SEO problems ranking in different countries for .com site?

[chinesejohn]

hi,all
I've got something confused with google.My website is hosted in United states, and its language is English. However, when i search a keyword in China, actually my website naming keyword.com, my site ranks #3. On the other hand, mysite ranks #17 in United States's google search results. Why does that happen?£Éalready know that different localtions may lead different search results, but my site is hosted in United States, why China result better than United States result for the same keyworld?
Anyone could help?Thank you!

[goodroi]

Did you check to see if Google is personalizing your serps? Also from what country are the websites that link to you?

[deadsea]

Log into Google webmaster tools, add and verify your site, and check the target setting. If you haven't changed it, it is likely auto-targeted. You can set it to US English to tell Google for sure.

Even if Google does have the targeting correct, it may be that US SERPs are very competitive and that is why you don't rank well there. And maybe in China your site is not filtered by the great firewall like other sites in your vertical.

[indyank]

Where do you live and what is your country in GWT, analytics etc.

I have a feeling that google has made a big change in geo targeting sites after the panda update.

[chinesejohn]

Thank you all!
To goodroi,
My serp is the same for both Chinese and American results, and it shows the latest post of my blog without changes. Several days ago, serp shows my home description instead of real post for the keyword.For that reason, I changed my home description to some short terms to see if that difference between rankings could disppear.
As for the links, they are all from American websites. Of course, there are not many links to my site currently.
To deadsea,
Google targets it correctly.Maybe you are right,US serps are much more competitive than China. On the other hand, even if one site is blocked in China like twitter.com, this site will still turn up on google serps, although I can't enter it unless using web proxy.
To indyank,
I live in China. As so far,those ip coming to my site through Google search engine are all from Asia. Because my webserver is located in US, bounce rate of such visits is 100% for the site loading speed.

[RP_Joe]

I have international sites and the rankings are very different as are keywords. One is a research site. Competition is a factor but also there are many other factors. I treat them as separate websites. One for the target country and one for USA. Same website but I build a content page targeting one country then another targeting USA. First of all the USA people want different info than the local country. When I do my monthly ranking (I built my own tools) I specify what results I want local country or USA. Then I compare month to month on USA looking for improvements then m2m on local country.

[RP_Joe]

Hosting location has no effect on rankings in my experience. I SEO many sites from Asia and AU and they often use USA hosting because it is faster, cheaper and more reliable. Some have switched to local hosting with no change. At one time it had an effect, but that was years ago.

[chinesejohn]

Hi,RP-Joe,thanks for your reply.
Well,I guess there's still something I need to do for my site.Recently, I've received some search engine visits from the US for long-tail keywords. However, bounce rate is still 100%. Probably,I shall improve my English writing a lot to get my ideal results.
Also, I am planning to build some website targeting the UK and German.Do you think it's wise to host them on the US.I'm afraid the loading speed will be very disappointing, and I'm not sure should I change my webhosting to my target countries(UK, German).
Any advice?ThankYOU

[RP_Joe]

100% is a big problem. You may want to make a site just for foreigners. If you host it in USA it should load fast in EU.
Americans and Europeans prefer a much different looking website than Asians. That may be the reason for the high bounce rate. So if you have the two sites, one for east and one for west, I think you will do better.

Always shoot for the long tail results. Thats where the smaller website can gain the advantage over the big guys. Be sure to get some good analytics for around 60.00usd per year. That will really help you. Read them every week at least. Every 2 days is better.
People will overlook poor English if they can learn something. They come to your website to learn. Don't disappoint them.

[chinesejohn]

Thank you, RP-Joe,your advice is really helpful.Actually, my blog is chinesejohn.com. If you are interested,welcome to pointed it out where I should get enhanced.