Effects of adding accents to keywords

[Jaafar]

Hi, this is my first post here. I have been reading for some time now.

My site is 4 years old and isn't ranking at all for its main keywords in google, at least not in the first 1000 results. The keywords are quite competitive and return between 1 and 10 millions results.

Curiously, when I try the same keywords with an accent like "keywôrd" or "kéyword" It appears in the top 30.

Is this some kind of filter, or penalty? How to get rid of it?

The site rank well for its name and for less competitive terms.

Thanks.

PS: it doesn't work on google.com but the accent trick works as stated in google.ca, google.fr, google.be and others.

[mirrornl]

Welcome Jaafar.

soo.. with an accent on the keyword you are in the top 30..
sounds like a penalty for you competitive keywords

Maybe you overoptimized for you competitive keywords...
in backlinks anchors....

A 4 years old site should rank better imo.