difference.
Do note that im only talking about google.com not any country specific site. Google sees the requesters IP and ranks accordingly.
Any clues?
its actually a .com, currently hosted in the UK but expanding operations into the US and would like the .com Global rankings to translate (even vaguely would be a start) to US positioning.
domain name changes aren't really viable, theyre too well branded offline.
I am currently testing changing the WMT settings on a different site, as we dont want to sacrifice UK and .com Global performance for the US.
we're considering a number of options re hosting and virtual IPs etc, but was really just wondering if anyone's seen a site #1 on .com Global and not even in the index on .com US before?
That led me to investigate further because, until your post, I never understood that was the case. I'm going to experiment on this using some other data which your post uncovered.
[edited by: lawman at 9:34 pm (utc) on Mar. 12, 2009]
The main reason for your better rankings in .co.uk is the hosting of your site which is in UK.
I would advice you not to change the WMT geo targeting to UK or other place as this would mean dip in traffic (drop in ranking) from UK (if geo set to US.
A better solution for your problem can be a Ip based redirect. Buy the domain www.example.us that would target US and do a IP based redirect to example.us if anyone typed in example.com from a US IP, in the same way as Google does.
AnkitMaheshwari - understand about .co.uk, it's more the total lack of presence in the US on .com, whilst being strong number one on .com global that's the question really.
