Country Specific Organic Results And Google Revenue

[kidder]

Looking at the country specific results for AU leaves me wondering at times, how hard can it be for a company with the tech resources that Google has get this one wrong. I'm searching from AU and I'm seeing results that are not only global but a long way from relative to what you would expect. How hard can it be to give the local domain extension a bit more weight I ask? Why am I seeing .co.uk in Australia in the top 5?

Clearly there is a lot of adwords bidding going on in this vertical market so you have to wonder if the organics are being "neglected" in order to boost revenue. This is a no brainer Google and should never happen. I started to notice this after getting similar feedback from a couple of clients who are drowning under the weight of their PPC costs.

[anteck]

It's strange huh! I'm in australia too. Some of these results we get are making my head spin..

The kicker is when you select 'sites in australia only' and google returns all kinds of nonsense from around the world.

Seriously google, get your 'head checked'

[kidder]

Its also pretty clear that this is not just an AU issue as I see "bursts" of international traffic coming into my .com.au sites.

[anteck]

Yeah, same here. I've got about 12 AU Sites and some of them are getting some pretty random queries from the UK & Europe.

Not that i mind, but it must be pissing off people.

For ex: one search query today :

'Where can i buy a cheap widget in kent'

Kents in England... my site's in australia.

Google are really messing up. A friend who's not in SEO told me last night google was becoming harder to find things...