UK filter more crazy than ever

no correlation..UK...COM

[soapystar]

It seems this update has brought about an even bigger correlation discrepancy between what the .com pulls over what the UK filter pulls. UK hosted and aimed sites are consistentlybranking well on the .com and slipping over the horizon when the UK filter switch is pulled. see no logical explanation for this other than a glitch. Some of you will just say be grateful for the good .com rankings. However this would be missing the point of targetted google serps.

[DerekH]

UK hosted and aimed sites are consistentlybranking well on the .com and slipping over the horizon when the UK filter switch is pulled

Some UK....

Only some...

I have to say that I think your use of the word "consistently" gives your post an alarmist slant that, at least as far as three of my sites are concerned, is rather inappropriate.

One thing Google can be relied upon is not to be obvious!

DerekH

[soapystar]

i can only speak as i find. I have watched this on several sites. UK hosted targetted sites are ranking well for a .com search and dropping for a search with the UK filter. If you dont agree then thats fine. For me i see it enough to be concerned.

[Spannerworks]

Soapystar,

I found the same thing with a coupe of UK hosted .com domains, ranking well in G.com but excluded from G.uk.

After some checking with an IP locator DB, found that my domains were listed as US hosted. The sites were ranking well on G.uk untill a couple of months ago, and hosting hasn't changed.

Is it possible the IP locator databse used by G has got it wrong?

[glengara]

Matter of interest Soapystar, how do your in/out links break down between UK/other?

[Receptional Andy]

Google's IP locator has always been rather inaccurate, although I can't see any evidence that this is any worse or better than it was before.

Errors seem to arise for instance when the owner of an IP block changes, and it takes a long time for Google to pick up on new ownership. I'm sure there are other factors too that cause mistakes in the location system.

The only reliable solution is to use a UK-specific domain name if you want UK-regional traffic. Otherwise you are left at the mercy of a system that is probably around 95-97% accurate.

>>how do your in/out links break down between UK/other

Unless this has changed recently, the way Google locates sites is entirely dependent on domain name, and then IP address. Content and incoming links have no effect whatsoever.

[edited by: Receptional_Andy at 12:05 pm (utc) on Feb. 23, 2004]

[elouise]

I agree with this and see it as a problem/oversight. Sites seem to be consistently doing well in the new .com results but the same terms are appearing nowhere on the .co.uk version which seems to make little sense.Do you think Google have finished with the set up of co.uk or are they perhaps still working on this?

[Receptional Andy]

Soapystar and elouise - were your sites correctly located by Google in the past, or did this change with recent updates? It might be worth asking your ISP about the previous owener(s) of the IP range you are on.

(I have to agree with DerekH about the use of the word 'consistently' - Google is consistently locating sites correctly, albeit with some errors. I've been watching this for around 12 months over a range of servers, after some problems with a couple of UK-hosted sites not showing.)

[Hissingsid]

For my main primary term "the web" and "pages form the UK" look the same for the top 10. For a three word termaffected at the Austin update about 5 of the top 10 are dropped. (I could be more accurate obviously but I'm having a lazy morning).

Some of the ones that are dropped are .com or .net and I guess that they could be hosted outside the UK even though the webmasters are in the UK and producing for the UK market.

Hust my two pence worth.

Best wishes

Sid

[glengara]

Andy, my query on his links breakdown was related to sites dropping rather than disappearing, which is how I read his post.

[exmoorbeast]

I asked Google Guy about changing to a UK IP address on a .com domain and he said that they index UK .com domains after every crawl.

Does anyone have any solid evidence if this being the case, because it sounds, in this thread, like they might not update the IP records after every crawl so if you moved a site from the US to the UK then it might take a few crawls for the IP database to be updated.

Any advice appreciated.

Edited to add link to earlier thread:

[webmasterworld.com...]

[Receptional Andy]

I've definitely waited more than one crawl for a UK-hosted .com to show up in the uk index, although this was a fair few months back. But of course, this all depends upon more than just Google's ability to crawl a site, notably Google's system of locating IP addresses and it's accuracy (and also how often this is updated to reflect changes in the 'location'/ownership of IP addresses).

>>query on his links breakdown was related to sites dropping rather than disappearing, which is how I read his post.

It may or may not be related, but at one point I saw UK-hosted .com sites dropped to the very end of results for uk-specific searches. This seemed to be during a state of 'flux' where Google was working out that the site was actually in the UK.